Spiri2al

You call them as you cogently cogitate and digest the 'facts', that's fine. Maybe I was ahead of myself. For those few reading these comments, The build up the 'American' police state comes from the North American Union, and the loss of (US) American sovereignty. (Google: "North American Union Lou Dobbs"). “Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover.” — Homer Simpson

no_slappz

STARFIGHTER, I see you are a Conspiracy Theorist. A nutty one. You clowns never understand that your scenarios always add up to nothing.

Spiri2al

This whole crisis was engineered is all you need know. Ford, GM and Chrysler will get their handout. The financial markets will collapse next year despite the $700bn and the $800bn 'bailout'. Do not sweat this bailout... the media campaign is too slick and everyone's actually feeling sad for these automakers and their corporate jet story. Wake up.... ding ding ding. What you see in the papers Fox News and The Daily Show is NOT reality. It's PRESENTED reality served up so that YOU CONSENT. You are CONTROLLED. I really don't care about the financial plan/recovery/recession etc, connect the dots... Your ego is pandered to, your sons sent to war, your homes owned by the 'Fed', Credit Card Laws are like debtor prison (that's coming in Q2 2009)... Wake up. Martial Law is around the corner. Yes this is just too much to digest. C'est la vie. The wolf is hungry and he'll be at your door. This is NOT business as usual. Ok, I'll stop. Maybe 5% of those that read this comment will know what I'm alluding to. Of the remaining 95%, maybe one man or woman might question their reality.

no_slappz

Ford, GM and Chrysler need cash coming in from two directions: First, the companies want a big pile of dough right now to pay operating expenses. But, as we know, paying Detroit to build more cars than the market demands makes things worse. Detroit also needs more car buyers. It looks like only 10 million or 11 million vehicles will sell this year. Detroit appeared shocked at the news. Why? Because it started the year believing 15 millin vehicles would sell. Whew. Big error on somebody's part. I suppose The Big Three will blame some college intern for the error. They'll say something about the bright kid they hired who had degrees from Harvard and MIT and knew everything about cars before he got to high school. They'll say they thought he was the Bill Gates of Cars, so they asked him to estimate sales for 2008, and, hey, the poor kid got it wrong. What can you do? Anyway, the other money source Detroit needs -- desperately -- is the money coming in from buyers. But who has credit today? Can anyone with a Credit Score below 700 get a car loan? Bottom line: Detroit is desperate to see credit given to people who are bad risks. Those are the people who were taking No-Documenation Subprime Loans for the last several years. Well, where are they today? What lender is going to give them money now? Detroit is desperate for a new population of deadbeats and near-deadbeats to buy cars. Otherwise, the only people prepared to purchase vehicles are those who are likely to buy Hondas, Toyotas and other names that are not domestic or owned by The Big Three. With people losing jobs left and right -- 12,000 layoffs at ATT, thousands more at other companies -- where are the buyers? Out of work. That's where.

no_slappz

Ford has offered it fantasy plan to Congress. Congress should just say NO. Among the hundreds of problematic statements made by Ford management in this bizarre document there is one that that is a true shocker: Ford stated that money received from taxpayers must be subordinated to other debt. Specifically, if things don't work out, Taxpayers are next-to-last in the line of creditors waiting for repayment. Ford says that Senior Secured debt held by certain creditors would automatically fall into default status if Taxpayers were granted higher status in the credit structure. This is true. Standing in the Credit Structure is handled this way. But that alone is enough reason to let Ford solve its problems without help from Taxpayers. Aside from this troubling reality, the entire Blue Oval Plan is nothing more than Promises, Promises. Worse, these promises are based on expectations of rising vehicle sales. The Plan was written cautiously enough that it did not project sales of Ford vehicles over the next several years. The only numbers were total number of vehicles expected to sell in the US. What do we learn from the total sales estimate? Not enough. How many Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, BMWs, Subarus, etc will sell? Of total vehicles sales, what percentage will Detroit get? In the 1950s, the figure was 95%. Today it's roughly 45%. The trend is bad news, and nothing in the Ford Plan will change the direction of the trend. By the way, has anyone in Detroit thought of hiring some of those Honda and Toyota managers to repair the damage? Has the UAW shown a real willingness to Save the Industry? NO. Hence, there's no chance that a capital injection today will do anything more than delay the inevitable Chapter 11 filing. One more point. Based on statements in the Ford Plan, members of the Ford Family still receive dividends on their special class of stock. That means they too would get free money from Taxpayers if this capital injection plan were adopted. Yikes.

mcan2

Is the American government really trying to shake down the UAW?I mean come on whats really going on here?Is our government really that stupid or blind?The big 3 is asking for a LOAN not a BAILOUT! Citybank goes to them for a BAILOUT and then goes back and asks for more.Did they torture that company or AIG?No but here the ALMIGHTY GOVERNMENT sits up on their so called pedestals and asks our MAJOR employers of the USA to cut this and cut that.Would our Government cut their pay or their benefits?Start at the top and work your way down not at the low guy who is already struggling!They really have some NERVE!The GOVERNMENT helped Toyota years ago when they were going under on the brink of bankruptcy!Do you all know that? Why are they letting our AMERICAN automakers SUFFER and BEG???This is bull!KIck them DAM foreign car companies out of the USA and quit letting our American run companies go down the DAM tubes!PEOPLE GET THE WORD BAILOUT OUT OF YOUR MIND. IT'S NOT A BAILOUT THEY ARE ASKING FOR.IT IS A L O A N!Congress needs to be ashamed.They get free benefits,their social security is guaranteed,and they are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a YEAR!Tell THEM to give all that up and see if they like it! How about they give each AMERICAN family $1 million dollars each to pay off their homes and cars and then those families invest in the BIG 3.Now that sounds like a PLAN!Then all of the jobs would be saved and our AMERICAN companies would not have to beg like DOGS!Come on people support our automakers because this is going to affect everyone here in AMERICA not just the workers of the Big 3.If the Big 3 starts cutting the wages of those workers the foreclosure and repos are going to skyrocket!Those people in congress need to live a day in an average AMERICAN families shoes.Could they survive??????????????HELL NO THEY WOULDNT! THe wife of a SKILLED TRADES worker at FORD!

Spiri2al

Save your defense contractors... that's where they make money. Selling cars to Joe Kegger is not their money pie...