Chrysler, GM discuss merger, acquisition

Chrysler, GM discuss merger, acquisition



DETROIT - General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have held preliminary talks about a merger or an acquisition of Chrysler by GM, according to published reports Saturday.


The Wall Street Journal, citing people it described as familiar with the discussions, said Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns 80.1 percent of Chrysler and 51 percent of GMAC Financial Services, proposed trading Chrysler's automotive operations to GM. The Journal said Cerberus would receive GM's remaining 49 percent stake in GMAC.

The New York Times, also citing people familiar with the talks, said the automakers were discussing a merger. The Times did not mention GMAC, a traditional auto lender hit hard by the housing market downturn.

The talks have stalled because of the recent turmoil in the financial markets, according to the Journal. Its sources said negotiations could resume if markets stabilize because both GM and Cerberus want to quickly divest the assets under discussion.

The negotiations between 100-year-old GM and 83-year-old Chrysler began more than a month ago, according to the Times. Its sources said the chances of a merger were "50-50" as of Friday and likely would take weeks to complete.

Both newspapers posted their stories on their Web sites late Friday.

"Without referencing this specific rumor, as we've often said, GM officials routinely discuss issues of mutual interest with other automakers," GM spokesman Tony Cervone said.

"The company is looking at a number of potential global partnerships as it explores growth opportunities around the world," Chrysler spokeswoman Lori McTavish said. "Beyond those partnerships already announced however, Chrysler has not formed any new agreements and has no further announcements to make at this time."

:eek: Dodge Camaro?

PT Crumaro :whacked:

Camaracuda. I can see it now!!! LOL

This has been boiling around in the trade papers for a while. Personnally the only thing that Chrysler has to offer GM is the Jeep nameplate and maybe some plant assets and foreign contracts. Many may have not noticed that during the financial market bailout wrangling just over a week ago a $25 billion loan authorization slipped through separately for "loan guarantees" to the US auto makers. With GM stock in the toilet because the market has no fundamental faith in the management team I wouldn't be surprised to see a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the assets sold off for a song and a new company emerge from the ashes. Kiss the UAW/pension/and other costly agreements goodbye. Of course the pension stuff is backed up by our tax dollars so punch the cash register again! The other alternative given the foolishness we're permitting, and based on polls we seem determined to make even worse, "the government" would step in to support it's union masters and "save" the company...............afterall "it's too big too fail".:rolleyes:

GMAC got itself in a pickle when it bought Ditech, the mortgage lender. The probable partial reason this deal is holding is they want to see what kind of program will result from the BIG bailout deal so they can figure out how to play the game. Instead of just letting failures fail we turn to a socialist central committee model that only prolongs the agony and constrict the healing that would naturally occur in a free market. We've learned nothing from the lessons of the 1930s!:(

This will shed some light on the subject:3dSMILE:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...05277695921912

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Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

This has been boiling around in the trade papers for a while. Personnally the only thing that Chrysler has to offer GM is the Jeep nameplate and maybe some plant assets and foreign contracts. Many may have not noticed that during the financial market bailout wrangling just over a week ago a $25 billion loan authorization slipped through separately for "loan guarantees" to the US auto makers. With GM stock in the toilet because the market has no fundamental faith in the management team I wouldn't be surprised to see a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the assets sold off for a song and a new company emerge from the ashes. Kiss the UAW/pension/and other costly agreements goodbye. Of course the pension stuff is backed up by our tax dollars so punch the cash register again! The other alternative given the foolishness we're permitting, and based on polls we seem determined to make even worse, "the government" would step in to support it's union masters and "save" the company...............afterall "it's too big too fail".:rolleyes:

GMAC got itself in a pickle when it bought Ditech, the mortgage lender. The probable partial reason this deal is holding is they want to see what kind of program will result from the BIG bailout deal so they can figure out how to play the game. Instead of just letting failures fail we turn to a socialist central committee model that only prolongs the agony and constrict the healing that would naturally occur in a free market. We've learned nothing from the lessons of the 1930s!:(

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Again you've hit the nail on the head.... Some players in corporate America have become just like so many individuals... Waiting for the government to fix everything.....Welcome to Socialism.

Not trying to be a conspiracy theory guy, but I have to wonder just who or what has the money and power to pull off all this manipulating that is going on in the financial world?????? I guess we'll know when we see who's left standing when this is all over....

If I get greedy, make some foolish financial decisions, live on credit, and fail miserably nobody would come along to bail me out.....Why shouldn't businesses---or for that matter government entities---have to play by the same rules??? No company is too big to fail, well that's what I thought anyway... I guess with enough propping up and a large enough influx of cash they won't fail.

If a company can't supply a product or service and market it in a profitable manner then they are going to fail....why should it matter if it's a sole proprietorship company with no employees or a giant corporation???? We should all be held accountable for our decisions and actions, right????

I don't know, I don't understand any of it anymore. My vote is still going to "None of the Above".... I do know that I'm fed up with finger pointing and name calling. Negativity is not going to resolve the economic situation we're in now.

Hey! I'm going to lay back and let the government tax those darn rich people and give me everything I need!!!

I am worried no matter the outcome.

Congress has become disfunctional with the democratic "blockade".

We will end up with either a president with almost no experience of how to get anything done in Washington...

...or a Republican one that the democratic congress will nullify his every move.

I may just vote against every incument!

Alot has been said about this bailout or "buy out" as it be. Looks where the american car manufacures have gone to. Chrysler bought out, Ford near or is bankruptcy, GM stock have hit bottom and then they want to buy out Cyrsler?????. This country is run by greed alone and nothing else. Sure money is a great incentive and if I had some more I'd probably buy something I needed or not, but look at the ceo of companys and what they get as "bonuses"??? $6,000,000 because their company went down the drain. Come on. Where are we headed?????

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Not trying to be a conspiracy theory guy, but I have to wonder just who or what has the money and power to pull off all this manipulating that is going on in the financial world?????? I guess we'll know when we see who's left standing when this is all over....

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I tend not to believe in conspiracy theory as it is most often presented, it's any easy fall back for those who are prone to whining "I'm a victim, wah wah". I'm thinking here in the sense that most often it means a handful of powerful people gather around a table and hatch a plot, have a defined objective and an itemized "war plan" step by step.

That being said, I believe in a "conspiracy" (no meeting just a majority held understanding based on common experiences) of belief forming rules that play on human nature. A positive example would be traffic control. If we start from a correct observation that chaos would result if say a thousand drivers went out on the road without a set of rules that in most part are understood by all, and benefit all. Thus we end up with driving on the right hand side of the road, red means stop, person to the right has the right of way, etc. etc. Even though the rules are in place some people will ignore them or worse be allowed to be ignorant of them, and bad things can happen. But on occasion some drivers get away with breaking the rules and become emboldened to either keep braking that rule, til they pay a price, or even worse, break more of the rules in an unconscious attempt to see how much they can get away with.

Bazillions of books will be written going forward enumerating how we got to where we are in our financial markets. Some of them will be grossly wrong in their analysis, others will be accurate............but of couse the key to their value will be if anyone pays attention and acts accordingly. Unfortunately we're likely to end up with a government working largely from one perspective where the discenting voices will not be heard. Given the complexity of the matter we can't effectively cover all the contributing factors, but I would say the general consensus is that the subprime lending market was the 800 # gorilla that tipped the market scales. The simple matter of it is that no matter whether you think the intentions that led to a proliferation of subprime mortgages were good or not, the decision to "make housing affordable" in that way was a dumb idea. Common sense should dictate that lending money to people who haven't demonstrated a good history of being able to pay their bills is idiotic. Worse, allowing somebody to participate in borrowing money when they don't "have any skin in the game", is further idiocy. Now people who lend money commercially don't last long if they are idiots. Since this happened on such a wide scale, and was participated in by folks/businesses who had a history of not acting like idiots, the first thing we should do is ask ourselves what changed to cause these people/institutions to shoot themselves in the foot. The obvious answer (to me anyway) is, someone changed the rules. Just like, using the earlier example, if the highway rules were changed to make stopping at stop signs optional (some would argue that a certain level of anarchy has already resulted in that:whacked: )we would eventually have total chaos as more and more people chose to play the game that way. In the case of subprime mortgages, rather than the rules being changed removing prudent "laws/regulations" (yeah I know some of you driven by your political party loyalties and in the tank media echo chambers think "deregulation" was the only cause ..............listen carfully, those who make that charge either don't give specifics about which regulations were undone, or the few that do point to the deregulation of banks in 1999. I would point out that that specific deregulation helped Wells Fargo, US Bank, B of A , and JP Morgan to withstand large subprime mortgages, whereas the investment banks not covered by that regulation are the ones that failed........but let's not let the truth get in the way of a good demogaguery)it was changing the rules to encourage lending to high risk borrowers that launched the torpedo. You might think that prudent lenders would resist such "encouragement", however, facing threats of lawsuits, judicial harrassment, further odious regulation, and other manner of political extortion many of them caved. In fact, they were not only urged to make weak loans, they were given goals. So, ask yourself what you would do if you were forced to do something that wasn't exactly in your best interest? The human nature thing is to try to make the most of it, remove as much of the pressure as you can, and pass the buck............or in this case, billions of bucks. So, as happened, you bundle the turd that was forcefully put in your pocket with the good stuff and sell the whole bundle hoping that the buyers will believe there's more than enough good stuff to make up for the bad. The second party in the transaction is motivated to do the same and moves it along. Of course, again these guys aren't normally idiots, they all knew there were turds in the pile, and the politicians who started the dominoe fall with the "affordable housing" measures/mandates, knew it too, so the politicians tweaked two government supported entities (GSEs) to offer a clearinghouse to take these turds off the commercial markets hands. HOORAY, bye bye risk (well, for the individual bundlers at step one anyway). So Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac acted as a money laundering agency, and just like their Mafia equivalent they had to hide what they were doing. So we end up with political appointees like Franklyn Raines getting $90+million dollar bonus packages for running this scam and cooking the books.............and glory be he has some influencial and powerful congressmen running interference for him. Just to put a point on it, the hated Ken Lay, late of Enron and the human race, would have gone to prison had he not died, for doing the same thing. Do you think Raines will go to prison? Will we be consistent about enforcing our laws?

Are you incensed about a powerful congressman getting favorable loan terms that Joe six pack can't get from the biggest subprime loan maker, and is the leading receiver of campaign contributions from the above mentioned GSEs? If those aren't bribes from interested/benefiting parties, what are they? Will these political operatives ever pay a price for their contribution to this part of the market colapse? I don't think so since last week they were lauded as the "saviors", and are part of the "bailout" design. Many of you have been propagandized into believing that only businesses are evil, you say it on here over and over. While there are some who are (in reality a very, very small minority), you ignor those elected officials (and their appointee dupes) who wontanly manipulate the law to enhance their own power and wealth. Not only are we in a financial funk, but we who allow these criminals to be exempt from consequences are morally bankrupt as well.

You're right Jay, many of these crooked pols need to be fired, and as is so often true, government is not the answer for that...........we are!

Ack!?!?!?!?!?!?

This is my opinion, and it could be very wrong but it's what I think.

I think the CEO’s getting the severance packages of millions of dollars while the companies went out is bullshit, and the investor’s lost their money. The Ceo’s should leave empty handed. Why should they get to keep theirs? You go to Vegas lose a lot of money at black jack or any other table. You don’t get it back it’s lost as far as the casino’s are concerned. Take every dime, every house, car, anything of value, if they can’t be put in jail then at least put them on the street like everyone else that lost everything.
I really believe it is more profitable for some of the companies to go belly up and the big shots take their lump sump, and live happy ever after.

Richard

wow... at this rate the government should have their dirty little fingurs in everyones plates!

I think if any (none government) company manager broke the law in any way they should be tried and if convicted the share holders should have the right to do what's called a claw back, in other words recover as much of the payouts as possible that are a result of any proven fraud. I suspect that most citizens of this country aren't interested in that proving something criminal part. And IMO the government (absent a shareholder interest) deciding to take away any payment without benefit of proving illegal activities is dangerous if not outright wrong.

Serious question for those who would advocate attacking CEOs for perceived "Overpayment";
I don't follow sports much, but don't those guys on the NY Yankees make just a huge boatload of money for little overall benefit to our economy? And they aren't in the World Series, right? How come I don't hear about any lynch mob mentality toward those guys? (maybe I would if I lived in NYC:))

Overpaid execs aren't the problem, the problem lies with the idiots who put them in that position with that kind of contract and offered the huge payoffs as an incentive to attract the kind of CEO they wanted.... The man just took a job and for whatever reasons failed at it...and now we should demand repayment from the guy who agreed to the terms of the contract????? Hmmmm. Who hired them? Who made such a ridiculous contract? Perhaps we should look beyond the CEO's? Unless you own the place you're nothing but hired help and as with all of us only wanted to negotiate the best deal they could get... The CEO works for the board of directors and the share holders and they are the ones who hired the CEO and gave him such a lucrative contract. If pointing fingers and casting blame is the game, should try to aim it at the guilty party (or parties) and not just the hired help...... Just another case of finding a scapegoat rather then holding someone accountable that actually created the problem..... and even if they got all the money back they paid the CEO's, it wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket.

Thanks for the explanation Uncle Bob!

Well there are plenty of explanations out there such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEWCnpNnBQ&NR=1

However the real problem is how to get out of the mess with an impending situation of reinforcement by the same folks who started this mess to be in a position to do more. My only solution is to hunker down for two whole years and hope there will be a "correction" at the mid-term election. One interesting development is that gas is now $2.97/gallon here! A suggestion that works for me is to play 1940s music all the time and just try to remember that General Eisenhower will take care of everything!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Well there are plenty of explanations out there such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEWCnpNnBQ&NR=1

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Yeah, blame the other party....geez... Don't worry about a solution, let alone this antiquated two party system POSSIBLY getting beyond politics and actually give a hoot about the people that sent them there!!!! If everyone would spend half the time looking for a solution that they spend looking for a scapegoat.......we probably wouldn't have had a problem..... But when the idiots in DC spend all their time pointing fingers and playing CYA games, nothing will change, absolutely nothing.

Democrat, Republican, Independant or whatever!!!!! Vote every incumbant OUT of office.....let them know exactly what we think of their inattentiveness. What really amazes me is the number of voters who actually fall for this "the other party done it" crap rather then hold their elected officials REGARDLESS OF PARTY AFFILITATION accountable for their actions....or lack of them in this case. Politics caused this mess, how in the heck could you possibly expect them to resolve it?????? Change??? You want change??? Vote out every dang incumbant that is in there now!!!!! The "experienced" ones are the ones who either ignored or were too dumb too see this debacle coming...and you can say that I should be in favor of "experienced" politicians??????? Yeah, right......:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

OK Dave what is the solution? I am putting what few chips I have on my Cong. Cantor who at least has real experience and training in the mortgage business but since he will be in the minority to Madame Pelosi's crew I can only hope he is in there for the mid-term correction. Dave you are correct that mistakes were made by both parties but you do not tell us the solution either! I favor the use of arithmetic but the "victum game" seems to trump common sense and arithmetic!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

As per usual Bob, your analogy of the situation is pretty much spot on. I did find it interesting though that you refrained from laying blame on a specific congress person. IMHO there is plenty of blame to go around, but in the last two years things could have been turned around except for the fact that the core constituency of those in power would have squealed like a stuck pig.

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

OK Dave what is the solution? I am putting what few chips I have on my Cong. Cantor who at least has real experience and training in the mortgage business but since he will be in the minority to Madame Pelosi's crew I can only hope he is in there for the mid-term correction. Dave you are correct that mistakes were made by both parties but you do not tell us the solution either!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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I told you the solution... Vote out all the incumbants and start over. Put together a panel of Warren Buffett, Ross Perot, and a bunch of other GENUINE SUCCESSFUL buisness types and charge them with coming up with the solution.....

Geez Don.....Our government is so far removed from what the founding fathers wanted it's a joke.... A government of the people, for the people???? Even the gallup poll showed 56% (others were higher) to be AGAINST Bush's bailout plan----yet both houses passed it in record time... Hardly a representative government....

Experienced politicians created, or at least failed to prevent the present situation..... and the voters will re-elect the same bunch of dummies and expect them to come up with a solution..... Wait for the mid-term elections???? Many families won't survive til then... Two more years of DDSS and there won't be any solution possible, it will be too late..

My vote for President??? None of the above.... It doesn't matter, both of them are clueless..... Ron Paul might work.... Lock up the borders, followed by a few years of isolationist politics to resolve our own problems and let the rest of the world work on theirs.....

It probably doesn't matter, if nobody learns their lesson from this fiasco, soon won't be anything left to govern....

So when the bailout is done, here's what's left:

The new name for the US will be SSA, Socialist States of America\

The Senate and House will become the House of Commons and the House of Lords

National Health Care for most, at least the ones who can't spend $25K or more per year on private insurance.

Oh well, it (democracy) was a good run while it lasted........

RIP Democracy, greed killed it.

As Pogo said, "we have met the enemy and he is us"

We gripe about sending all of our jobs and money to China yet we buy cheap Chinese crap at Harbor Freight.

We bitch about our government yet we send the same old crook back year after year.

We whine about foreign cars taking over but some of us buy them.

We are the fault, we allow this stuff to happen. We made it acceptable to cheat, lie, steal, and suck off the government's teat. We did it. Until "we" get tired of the situation and come together as a nation, it will continue.

We are the enemy.

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Originally Posted by robot

As Pogo said, "we have met the enemy and he is us"

We gripe about sending all of our jobs and money to China yet we buy cheap Chinese crap at Harbor Freight.

We bitch about our government yet we send the same old crook back year after year.

We whine about foreign cars taking over but some of us buy them.

We are the fault, we allow this stuff to happen. We made it acceptable to cheat, lie, steal, and suck off the government's teat. We did it. Until "we" get tired of the situation and come together as a nation, it will continue.

We are the enemy.

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There ya go, Robot!!!!! Both profoundly correct, and painfully accurate.....

It's true, we are a bunch of hipocrits ( < spelling? ) . Self government will not work without self control. I think this country could be in much better shape if we would think about helping our neighbor out instead fattening our wallet and forgetting about our neighbor.

i belive that if we isolated ourselves for a good DECADE and worried about US , and not other people. so and so had an earthquake, ok? why is that ALWAYS our problem. we are BROKE yet we keep spending milions, billions? in overeas aid to countrys who are worthless to begin with? we need to isolate ourselves start building what we need right the hell here, our cars our kids toys <lead free imagine that!?> grow our own foods and take care of AMERICA we need to help US , we have the money to send millions, billions? overseas to other countrys but we can barley keep all of us fed & sheltered and employed? WHAT THE HELL. and it doesnt help that a good majority of my generation havent been taught diddley squat about the us constituion in school or the bill of rights, therefore when stuff starts getting taken away they do not resist because they didnt know they had it anyway. my generation is completley worthless IMHO at least a good part of them are to busy smoking pot, playing video games, listening to udderly FOUL music, on there cell phones texting, they need to pull their heads out of their asses and look at what is going on in the country today. i still whole heartedly agee with JFK ,
"ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" millitary services, public serivice i.e. fireman and police mailman etc, volunteering in shelters whatever it be. but mainly take care of the govt not the other way around. by that i mean elect those who would do best, not those who make you feel good.

also my one of my all time favorite passages to live by, from our declaration of independence. wow a kid knows what that is?:eek:

" That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

folks its as simple as this,

"if you have the ability to take action, you have the responsibiliy to take action" .........SCOOTER

well either way it looks like the world economy is looking up the barrel of a loaded gun. While us on the bottom of the order wonder where our next $ is coming from. Ah well it will be interesting times. :)

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Yeah, blame the other party....geez... Don't worry about a solution, let alone this antiquated two party system POSSIBLY getting beyond politics and actually give a hoot about the people that sent them there!!!! If everyone would spend half the time looking for a solution that they spend looking for a scapegoat.......we probably wouldn't have had a problem..... But when the idiots in DC spend all their time pointing fingers and playing CYA games, nothing will change, absolutely nothing.

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I think you need to cut cuzin' Don some slack Dave, first there's nothing in that video that isn't supported by factual reporting. And second, shouldn't we be concerned about whether all that's reported is in fact fully factual so that we don't end up with inequality of justice?

A couple cases in point. Two years ago we endured about three weeks of repetitive reporting about a Florida congressman who sent salatious text messages to some young congressional paige. I personally find that behavior absolutely reprehensible, and agree that the guy deserved the swift ousting that his party gave him, and the rejection of the voters in his community. I think it instructional though that as disgusting as his behavior was, it wasn't illegal, and other than being a beacon of cultural disorder, it did no harm to the general citizenry of this country. So it raises the question; why, if those legal actions that "only" rose to the level of civil loathing, with limited harm, deserved that much attention in the media and the number of verbal rantings by his colleagues. Why isn't there at least the same amount of anger, disgust, outrage, and deservedly more in regard to Sen. Dodd's actions noted above? What form of selective ethics finds text messages by the member of one party wholey punishable while at least apparent bribery, collusion, and racketeering by the member of another party acceptible. We didn't even see 3 days of analysis of Dodd's actions regarding subprime mortgages, much less three weeks.

Item two; Again two years ago we endured several weeks of front page "news" and editorial page bombast, along with television "news" leads regarding the supposed racial slur "macaca" by a Virginia Senator. If we could turn back the clock and poll 1000 people before they were influenced by the almighty media machine, ask them what the word "macaca" meant, I'd bet out of that thousand sample you'd MAYBE get one or two who thought it was a racial slur, and that would only be by result of some rule of numbers of respondants. Most would have either likely have answered "I have no idea" or "sounds like a made up word to me". But no, we were propagandized that it was a racial attack. Now maybe there were other reasons to throw that Senator out of office, but if there were, wouldn't it have been "fair" to bring those reasons up rather than some fabricated dismay? Again, he did nothing illegal, not even in any wildest stretch, at worst it was distasteful and stupid. On the other hand, Representative Frank of Mass. repeatedly defended the institutions of Fannie and Freddie, as late as June of this year saying they were sound. His financial connections are less obvious than those of Dodd so a reasonable argument could be made that he wasn't doing it from a criminal perspective. But there's strong evidence that he lacks the vision, intelligence, or discerning skills to make good judgements regarding the fiscal stability of organizations that he has oversight obligation for. At a minimum he should be fired from his committee chairmanship.

In both cases, Dodd and Frank, have paid no political or ethical price for their obvious (to some of us anyway) incompetence, and possible (probable?) illegal actions. Yet the same people who will blythely accept their behavior, laud them at news conferences for sheparding a "successful rescue plan", rant mightily about the behavior of private sector business people who haven't been proven to have done anything illegal, but may be guilty of stupid.

As you know I fundamentally agree with you that "throwing the bums out" on election day is the best solution (though criminal prosecution for some should follow), but the above self evident biases (and many others) are examples of a moral bankruptsy that precludes the election process from being effective.

Doesn't matter if it's all 100% factual Uncle Bob.... Been doin' the blame game crap and it doesn't accomplish anything....too late for that, time to do something....Doesn't matter who got us here.

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Doesn't matter if it's all 100% factual Uncle Bob.... Been doin' the blame game crap and it doesn't accomplish anything....too late for that, time to do something....Doesn't matter who got us here.

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As a former employer I never considered an accurate, honest performance evaluation as a "blame game", rather a useful tool for decision making.

I think I see another new year's resolution coming.............:LOL:

I guess the way I look at it, dump it all on the US Attorney Generals' office and set a precedent by convicting those who broke the law. Send the rest of the bums home and let them get a real job like the rest of us..... Then, lets get some financial people in there running things who actually know how to run a company--if the government ran like a profitable company wouldn't life be great??? Get some folks in congress who'll just do what has to be done and not just talk the talk, but walk the walk, too.... If that means ending a couple thousand federal jobs, and trimming things back by deleting all the bs the feds are involved in, that'd just be a bonus......

I agree on the performance evaluation as a tool----but these clowns haven't performed, just give 'em a pink slip an send them home...

As an employer, if the same clowns kept making the same mistakes, would you have really wasted a lot of time evaluating their performance, or just had their stuff put in a box and escort them to the street???? We would waste years evaluating and seeing who's good and who's bad, what's left of the middle class can't afford to wait.... I still say get rid of every incumbant, forget party affiliation and/or don't vote in anyone who mentions it, and get some people in congress (for their LIMITED TERM) and get the country back to work....

Nothing wrong with the logic and at times obvious affiliation Don presented. It just doesn't work. Period... When the system is broke beyond repair, then ya got to start over. Desparate times call for desparate measures...Can't remember who said that but credit them with it.... Keep things going along the lines of the status quo and shortly there will be no US (and maybe global) economic plan to fix as there will be no US economy......

This really does deserve a watch.........
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...05277695921912
I really believe this to be the root cause of the problems.

Everyone screaming socialism is soft pedalling the facts.

The govt is buying out the banks, which effectively puts the government owning... EVERYTHING.

That ain't socialism folks, that's COMMUNISM.

There was a time in this country when socialism was bad, and communism was evil. Now the sheeple will bend over backwards to accomodate the government intervention in ever aspect of their life, so long as they are allowed to continue their 'quality' of life.

This country's only hope is for ten million Americans to show up on the whitehouse lawn and 'vote out' the whole mess of them.

Thank God for the second ammendment.

Chevy has been setting on about 3 times more inventory than they should have for a couple years. Then came easy credit and long terms to move the cars. Now with the economy in the toilet a lot of people will be loosing those late models they are hopelessly upside down in, the market will be flooded with used late models, prices will plummet. Then a ripple effect will wash through the showrooms.
Even bigger than the car companies, consider that our government and our citizens have been spending money that doesn't even exist. Every time the economy dips, they cut loose more credit so people can spend more money they haven't even earned or produced. Most of us have debt and we are part of the problem too, it isn't all finger pointing to government. We as the people have chosen to allow our manufacturing to go overseas, we have chosen to make incredibly poor investments and use credit to do it (as in buying new cars, bigger homes, even worse, recreational items like boats and 4 wheelers) In short the American consumer has been living well beyond their means for several decades. At some point that bubble has to pop. I think the time is here. But I don't see it as a bad thing.