The Automotive Bailouts: The Other Side of the Story

I have been sitting here, trying to keep out of this. But I have sat and looked at the Republican and NeoConservative Spin on this Story and I’m sick of it. 😡

So, I am giving you, the other side of the story, from the horses mouth; without commentary from me.

I did not ask that you agree, I simply ask that you listen and hear this man out. Now I am almost sure, that the Blogs, that I have linked to, will remove my trackback, like the Neo-Con Fascists that they are. I mean, it is all about controlling the message with those guys.  🙄

Here we go:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Media Q & A:

Media Q & A Part 2:

Media Q & A Part 3:

There you have it. The other side of the story. You decide.

(Source UAW.ORG)

Let's Boycott Alabama

It seems that there is a grassroots effort to get a boycott Alabama, in response to the Alabama Senator Richard Shelby’s attempted stonewalling of the bridge loans to the Big Three. Well, it’s big two now, Ford will not be needing the help.

Anyhow, here is a e-mail written by my Mother, who is a spouse of a retired General Motors worker.

Senator Shelby,

I doubt that you read the emails sent to your office but perhaps it will be read by someone who will show you the many emails you are sure to receive, and will point out to you just how wrong you are. There are a lot of derogatory comments that could be made but I prefer to try to point out a few facts that you evidently have not wanted to know. My husband and my father are both General Motors retirees and I know firsthand from where I speak.

Perhaps you think the auto workers are wealthy, making that mysterious $75 an hour that has been bandied about in the media. Unfortunately that is very far from the truth. They have never made that much, even including benefits, and most of them live from paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet like most middle class people. If the auto companies go bankrupt as you desire, not only will the auto workers lose their jobs, but also jobs directly and indirectly connected, such as suppliers, stores and restaurants located near the plants and of course it will trickle down to the cities who will lose the tax revenues these plants produce. We are not only talking about Detroit and Michigan but every state that has a plant or plants belonging to the Big 3.

It’s odd to me that you think that two companies that have been in business for over 100 years and one that is over 83 years old do not know what they are doing. If this is true how do you explain the fact that they sell over 50% of the cars purchased in the world and have won many, many multiple awards over the years for their cars? Do you perhaps think that people are just too stupid or uneducated to realize they are buying an inferior product? And the award givers are too dumb to realize they are giving an award to a poorly built, not very innovative dinosaur? Maybe you need to voice that opinion in your next media interview. I’m sure people would be interested to hear it.

You need to come out of your office and meet with the GM, Ford and Chrysler workers themselves. Could you really look them in the face, knowing they have families to support and bills to pay and tell them you think they should join the ranks of the unemployed? Do you think it is their fault that the economy has taken such a downturn because of mismanagement on Wall Street, the banks and yes, the government?

The auto companies and the union are trying their best to jump through all the hoops the Congress is throwing at them, as ridiculous as some of them are. To let them go under will cause a depression like this nation has not seen in many years. I hope you think long and hard about that.

By the way, I fully support the boycott of your state.

Y’all see where I get the writing skills from? I was told that I could post that, as long as I did not sign her name.

Anyhow, if you’d like to join the grassroots effort boycott Alabama. Please go to the Official Boycott Alabama Page.

Well, they did call them "High Risk" Loans…

Seems that the people that defaulted on their mortgages, have defaulted again, even after all this aid that has been tossed around. So reports Reuters:

Recent data suggests that many borrowers who received help with mortgage modifications earlier this year tended to re-default on their payments, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Monday.

“The results, I confess, were somewhat surprising, and not in a good way,” said John Dugan, head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in prepared remarks for a U.S. housing forum.

“Put simply, it shows that over half of mortgage modifications seemed not to be working after six months,” he said.

Dugan said based on data collected from some of the biggest U.S. institutions, like Bank of America, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, home foreclosure starts fell 2.6 percent in the three months ended in September.

However, data which is to be issued by the OCC and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) next week could throw cold water on a push by some U.S. policymakers for loan modifications as the key remedy for the ailing U.S. financial and economic crisis.

Dugan said recent data showed that after three months, nearly 36 percent of borrowers who received restructured mortgages in the first quarter re-defaulted.

The rate of re-default jumped to about 53 percent after six months and 58 percent after eight months, Dugan said, without providing an explanation for the trend.

Regulators speaking at an OTS-housing forum did not provide any explanations for the causes behind the data.

“We don’t know the answers yet, but these are the types of questions that we have begun asking our servicers in detail,” Dugan said.

Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, who has been pushing for fast and systematic loan modifications, said regulators need to examine re-default data more closely.

“I think it’s very important to look at this data carefully and know what it says and what it doesn’t say,” Bair said.

Dugan said the third-quarter report will show many of the same disturbing trends as other recent mortgage reports, as credit quality continued to decline across the board and delinquencies rose for subprime, alt-A and prime mortgages.

He said the report will also show that the greatest delinquencies were in prime mortgages.

I can tell you exactly what the answer is. You do not hand out mortgages to people that you know damned well that they cannot pay for them. That is the answer!  This is why the Country, The Big Three and Wall Street are in the mess that they are in now, in the first place. Because fucking Bill Clinton and his team of morons decided to FORCE lending companies to gives loans to HIGH RISK persons, and they’re called that for a reason, they’re known not to pay their bills!

High Risk is called High Risk for a reason! Duh! Man, I could have told them that and I am a High School Drop out with A.D.H.D. 🙄

“Clue needed on Asle 5, Clue needed on Asle 5 Please.”

(Thanks Q & O)

Alfonzo on The "Declaration of Dependence"

An Excellent Video:

Now, towards of the end of this. He gets off into the weeds about the Unions. I’ll give him a pass on it. Because some of the stuff he says, I kind agree with. But he went overboard with the “They should gotten out from under them years ago…” I disgree with that crap. But the rest of the video is right on point.

Of course, if I was a real butt hole, I could say if it weren’t for the Democrats, his black ass would not have half the freedom that he has now. But to counter that, If it were not for Abe Lincoln, he would be still in chains. So, it evens out. 😀

Still I wish there were more black people, like Zo here who believed this way. But unfortunately most of them got sucked into that stupid socialist identity politics crap. Thanks to tools like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

Good show Zo, as always man. 😀

Michelle Malkin goes….Cartoon?

Well, I knew she was short and some feel a little looney… (We’re tiny, we’re tooney, we’re all a little looney!)

Ahem. Anyhow… Michelle draws a line from Cartoons to the Bailouts. Well, the example is rather humorous. But when it comes to the 8.5 trillion bucks that the Government has been using to prop up everyone and their uncle. I was thinking somewhere along these lines here for a cartoon analogy:

Exit Question: Is Donald Duck your typical Democrat? I know Raaaaaacccist!  😉 😛

The High Price Tag of Nationalizing of America

Seeing I seem to be talking out of both sides of my mouth today. I give you some sobering news.

Want to know how much the bailouts are totally up to be? 700 Billion? That’s an old number now. Very old.

Try 8.5 Trillion. 8.5 flipping TRILLION BUCKS! …and for what? So some Wall Street Investment banks would not go out of business!

The L.A. Times has the story: (Thanks to Reason Hit & Run)

Indeed, analysts warn that the nation’s next financial crisis could come from the staggering cost of battling the current one.

Just last week, new initiatives added $600 billion to lower mortgage rates, $200 billion to stimulate consumer loans and nearly $300 billion to steady Citigroup, the banking conglomerate. That pushed the potential long-term cost of the government’s varied economic rescue initiatives, including direct loans and loan guarantees, to an estimated total of $8.5 trillion — half of the entire economic output of the U.S. this year.

Nor has the cash register stopped ringing. President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are expected to enact a stimulus package of $500 billion to $700 billion soon after he takes office in January.

The spending already has had a dramatic effect on the federal budget deficit, which soared to a record $455 billion last year and began the 2009 fiscal year with an amazing $237-billion deficit for October alone. Analysts say next year’s budget deficit could easily bust the $1-trillion barrier.

[…]

But even deficit hawks such as Walker acknowledge that the immediate crisis is priority No. 1. Just as with World War II, the government can worry about paying the bills once the enemy is defeated.

“You just throw everything you have at the problem to try to fix it as quickly as you can,” said David Stowell, a finance professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “We’re mortgaging our future to a certain extent, but we’re trying to do things that give us a future.”

Washington could wind up spending substantially less than the sum of the commitments. Though the total estimated cost of the government’s efforts adds up to $8.5 trillion, only about $3.2 trillion has been tapped, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.

And not all the money committed is direct spending. About $5.5 trillion in loan guarantees and other financial backing by the Federal Reserve is included in the total.

“The only way those commitments would become obligations would be if the economy completely collapsed, in which case it’s a whole new ballgame anyway,” said John Steele Gordon, a business and economic historian.

Here’s why this even remotely bothers me. Because I, and everyone that reads this Blog; Your and My (if I ever have any) Children, their Children and their Children’s Children will be paying for this damn tab. Because our Government decided to prop up some banks that fund our stock market. All so Clinton could float some loans to high risk customers.

Now for the problem, that’s related to this.

It is official, we’re in a Recession!

CNN Reports: (H/T Meme)

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

The NBER said that the deterioration in the labor market throughout 2008 was one key reason why it decided to state that the recession began last year.

Employers have trimmed payrolls by 1.2 million jobs in the first 10 months of this year. On Friday, economists are predicting the government will report a loss of another 325,000 jobs for November.

The NBER also looks at real personal income, industrial production as well as wholesale and retail sales. All those measures reached a peak between November 2007 and June 2008, the NBER said.

In addition, the NBER also considers the gross domestic product, which is the reading most typically associated with a recession in the general public.

Many people erroneously believe that a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of economic activity declining. That has yet to take place during this recession.

So, the Government throwing all this money and bailing out everyone under the sun, except many the industries that need it, like the Auto sector, was a good thing to do, right?

Uh. No.

The financial market and credit crisis worsened during this summer, prompting Congress, the Treasury Department and the Fed to pump trillions of dollars into the economy through a variety of programs, including a $700 billion bailout of banks and Wall Street firms and hundreds of billions of lending by the Fed to major companies and lenders.

But Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute, said that at this point, the only solution for the recession is time.

“All the hand waving and real cash that policymakers are throwing at the problem won’t change the fact we’re stuck in this nasty recession,” he said. “The ultimate cure of a recession is letting it run its course.”

Achuthan’s research firm tracks weekly leading economic indicators that are supposed to signal a change in direction for the economy four or five months ahead of time. Those indicators are continuing to fall at a record pace.

Still, he said he’s not worried about the current recession turning into a depression, as many Americans fear.

“Even with indicators in a tailspin, this still is only a very severe recession,” he said. “There’s lots of gloom, but we don’t see doom.”

Of course, he did not use the word “Depression“, because he did not want to trigger a massive panic on wall street.  But the truth and the reality is, that we are on a slippery slope to a depression.  The difference between the two is this; The Depression of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s was caused by foolish investors, who basically “Bet The Farm” on a Wall Street bubble, and when that Bubble burst, those people lost it all. This time the depression or recession was caused by a Liberal President who forced an agenda, of giving loans to high risk recipients. When those recipients defaulted, because of a downturn in the economy, those loans went into default. When this happened, our Liberal Congress basically start plugging the holes in the sinking boat, or in this case, began pouring water into the bucket, but the bucket is full of holes; it works for a second, but the water does eventually run out.

The differences are night and day. There are no easy solutions, I wish that there was an easy solution, but most of it goes over my head. How this situation affects me is this; Jobs here in Michigan are scarce. This only compunds that sitution. A full scale depression only makes the prospects of getting another job even worse.  It is not a pretty picture, but it is one that is very well rooted in reality.

Thank You for your support

The Following was made by me. It is my feelings towards those who opposed and still oppose the help that the Detroit Auto Industry needs. It might cost me readers, but it is how I feel.

I declare this photo PUBLIC DOMAIN. Feel free to copy it and post it to your Blogs.

Thank you for your support
Thank you for your support

Update: I posted this for one reason and one reason alone, Washington D.C. will hand over 4 BILLION dollars to Wall Street banks and not even flinch, but when Detroit needs help, they are like “You need a plan.” I am not saying that the companies are not at fault. But it just strikes me as pretty damned funny that Wall St. Gets that help and Detroit gets told to go fuck themselves, in essence. So, Yeah, I’m a little pissed off and a bit jaded at this point. Can’t you tell??!

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Guest Voice: Dear Charlotte – You Are Bankrupt

Dear Charlotte – You Are Bankrupt

By J.J. Jackson

Dear Charlotte,

Even though you are far too young yet to understand this letter, and you are rightfully more interested in seeing how much noise you can make by throwing all of our pots and pans on the floor, I wanted to let you know that I am sorry. I am sorry at what has happened to you. For you see, you are bankrupt.

I know that this will come as a shock to you once you are old enough to read these words considering that you have never held a job, earned a wage or incurred a single debt to your name. But it is true and I am sorry that I was not able to stop this from happening. Believe me, your mother and I tried and tried hard to not have you placed in such a situation. We have worked hard, paid our bills and lived within our means.

It is not because of us, your parents, that you are bankrupt however. Ask your mother when you are older about how every week I toiled at the computer and wrote numerous articles and blog postings about the misbegotten economic ideas of our nation. These are the ideas and practices which are the real reason why, before you can even think about needing to earn a wage to support yourself, you will be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars in debt to the federal government.

I am sad for you. I am sad for you because these are not burdens that someone who is not yet even two years old should be saddled with. It is not right that the people of this once great nation have stripped you of so much at such a young age and sold you, without permission or without you having committed any crime, into slavery and bound you to serve them and their greed.

A lot of citizens have mortgaged your future for their own present comfort and security. Knowing how it feels to have my own future mortgaged by these same greedy, and dare I say unrighteous, souls I understand that it will only get worse for you as you grow up. Your mother and I already have a heavy weight on our own shoulders in which thousands of our hard earned dollars are taken by the government at the behest of the greedy who did not care enough about their own future to save for their own retirement and believe they are entitled to such at our expense. We are burdened with the heavy cost of other greedy folks who believe that we should pay for their health care because of the virtue of our success while they have not cared one bit to better their own lots in life and acquire that which they desire. And then there are the myriad of other thieves that have compiled agencies of government to demand from us to pay the other debts that they could not pay themselves.

My dear Charlotte, I know it will only get worse for you because it has only gotten worse for us. Already in the past year the government has issued hundreds of billions of dollars in debt certificates, paper money with no substantive backing simply printed on a whim, to line the pockets of people that have made more bad choices in ten minutes than you will make in your lifetime and who believe that they are “too big to fail.” The government calls these debt certificates “money,” but they are nothing more than I.O.U.s which are being financed by foreign governments that will demand the interest we are promising them in return for taking on this debt. Yes, you, my dear, will be tasked to repay these “loans” and all the other spiraling costs of a government run amok beyond sound limits.

For now you will not have to worry much about this looming crisis. There is so much that is of greater importance to you at this moment and for the next few years. You will thrill in chasing the dogs around the living room as they try to escape your all encompassing love and simple desire for just a hug and a sloppy doggie kiss from them. You will be learning your ABC’s and your 123’s and discovering new words. You will be busy trying to mimic new actions you see your mother and I doing and continue trying to sweep the floor, dust the table and clumsily sop up spills with paper towels. You will soon be learning how to ride a bike and to roller-skate. You will undoubtedly revel in enjoying the thrills of the first snow each year and then the first blossoms of spring that will follow. You will eagerly anticipate Christmas morning for many years and what Saint Nicolas has brought for you as a reward for being a good little girl.

I do not write this letter to you in order to strip you of the childish joy you will be filled with over the coming years. I do not expect you to even understand the severity of the situation in which you have been placed even when you are able to read these words, probably asking how to pronounce certain new and unfamiliar ones that you will come across in doing so. I do however write this letter to you hoping that someday, when you are older and wiser and buried by the avalanche of public debt that is bearing down on you, you will find it in your heart to forgive me for not being able to stop the pending disaster which will doom you to a life of servitude to the slothful and the greedy. I hope that you will forgive me for not being able to stop the bad policies of our government that will invariably force you to have to work even harder to support not only yourself but also support all those that the bureaucracy has decided that you must, in addition to yourself, while pursuing the American Dream.

I know that you will be able to succeed in bettering yourself and taking care of yourself but I am sad and disappointed in myself that I have not been able to make it easier on you to live free and experience a greater sense of liberty than the generation before you. I hope and pray that you will not hold it against us, your parents. And I want you to know that I will continue to do everything in my power so that I will, hopefully, one day be able to tear up this letter and never have you read it.

Love eternally,

Your Father

Finally – An African-American that gets it!

A very excellent article by Erik Rush on the problems on Wall Street and our Economy.

Highly Recommended! 😀

Money Quote:

Remember affirmative action? It was that lovely social program that (again, ostensibly) promoted access to education and employment to minority groups, usually ethnic minorities, women and those considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. In practice, education and job opportunities wound up being made available to many who were either indolent or unqualified, as opposed to disenfranchised, resulting in inequity, a lowering of standards and bitterness on the part of qualified, industrious Americans who were passed over for these opportunities.

Man, he is ever right. God is he ever.

Quote of the Day

This is America today—a country that is losing its ability to manufacture things but has to continue to pander to rich Arabs and the Chinese Communists for money just to survive. In addition to our jobs, savings and investments, it looks like our sovereignty and national pride are being sacrificed as part of this process.