- does the free market also justify paying top executives high 8 or 9 figure salaries + options, even if company performance is horrible, and wages for the regular workers are frozen?
- regarding the race-baiting, have you listened to Ted Nugent or Hank Williams Jr lately? We don’t even have to mention Limbaugh or the manliest of them all Ann Coulter

While perhaps handing out high salaries and pensions might have been lacking in foresight, the company’s decision to keep making shitty vehicles with shitty safety records and shitty gas mileage also bit them in the ass quite hard.

Amazing how a turn of phrase can make something like pension sound like welfare

My apologies. Not trying to make any moral judgments. Clearly I think a Chapter 11 reorganization is the best of shitty alternatives, but that is based on the current state of affairs, not some delusional idea of who is “right or wrong”.

Truthfully, GM is where it is at now because of knuckle-headed management and labor decisions made in the past based upon completely unreasonable expectations for future growth (sound familiar). Unfortunately now is when the tough decisions have to be made. Remember, bond holders already appreciably lost all their investment in the bailout and shareholders have been getting screwed for years. Admittedly though, it does appear that managment has walked away without sacrificing.

THIS fucking shit right here.

/guy who ran my employer’s stock into the fucking ground got a nice golden parachute

Amazing how a turn of phrase can make something like pension sound like welfare

also…it’s amazing how simple dyslexia can turn “pension” into “penis on.”

legacy entitlement contracts

Amazing how a turn of phrase can make something like pension sound like welfare

Theoretically yes. But, the bailout won’t support GM long enough to wipe out enough of the legacy costs. Its only been a couple years since the bailout and people are already predicting doom and gloom again for GM.

so what you’re saying is, GM should put me on retainer to “solve” the legacy costs. I ACCEPT.

Also, in Chapter 11, the negotiation of legacy entitlement contracts is actually a negotiation. If the unions don’t want to concede, they can scuttle (to some extent) the reorganization plan. Of course with that comes the threat of a conversion to a Chapter 7 in which they would basically lose everything once the company is liquidated, i.e. the mantis scenario.

good info, but it left me with a bad feeling.

id HOPE (/naive) cooperation and shared sacrifice would take precedence over boardroom dick measuring contests.

Theoretically yes. But, the bailout won’t support GM long enough to wipe out enough of the legacy costs. Its only been a couple years since the bailout and people are already predicting doom and gloom again for GM.

Also, in Chapter 11, the negotiation of legacy entitlement contracts is actually a negotiation. If the unions don’t want to concede, they can scuttle (to some extent) the reorganization plan. Of course with that comes the threat of a conversion to a Chapter 7 in which they would basically lose everything once the company is liquidated, i.e. the mantis scenario.

The bailout, unfortunately, is not a solution – it just kicks the problem down the road for a few years.

isn’t that kind of a solution in and of itself though? if the legacy costs are the concern, the bailout lets them remain financially sound while those collecting those unwieldy pensions start to die off. this way, each side takes a little bit of a hit, and taxpayers help out other taxpayers, rather than one side being forced to go to the chopping block by themselves.

Again, this assumes a Chapter 7 liquidation which would have been highly unlikely. The realty is GM would have filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 and been out of bankruptcy in like 6 to 9 months without missing a day of production.

Interesting thing about contracts is we should cancel the benefits afforded retired autoworkers, but continue with the contractually-obligated 7 figure bonuses of the AIG crooks.

Absolutely correct! Renegotiating the contracts is unfair. But, as a factual matter, GM’s biggest problem are its legacy costs and the current business model cannot sustain the obligation. It leaves you with two options – mantis’ scenario in which GM gets shut down with all the attendant disruption, or if you believe GM is “too big to fail”, then you have to do something about the legacy costs – and a Chapter 11 is the perfect vehicle for this.

The bailout, unfortunately, is not a solution – it just kicks the problem down the road for a few years.

Olivia Munn is obviously the most blatant example of this. I still can’t believe she hoodwinked Jon Stewart to give her a correspondent spot on The Daily Show. What a disaster that was. But can Kristen Bell be also included on this list?

No.

And comparing Bell to Munn is worthy of a bannin’.

The election is this: do you think austerity will benefit the economy?
If yes vote Mitt, if no vote Obama. The rests is just folly (unless you are a woman).

Kind of like newspapers, right? Changing and developing economy and all that, you know.

I’ll buy my next car at Costco. Or from Jose Eduardo in downtown Norcross.

Chicken Little theory

Not Chicken Little, supply chain destroyed, immediate firings across all associated industries and companies.

Economists estimated appx. 3 million jobs would have gone within 6 months of a GM/Chrysler had they not been bailed out.

Chicken Little theory

So, per GM company policy, all workers will be transported to their respective polling places and instructed to vote for Obama. All while still being paid their union wage. I see how this works.

Non-union coal miners forced to stump for Romney without pay.

/at least this one is true

I am pretty sure Roy didn’t promise her free plane rides to her sons game for JUST her senior year. Remember, this is a divorced mother who took the job in CH during Tyler’s senior year. If she wanted to game the system, shouldn’t she have been hired before he got there or maybe his freshman year? This smells of coincidence, and nothing more.

This!