Obama could be the best thing for Detroit since Henry Ford.

[Blue Oval Guide]

Obama could be the best thing for Detroit since Henry Ford.

 

Here's the top reasons:

1. He brought in smart outsiders

 

2. He took time to understand the nuances

 

3. He addressed longstanding structural problems

 

4. He's spreading the pain among all stakeholders

 

5. He holds executives accountable

 

6. He is urging permanent engagement

 

7. He understands industrial policy

 

8. He doesn't want to stay an owner or meddle

 

You can read the point by point argument here.

[wildosvt]

I simply love how they tear Daniel Howes a new one.

[RangerM]

Obama could be the best thing for Detroit since Henry Ford.

 

Here's the top reasons:

1. He brought in smart outsiders

 

2. He took time to understand the nuances

 

3. He addressed longstanding structural problems

 

4. He's spreading the pain among all stakeholders

 

5. He holds executives accountable

 

6. He is urging permanent engagement

 

7. He understands industrial policy

 

8. He doesn't want to stay an owner or meddle

Excuse me, but doesn't Point 8 somehow contradict Points 1-7?

 

Given the fact that you now have Barney Frank and John Dingell influencing (or attempting to influence)business decisions at GM, this article falls flat.

 

and it isn't limited to Congress:

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told a PBS economic correspondent on May 28 that the union "quite frankly, put pressure on the White House, the (auto) task force, the corporation" to have GM agree to drop a plan to import smaller cars from China and other foreign countries.

 

This is simply an attempt to justify favoring one group of Americans above others.

Edited June 7, 2009 by RangerM

[ice-capades]

Obama could be the best thing for Detroit since Henry Ford.

 

Here's the top reasons:

1. He brought in smart outsiders

 

2. He took time to understand the nuances

 

3. He addressed longstanding structural problems

 

4. He's spreading the pain among all stakeholders

 

5. He holds executives accountable

 

6. He is urging permanent engagement

 

7. He understands industrial policy

 

8. He doesn't want to stay an owner or meddle

 

You can read the point by point argument here.

 

Sorry, but Obama has to be the most anti-business President we've seen in many generations. I was against the bailouts from the beginning, starting with Lehman Bros. Our free market system works just fine when allowed to. When companies file for bankruptcy they get revalued at their realistic worth and the market responds with them being reorganized, or bought out, and returning to profitability or they go out of business. Survival of the fittest! Instead, we've poured billions of dollars into bailing out GM and Chyrsler, banking and investment firms, etc. In cases the government has poured bilions of dollars more into companies than what they are worth, often because of an arbitrary decision that they could be viable at some point. As a result, we've taken a giant step towards socialism with the nationalization of both our banking system and GM & Chrysler. Note that in recent cases, banks that have tried to repay their bailouts in full are being refused. And in many of these cases, the government is now asking/demanding that their Preferred Shares be converted to Common Shares which would give the government voting and management rights. Scary. This administration's actions are all about control and no one is showing any leadership. Unfortunately, it's another example of what too many politicians do best which is to do whatever they have to in order to get re-elected. In our current case, it means agreeing to whatever the Messiah wants. And not to leave out the media experts, who all too often don't know what they're talking about.

 

Kudos to Bill Ford for his realization in 2006 that Ford needed to look outside the industry and found Alan Mullaly. Interesting that Ford's CEO has done everything on the list here and started doing it years before the government or anything else thought things would reach this critical point. Now Ford has to deal with competing with government funded. restructured competitors which does nothing to address the problem at hand being that there are simply too many automotive brands. The market would have solved this problem on its own had our free market system been allowed to work as it had in the past. And I don't buy the argument that any company is too big to fail. I won't attempt to address the problems created by trade issues or the UAW as that's a different topic, although related.

 

For anyone that is familiar with my product related posts, thank you for reading this editorial. Whether you agree with me or not, I'll invite your comments with the thought that that even if you disagree with me... that we can agree to disagree at times and try to do so in a manner that can be proactive and productive.

 

Thank you!

[azulejost]

Sorry, but Obama has to be the most anti-business President we've seen in many generations.

 

Excellent post. I concur with your comments. This article's assessment of how the Auto Task Force is handling both GM and Chrysler is wildly optimistic and overly simplified. Guess there's a reason it's on GreenCarReports.com.

[battyr]

I don't think Obama has any idea what he is doing the GM.

 

He did learn as much as he could about the problem and took dicisive action. This is much better than doing nothing. I give him credit for that.

 

Now the only way to solve the problem in the long-term is to find someone who is capable of managing GM, another automaker and let them take ownership of GM.

[F250]

As a result, we've taken a giant step towards socialism with the nationalization of both our banking system and GM & Chrysler. Note that in recent cases, banks that have tried to repay their bailouts in full are being refused. And in many of these cases, the government is now asking/demanding that their Preferred Shares be converted to Common Shares which would give the government voting and management rights. Scary. This administration's actions are all about control and no one is showing any leadership. Unfortunately, it's another example of what too many politicians do best which is to do whatever they have to in order to get re-elected. In our current case, it means agreeing to whatever the Messiah wants. And not to leave out the media experts, who all too often don't know what they're talking about.

 

I agree.

Contrary to Obama's statements I believe he has no intention of releasing control of the companies the government recently acquired.

 

I can see the government offering "tax incentives" to new buyers of GM or Chrysler vehicles. They can call it a jobs stimulas program or something that doesn't sound illegal.

Edited June 8, 2009 by RichardJensen

[battyr]

Excellent post. I concur with your comments. This article's assessment of how the Auto Task Force is handling both GM and Chrysler is wildly optimistic and overly simplified. Guess there's a reason it's on GreenCarReports.com.

 

I am sorry, but lack of action of the previous government, is the entire cause of this economic crisis. Sometimes it is better to have a poor plan than no plan at all.

 

Today, GM has some of the best engineering in the world. They have no debt. They have no lagacy cost. They have good brands and good cars. The have cash from the Fed to cover their cost for the next 2 years. The only way they can fail is if they are miss managed.

[F250]

So the answer is for the government to spend money it does not have to grab control of some of the biggest companies in the country?

Edited June 7, 2009 by F250

[ILL_Catalyst]

I am sorry, but lack of action of the previous government, is the entire cause of this economic crisis. Sometimes it is better to have a poor plan than no plan at all.

 

Today, GM has some of the best engineering in the world. They have no debt. They have no lagacy cost. They have good brands and good cars. The have cash from the Fed to cover their cost for the next 2 years. The only way they can fail is if they are miss managed.

 

Yeah, like none of this recession's contributing factors were in place a moment prior to Bush taking office. It seems to me that I remember the seminal incident being the collapse of the housing market -- the result of too much government intervention, not the other way around. In an 1999 NY Time article (not exactly a pro-Bush, pro-conservative publication), they stated:

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business...ge-lending.html

 

And when Bush and the Republicans expressed concern over Fannie and Freddie, you had a multitude of responses from the left, such as these gems:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

 

 

Yeah, it's all Bush's fault............

 

This is the U.S. Government we're talking about -- the same people who've driven the U.S. Post Office into the precipice of bankruptcy; Social Security, for which I pay handsomely monthly, won't exist when I retire; Medicare and Medicaid are mismanaged, corrupt jokes. You think this Administration, with the aid of Tim "Turbo Tax" Geithner, Barney "There's Nothing Wrong With Fannie and Freddie" Frank, and "Corrupt" Chris Dodd, will run the Auto Industry any better than the aforementioned industries? You have a lot more faith than I do.

[96towncarcartier]

Oh, here we go again, people trying to blame Bush for everything.

 

GM and Chrysler could have LISTENED and did what Ford did back in 2006 to AVOID this mess, but chose not to.

 

So now, we have federal takeovers of the private sector. Even Castro and Chavez now believe that they are more *conservative* than Obama...and that's scary.

 

$10 TRILLION in debt, more debt coming as Obama is going to payoff the debts of all the states in the red. MORE debt to come.

 

Then of course, our taxes will go sky-high. How does raising taxes help to end a recession? Did Reagan raise taxes in the 1983 recession? NO.

 

So now the Feds own the banks, the mortgage companies, the car companies, and is ordering who will be CEO and who won't. We now have 13 Czars who "oversee" stuff...more czars than any other president in history.

 

And if $10 trillion isn't enough, he's going to force healthcare debt on top of that.

 

What did England learn from operating this way? Their government is on the brink of COLLAPSE. Conservative party stands to win elections by sweeping margins.

 

Already, two states stand to put Republicans back in office by good margins as well, NJ and VA.

 

 

You know, we FOUGHT AND DIED for independence because we were sick of being taxed to death by King George. Now look at what's going on in Washington... we traded one tyrant 3,000 miles away, for 3,000 tyrants one mile away....

[battyr]

I was a Republican supporter in the Past. If I could vote, I would call my self a Republican.

 

Now I knew about the housing bubble 6 years ago. I knew about the Sub-prime crisis 4 years ago. I knew there was a banking crisis 2 years ago. I did not know how bad it was. I knew the economy was falling into crisis 1 year ago.

 

My mistake was that I thought the government had a plan for the banking crisis. They did not. I thought the govenment to take simple action the keep the economy from colapsing. They did not.

 

Now, Obama has to spend 20 times as much fix the problem. We all have to pay.

[BlackHorse]

Just food for thought here. We already know that Barney used his influence over at GM to prevent the closing of that parts warehouse in his state. What happens a year to two or three down the road when they need to shut down a factory because the vehicle being produced there isn't selling well enough to keep it in the lineup? Some Senator who wants to keep his powerful luxurious job is going to prevent that factory from being closed even though it needs to be. Then he'll initiate some legislation to pump millions of tax dollars into keeping the factory open to offset the revenue it's costing the company.

 

This is why the government should have stayed out of private enterprise and especially the auto industry. Socialism does not work.

[suv_guy_19]

I'm not sure how the agreement goes in the US, but in Canada, the government is required to give up a certain percentage of GM by 2012, and the whole thing by around 2016. I assume that that the agreement in the United States would have to be similar.

[LSFan00]

Guess there's a reason it's on GreenCarReports.com.

 

 

Yes, there certainly is. And it's hilarious that the "staff" decided to post it semi-anonymously. Hope, change, and transparency...

 

There's a reason the green movement has become the reservoir of the leftists, who can no longer even semi-rationally cling to communism.

[Swizco]

I was a Republican supporter in the Past. If I could vote, I would call my self a Republican.

 

Now I knew about the housing bubble 6 years ago. I knew about the Sub-prime crisis 4 years ago. I knew there was a banking crisis 2 years ago. I did not know how bad it was. I knew the economy was falling into crisis 1 year ago.

 

My mistake was that I thought the government had a plan for the banking crisis. They did not. I thought the govenment to take simple action the keep the economy from colapsing. They did not.

 

Now, Obama has to spend 20 times as much fix the problem. We all have to pay.

 

Hindsight is always 20-20, isn't it? If you were so sure of the housing crisis 6 years ago, you could have made a fortune on a few thousand dollars, and be posting from your own private island right now. Maybe you are, but I doubt it. Bottom line, you were an economic nay-sayer right through the years of growth, like so many on the editorial pages that predicted recession for 5 straight years, then acted vindicated when one finally came along. I can predict it's going to rain for two weeks, but that doesn't make me right when it finally does.

 

You know what? I predict that there will be an economic recovery, followed by several years of prosperity. After that, there will be a recession. Allow me to get out in front of this next one, so when it happens, I can say I knew it was coming all along. You know what? I'll predict one after that, too. And another.

 

'Simple Action' was what the previous administration proposed back when they tried to reign in Fanny and Freddie. Dems opposed, and here we are, beyond where 'simple action' can keep us out of the red. However, just because we're beyond the prevention stage, don't think for a minute Obama's hand was forced into spending trillions that we don't have on 'stimulus' and 'solutions'.

 

We are witnessing the largest govmnt power grab in modern history, and it ain't W's fault, or his making.

 

Swizco

[timmm55]

I saw this posted last night, before there were any comments. I knew the hatred would spew forth.

 

Contrary to the "Messiah's" statements I believe he has no intention of releasing control of the companies the government recently acquired.

 

The Messiah? Really? Oh yeah it's only the far Right with their religious extremism could think to call him that. Whever I see "messiah" I know a cheap shot is soon to follow.

While I support Obama, he's just a man, and seems a good one at that....but just a man.

 

I supported Bush after 9/11, as did nearly everyone. GWB squandered whatever good will he had.....worldwide.

 

While Clinton did start the housing boom, and it's ideals were good (home ownership for most people, including minorities, is a good idea for many reasons) only a fool like GWB would allow it to go unchecked and without oversight. But there was profit to be made, and GWB was more than willing to deregulate anything in the banking industry that got in the way of money.

 

Lets not forget GWB's attempt to privatize Social Security, opening it up to the stock market.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentb...l-security.html

 

No, I don't think "O" is a messiah, but he's not an idiot either.

I hope he can extricate us from the GM/Chrysler mess asap. If not it will unfortunately be his legacy even if it was an inherited one.

[timmm55]

For the ardent Republicans who are so despirate to lay the housing bubble at Clinton's door step consider the following:

 

"From his earliest days in office, Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own homes with his conviction that markets do best when left alone."

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business...53088.html?_r=1

[battyr]

Hindsight is always 20-20, isn't it? If you were so sure of the housing crisis 6 years ago, you could have made a fortune on a few thousand dollars, and be posting from your own private island right now. Maybe you are, but I doubt it. Bottom line, you were an economic nay-sayer right through the years of growth, like so many on the editorial pages that predicted recession for 5 straight years, then acted vindicated when one finally came along. I can predict it's going to rain for two weeks, but that doesn't make me right when it finally does.

 

You know what? I predict that there will be an economic recovery, followed by several years of prosperity. After that, there will be a recession. Allow me to get out in front of this next one, so when it happens, I can say I knew it was coming all along. You know what? I'll predict one after that, too. And another.

 

'Simple Action' was what the previous administration proposed back when they tried to reign in Fanny and Freddie. Dems opposed, and here we are, beyond where 'simple action' can keep us out of the red. However, just because we're beyond the prevention stage, don't think for a minute Obama's hand was forced into spending trillions that we don't have on 'stimulus' and 'solutions'.

 

We are witnessing the largest govmnt power grab in modern history, and it ain't W's fault, or his making.

 

Swizco

 

The housing crisis was a minor problem that the whole world knew about. No buddy knew that the US governments response was to do nothing. I can't prove it, but it seems like a conspiracy to coverup the financial problems rather than solve them.

[battyr]

I'm not sure how the agreement goes in the US, but in Canada, the government is required to give up a certain percentage of GM by 2012, and the whole thing by around 2016. I assume that that the agreement in the United States would have to be similar.

 

The government makes the law. The government can change the law anytime.

[Swizco]

The housing crisis was a minor problem that the whole world knew about. No buddy knew that the US governments response was to do nothing. I can't prove it, but it seems like a conspiracy to coverup the financial problems rather than solve them.

 

Conspiracy theories: the last refuge of young radicals.

 

Swizco

[timmm55]

Yes, there certainly is. And it's hilarious that the "staff" decided to post it semi-anonymously. Hope, change, and transparency...

 

There's a reason the green movement has become the reservoir of the leftists, who can no longer even semi-rationally cling to communism.

 

Are you calling Bill Ford a communist? He certainly believes the automotive world AND the environmentalist world can and should coexist to the betterment of everyone including business.

 

http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=93

 

 

"A lifelong environmentalist, Mr. Ford is committed to increasing shareholder value by developing products that please customers and benefit society. Under his leadership, in 2000 Ford Motor Company published its first corporate citizenship report outlining the economic, environmental and social impact of company products and operations around the world. In 2004, the company completed the world’s largest brownfield reclamation project, the restoration of its Ford Rouge Center in metropolitan Detroit.

 

“The Ford Rouge Center is one of the enduring symbols of the industrial age,” he says. “We transformed the icon of 20th century integrated manufacturing into a model of 21st century lean, flexible and environmentally sensitive manufacturing. Over time, this facility will save us millions of dollars in energy and other costs. It’s a new role model for industrial facilities around the world.”

 

Mr. Ford also championed the Ford Escape Hybrid, the world’s first hybrid-electric Sports Utility Vehicle. Introduced in 2004, Escape Hybrid was the first production hybrid designed, engineered and built by an American automaker, and the first built in North America. It can achieve up to 75 percent better fuel economy than the standard model in city driving.

 

“Escape Hybrid was named North American Truck of the Year in 2005,” he says. “It generated more than a hundred patents as well as new design techniques that we are using to develop other new products.”

 

 

You can be "Green" without being a leftist, and neither (and I'll ad Liberals) are communists. (That you lumped them all together is telling.....btw how are those Joseph McCarthy reunion meetings going? )

[Moosetang]

For the ardent Republicans who are so despirate to lay the housing bubble at Clinton's door step consider the following:

 

"From his earliest days in office, Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own homes with his conviction that markets do best when left alone."

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business...53088.html?_r=1

I'd also point out that the Housing Market has had bust cycles in the past that hurt but didn't gore the economy. The reason the Housing Market crash brought on the free-fall of last was because tons of low-quality housing loans were packaged as securities and then insanely over-leveraged for other transactions, something the market's credit institutions should never have been doing. It's a high risk to double down on low-quality loans in normal times, in a housing bubble it's just ASKING for failure. Used to be they were barred from doing it, then someone got the idea that "self regulation" was something other than a line from a Dietary commercial.

 

If the Detroit 3 are able to stabilize, start making money, and put out industry-leading products again then the President's policies will have been a success. If not then they won't. We'll see.

[CurtisH]

Today, GM has some of the best engineering in the world. They have no debt. They have no lagacy cost. They have good brands and good cars. The have cash from the Fed to cover their cost for the next 2 years. The only way they can fail is if they are miss managed.

Why do people keep saying this? GM will not be debt free. Most financial reports say they will have between $17 and $20 billion in debt.

 

I am not sure about this part, but I don't think they will be totally free of legacy costs.

 

And to be totally honest, I am not thrilled about GM being given so much of our tax money. Just to be clear, I did not favor the bailouts of the banking institutions either.

[timmm55]

deleted

Edited June 8, 2009 by RichardJensen
off topic and getting farther off....