So GM's filing for bankruptcy today ...

playthrough · Jun 1, 2009

dixiehack said:

Here's something I don't get (I know, line forms to the left.) We as a country tripped all over ourselves to prop up the financial sector, on pain of everlasting doom. But 99% of what a bank, brokerage or insurance company consists of is intellectual capital. If you have enough of the best and brightest people, they can attract investment capital, make good returns which attract more capital, etc. It would take some time and it would be painful, but you could theoretically wipe out a Bank of America or a Wells Fargo and in time someone would fill the void. The barriers to entry are low, as your economics professor would say.

So we can do all that for the money guys, and essentially put no restrictions on their play money, but we tell two of the Big Three to pound sand? People aren't starting mass-production car companies anymore. If GM or Chrysler go away, nothing new is going to replace them. That sales volume goes to an existing foreign brand, and those jobs and profits are gone forever. If the damn terrorists had crashed planes into Ren Center or River Rouge we'd all be mad as hell and willing to pay any price to get the car companies moving again. Instead we're doing it to ourselves and remaining strangely calm while General Freakign Motors goes the way of the dodo.
Click to expand...

Yup. I almost look at it as some form of discrimination. Just doesn't pass the smell test for me.

amraeder · Jun 1, 2009

playthrough said:

dixiehack said:

Here's something I don't get (I know, line forms to the left.) We as a country tripped all over ourselves to prop up the financial sector, on pain of everlasting doom. But 99% of what a bank, brokerage or insurance company consists of is intellectual capital. If you have enough of the best and brightest people, they can attract investment capital, make good returns which attract more capital, etc. It would take some time and it would be painful, but you could theoretically wipe out a Bank of America or a Wells Fargo and in time someone would fill the void. The barriers to entry are low, as your economics professor would say.

So we can do all that for the money guys, and essentially put no restrictions on their play money, but we tell two of the Big Three to pound sand? People aren't starting mass-production car companies anymore. If GM or Chrysler go away, nothing new is going to replace them. That sales volume goes to an existing foreign brand, and those jobs and profits are gone forever. If the damn terrorists had crashed planes into Ren Center or River Rouge we'd all be mad as hell and willing to pay any price to get the car companies moving again. Instead we're doing it to ourselves and remaining strangely calm while General Freakign Motors goes the way of the dodo.
Click to expand...

Yup. I almost look at it as some form of discrimination. Just doesn't pass the smell test for me.
Click to expand...

If the gov is lining up to pump $30 billion more into GM, that's hardly telling them to go pound sand.

slappy4428 · Jun 1, 2009

amraeder said:

playthrough said:

dixiehack said:

Here's something I don't get (I know, line forms to the left.) We as a country tripped all over ourselves to prop up the financial sector, on pain of everlasting doom. But 99% of what a bank, brokerage or insurance company consists of is intellectual capital. If you have enough of the best and brightest people, they can attract investment capital, make good returns which attract more capital, etc. It would take some time and it would be painful, but you could theoretically wipe out a Bank of America or a Wells Fargo and in time someone would fill the void. The barriers to entry are low, as your economics professor would say.

So we can do all that for the money guys, and essentially put no restrictions on their play money, but we tell two of the Big Three to pound sand? People aren't starting mass-production car companies anymore. If GM or Chrysler go away, nothing new is going to replace them. That sales volume goes to an existing foreign brand, and those jobs and profits are gone forever. If the damn terrorists had crashed planes into Ren Center or River Rouge we'd all be mad as hell and willing to pay any price to get the car companies moving again. Instead we're doing it to ourselves and remaining strangely calm while General Freakign Motors goes the way of the dodo.
Click to expand...

Yup. I almost look at it as some form of discrimination. Just doesn't pass the smell test for me.
Click to expand...

If the gov is lining up to pump $30 billion more into GM, that's hardly telling them to go pound sand.
Click to expand...

Did I miss the no-strings attached policy for GM and Chrysler as there was the financial sector?

amraeder · Jun 1, 2009

slappy4428 said:

amraeder said:

playthrough said:

dixiehack said:

Here's something I don't get (I know, line forms to the left.) We as a country tripped all over ourselves to prop up the financial sector, on pain of everlasting doom. But 99% of what a bank, brokerage or insurance company consists of is intellectual capital. If you have enough of the best and brightest people, they can attract investment capital, make good returns which attract more capital, etc. It would take some time and it would be painful, but you could theoretically wipe out a Bank of America or a Wells Fargo and in time someone would fill the void. The barriers to entry are low, as your economics professor would say.

So we can do all that for the money guys, and essentially put no restrictions on their play money, but we tell two of the Big Three to pound sand? People aren't starting mass-production car companies anymore. If GM or Chrysler go away, nothing new is going to replace them. That sales volume goes to an existing foreign brand, and those jobs and profits are gone forever. If the damn terrorists had crashed planes into Ren Center or River Rouge we'd all be mad as hell and willing to pay any price to get the car companies moving again. Instead we're doing it to ourselves and remaining strangely calm while General Freakign Motors goes the way of the dodo.
Click to expand...

Yup. I almost look at it as some form of discrimination. Just doesn't pass the smell test for me.
Click to expand...

If the gov is lining up to pump $30 billion more into GM, that's hardly telling them to go pound sand.
Click to expand...

Did I miss the no-strings attached policy for GM and Chrysler as there was the financial sector?
Click to expand...

No... I guess not...
Maybe I just misread. The post seemed, to me, to be saying something along the lines of "We bailed out the financial industry, but we let the car industry fail." And I'm just saying we're hardly just letting the car industry fail.
I'm completely zonked right now, so I'm having trouble organizing any thoughts on the subject -- so I may hate what I say or how I say it in the morning.
But my general thought is that the differences in handling the situation stem not from discrimination, but from institutional factors. Mainly, there's already a system in place for dealing with the fallout of a dying company (bankruptcy). When you have a system in place, you sort of have a playbook to follow.
On the other hand, there's no such smooth system for massive financial failure. So the response was more haphazard and skattershot.
In one situation, they have a good idea how to handle it. In the other, they're just throwing shit against the wall and hoping something sticks.

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So GM's filing for bankruptcy today ...

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So GM's filing for bankruptcy today ...

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