News today that Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM, resigned at the behest of Obama and/or his henchmen, and that GM also will get a few billion more in corporate welfare.
I find it rather interesting that Wagoner recently was quoted as stating that he was re-thinking the bankruptcy option. Good for him! But maybe that's why he was fired.
Don't know why, but seems Obama and the feds are just all hot and bothered over the idea of owning their own little car manufacturer. Or else why not bankruptcy? Seems a better course than bleeding the Treasury dry. Seems even the feds would recognize that, dumb as they are.
In the case of a corporation with publicly traded stock (stock selling on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ) bankruptcy can be a legitimate public concern. Large corporations often have millions of shareholders and are regulated because of that. Publicly-traded corporations operate within a given set of laws and regulations that are supposed to provide a certain amount of transparency regarding what the corporation is doing with shareholder money. (And other types of corporations exist, too -- closely held, family held, "S" corporations. These are NOT publicly traded.)
Individuals and businesses of all kinds have several options under bankruptcy laws. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is simply liquidation. This type of bankruptcy often is driven by a company's creditors, who may end up getting only a few cents on every dollar owed them by the failing organization. And the company just goes out of business. This is a last-resort kind of action for business owners, when a failing business is so bad off there's no hope of saving it. This is when the company's debt exceeds any assets or strategies it can muster to pay it off.
Another option is Chapter 11. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company continues to operate while it restructures, and its creditors are held at bay. Company executives have to develop a reorganization plan and present their plan to a Bankruptcy Court judge, who approves it or not. Worst-case scenario, the company goes into receivership and it's reorganized by an independent third party appointed by the Bankruptcy Court.
United Airlines operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy from 2004 to 2008. Did anyone notice any serious disruption in service? Anyone afraid to buy a ticket in January for their July vacation, when buying months ahead of time meant big discounts? Anyone really have a problem with Chapter 11?
So why doesn't GM go into Chapter 11? Under Chapter 11 protection, corporate executives could renegotiate all their contracts and continue to do business. They could have as much time as they wanted for this -- until they came up with a reorganization plan agreed upon by everyone and approved by the Bankruptcy Court.
Is it better to nationalize GM and have the federal government completely take over all its operations forever? This is unfathomable to me. Do Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi just want an auto manufacturer to play with? Arm-twist them into mass producing an electronic car that they can force upon the American public? I understand these cars now cost over $30,000. Not exactly practical, unless you're a California millionnaire obsessed with the idea of Global Warming. Or a community organizer who's never had to meet a payroll, never operated a business for profit, and always looked to government to fund his pet projects.
Obama doesn't seem to understand that there are ways of getting funding other than lining up for public aid.
Since the US public are now all shareholders in GM, do we all get free cars? Or is Obama so impressed by Adolf Hitler that he just likes the idea of commanding an auto manufacturer? (Hitler ordered development of the Volkswagen, literal translation: "Peoples' Car".)
Anyone remember the Yugo? That car was designed and produced by the communist government in Yugoslavia. It was notoriously shoddy, unsafe, dysfunctional, and impossible to repair because the government couldn't organize a replacement parts operation. I suppose this is what we can look forward to from GM.
Oh well. I never had a Chevy and never really wanted one. I've never had a Japanese car, either, but they will surely be preferable.
Why can't GM go into bankruptcy? The bankruptcy laws were written and have been employed for decades to handle just exactly this situation.
Why can't GM go into bankruptcy?
Is it because Obama loves the labor unions? Obama's also very fond of "card-check," the mafia-style of union organization. Maybe if we were all divided up into little piles of union workers, Obama believes he could simply push and pull us around anyway he wants like so many chess pieces. Or maybe it's the whole idea of having someone else shove federal policies down the throats of the public. Is that it? Make the union bosses the fall guys for Obama's socialism?
Or is it because the labor unions have Obama and the Democrat party as a whole by the short hairs? The unions are among the largest Democrat contributors in the country -- though the numbers of union members have been diminishing. Most Americans do not want to join a union. That's just a fact.
I suspect it's the unions' campaign contributions. Obama's just trying to build up the Democrat base. He'll throw us on the curb and stand on our necks until we promise to join the Democrat party. Apparently that's becoming evermore necessary for those jerks to attract and keep voters.
So... just more politics as usual. Obama's "change" is not an improvement on the existing corruption and abuse in Washington. Just a change in who believes they hold the reins of the republic.
Keep pushing, buttheads. You'll find out who really holds the reins.
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