How Much of this "Success" Can We the Taxpayers Take?
Last week we cataloged how much General Motors (GM) likes firing people.
As we pointed out, 2009 was not a good year if you were a Republican-donating GM or Chrysler dealer.
(M)ultiple dealers who have been closed are found to have contributed millions to Republicans and mere hundreds to Obama….
“It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers. It really wasn’t Chrysler’s decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President (Obama)’s automotive task force,” said attorney Leonard Bellavia.
The $82 billion automotive bailout was supposed to “create or save” American jobs. But this Republican hunt killed 100,000 gigs right out of the gate.
And Europe has (again) become a GM employee graveyard.
GM intends to shed another 500 managers in Europe, adding to the 8,000 factory workers let go over the past three years as part of a massive though only modestly successful push to cut costs.
GM is serially throwing people over the side in part as a personnel bailing of the sinking ship. But it appears the Bad Ship Bailout is going down even faster than we knew – or they can address.
Sit back and take in the additional cavalcades of terrible Government Motors news.
Dan Akerson Runs GM With A Tight Fist, But Appears To Be Losing His Grip
Series Of High Level Executions Paint A Picture Of GM in Turmoil
Two weeks ago, Opel chief Karl-Friedrich Stracke presented numbers to Dan Akerson. Akerson fires him. Opel gets two interim chiefs in a week. Last Thursday, Opel’s new design chief Dave Lyon doesn’t even start his job….A day later, global marketing chief Joel Ewanick suddenly leaves. Instead of wishing him all the best for his future endeavors, GM spokesman Greg Martin puts a knife in Ewanick’s back: “He failed to meet the expectations the company has of an employee.”…
It all looks like (President Obama-appointee CEO) Dan Akerson is panicking. The GM stock is at an all-time low. GM is losing market share. When July numbers will be announced this week, GM won’t look so good, industry oracles say. Mass executions always are great to deflect criticism – for a while.
Speaking of that “all-time low” stock:
We are still stuck with 500+ million shares of the stuff. For us to break even, they must be sold at $53 per. They debuted post-bankruptcy at $33 per. They closed on Tuesday at $19.71 per. Setting us up for a nearly $17 billion loss – just on the stock.
Speaking of those “industry oracles”:
General Motors Faces Head Winds Ahead Of Q2 Report
For GM earnings, analysts forecast 74 cents per share, down 52% from a year ago.
Akerson…is getting impatient with the slow pace of GM’s revival.
“Earnings…down 52% from a year ago” isn’t a “slow pace revival.” It is a free fall implosion. Remind you of anything else?
U.S. Growth Falls to 1.5%; a Recovery Seems Mired
GM is “recovering” – like the entire Obama Economy is “recovering.”
And more and more, the GM jobs “created or saved” are in…China.
32% of first-quarter vehicle productions is going to be in China versus 30% in North America.
That would be Communist China. Where Shanghai GM in 2011 sponsored a movie celebrating the “Glorious Revolution”s 90th Anniversary.
To duck the deserved criticism:
Greg Martin, executive director of communications strategy for GM, told The Daily Caller in May 2011 that Shanghai GM “is a completely separate and distinct business entity based in China that has no organizational or financial ties whatsoever” with the Detroit car maker.
“It is not GM,” Martin said then. “It is not GM money. And it is in no shape or form, or indirectly, taxpayer money.”
But now that ever more of its sales are in China:
“Shanghai GM is GM,” Martin told TheDC on Friday. “We make money, they make money.”
Disingenuousness in fact abounds when it comes to the Obama Administration and GM.
President Obama once upon a time told us we would make money on the $82 billion auto bailout. Which was then amended to:
“The government will lose less than 20 percent of the $80 billion used to bail out the U.S. automobile industry.”
Only now we’re poised to lose (at least) $42 billion. And as we’ve seen, that number is serially fungible – always upward. And reliant on Administration-provided data. It will undoubtedly end up being even worse.
GM and the Obama Administration claim to have fixed the Chevy Volt fire problem – when there are at least five fires and a whole host of attending Volt charging problems that have not yet been adequately explained.
President Obama continues to incessantly claim that GM is #1 in global sales – even though Toyota has now recovered from their post-tsunami devastation and reclaimed the top spot.
President Obama in April 2010 asserted:
“It won’t be too long before the stock the Treasury is holding in GM could be sold ….”
And on, and on, and….
GM is allegedly an Obama Administration “success.” This is the President trying his plan, and it “working”.
Yet it’s all smoke and mirrors – when it’s not outright lies.
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