The investment that’s Left

Last week the president took time off from golf and fundraising to brag about what a great thing he did in bailing out the UAW General Motors:

“Now, I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.”
Barack Obama, Pueblo, Colorado – Thursday Aug 9

“I want to say what we did with the auto industry, we can do it in manufacturing across America.”
Barack Obama, Colorado Springs, Colorado – Thursday Aug 9

That’s what we’re all afraid of.

The president should have waited to comment on the wonderfulness of Government Motors, as these stories from Forbes and Investors Business Daily show:

General Motors Is Headed For Bankruptcy — Again
Obama’s $25 Billion Government Motors Lemon

Any competent CEO/CFO would insist on knowing these facts, certainly he would do so before wishing GM’s fate on every other US manufacturer. I’m sure Mr. Obama did know these things. Think about it. Unlike every other CEO/CFO, he has the CIA, the NSA, the CBO, the GAO, the FBI, Tim Geithner, Harry Reid and John Corzine to help him out with industrial intelligence.

The president failed to mention his accomplishment in trashing the contracts for GM bondholders. Nor did he speak of raping Delphi salaried pensioners. Recognizing those acts as counter to the rule of law would involve ideas, not intentions.

At the moment, the GM bailout is just barely a better investment than A123 and Solyndra, two “green” initiatives the president has funded. He is at least consistent. The president dumped $500 million into A123 for batteries, and $500 million into Solyndra for solar electricity to charge the batteries.

What’s the return on investment from that? A bunch of temporary jobs in China, a taxpayer funded bankruptcy and the Chevy Volt.

Government Motors: Morally Hazardous…

… to the Rule of Law; to the economy; to taxpayers; to shareholders.

This is not Capitalism, it is Fascism. Capitalism actually requires that bad companies be allowed to fail. And their assets, or lack thereof, cannot appear on a government balance sheet.

“It looks like General Motors will be throwing everything in but the kitchen sink to help fluff its second quarter earnings numbers. Taxpayers continue to help with the cause as President Obama campaigns on the “success” of GM following the manipulated bankruptcy process that cost taxpayers $50 billion and another $45 billion of tax credits gifted to GM to help protect powerful UAW interests. We now learn that government purchases of GM vehicles rose a whopping 79% in June.

And the old channel stuffing trick has been revived to inflate “earnings.”

“Old habits die hard at GM. According to a Bloomberg report, “GM said inventory of its full-size pickups, which will be refreshed next year, climbed to 238,194 at the end of June, a 135 days supply, up from 116 days at the end of May.” 135 days supply is huge, the accepted norm is a 60 day supply. The trick here is that GM records revenue when vehicles go into dealership inventories, not when actually sold to consumers.”

There’s now a shareholders’ class action suit filed because of that.

Who’da thunk there would be political motivation to maintain the illusion that UAW/Federal joint-ownership of a car company was a good idea? In an election year yet… from the most transparent Administration ever to preen before a mirror.

Mitt Romney, along with many others, was right: GM should have gone bankrupt.

Competitors be warned

Government Motors has powerful allies: The White House, FBI, FCC, NLRB, EPA, IRS, etc., etc.

Ford pulls its ad on bailouts

This is what happens when government seizes corporations. If it will decide to give money to a corporation going bankrupt, to negate legal contracts… to suspend the rule of law, then government owns the result. In the case of GM, literally and morally.

Criticism of such a deal is automatically politicized, and while political speech may be protected under the First Amendment; what is that to the Corporatist Axis? The Axis will suppress free speech in order to protect its political agenda reciprocal “investment.”

Ford should keep on, I’ll even buy one I don’t yet need just to get in Corporatism’s face.

Gas prices are too low

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson thinks the federal government should raise gas taxes by as much as $1 per gallon. He thinks this would make customers more receptive to smaller more fuel-efficient vehicles.

According to the Detroit News:

A government-imposed tax hike, Akerson believes, will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.

Translation: “If we’re going to be forced to build cars we can’t sell. Consumers should be forced to buy them.”

GE already accomplished this with CFLs, so why not give it a try?

Anybody else see a problem with Government Motors petitioning the government for a tax hike?

Logorrhea

Watch this:

Then contemplate this:

(The new logo of the US Missile Defense Agency)


And finally, be thankful Oldsmobile is no longer a Government Motors brand.
Because it would obviously be easy to change that logo into a factory installed Obama bumper sticker.

H/T BP via MC