You can argue if the government bail outs of the car companies was a good thing or a bad thing. The one thing you can't dispute is the profitability of the BIG THREE, Ford, GM and Chrysler. Ford is expecting a profit of more than $20 Billion, GM is expected to come in at $8-$10 Billion and Chrysler is showing a profit for the first time in years but unspecified in the article in today's WSJ.
Taxpayers still own about 26% of the new GM but they have hired over 13,000 workers in the last year and reopened a closed plant where Saturn's were once produced. GM is once again the largest producer of cars in the world.
Most of you watched the Super Bowl and saw the Chrysler ad with Clint Eastwood. THE GUARDIAN would tend to agree with the ad, we are shaking off the horrible effects of this recession and brighter days are ahead for all of us. This has been the worst recession in my lifetime and my first recollection of the business cycle and the pain they inflict on working people goes back to the recession of 1957.
In one respect recessions can have a cleansing effect on the economy by weeding out all but financially strong companies. This time around the depth and impact of bad banking decisions along with an overdose of just plain greed just about put us in a full blown depression.
The housing market was not sustainable for the product, pricing and financing. People with bad or no credit were given loans on terms the could not afford and it had to implode. The good part is people entering the housing market for the first time can actually afford a home if they have a decent job.
I found the Chrysler Ad with Mr. Eastwood a mirror for my thoughts about where we are and probably so for a lot of folks. We are now starting to move out of the doldrums of the last four years and should pick up steam, jobs and income for a lot of people who are out of work.
"We'll See" in regards to the auto companies bailouts success. 45 years of my life were lived during a cold war sponsoring a government economic system that worked in the USSR for a while, forcing the USA to be its best in competition. If the bailouts had not happened the subsequent results are something we cannot know at this point.
ReplyDeleteThere are impacts to every purchase decision we make. My personal intent is to make purchases that will allow my money to have the best impact it can in this country. I was very disturbed over a glass cutting project for the new Trade Center project. The glass was made in Pittsburgh but sent on a ship to China for cutting and polishing. It was cheaper to load it on a ship two directions and have the Chinese cut and polish the glass. We have lost our way in supporting American companies and workers. We can't stop Globalization but we need to give some thought to the long term consequences.
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