Its not entirely the Automakers Fault
By: Ed

Two years ago, the leaders of Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors called a meeting with President Bush to discuss some alarming problems. They knew that they would be in financial chaos in a couple years if some things didn’t change and they wanted to discuss with President Bush their concerns in hopes that together with the Government, they could save themselves from disaster. President Bush listened to their concerns for 45 minutes, took an hours worth of photographs and never talked with them about it again. Then came the announcements last year that the Big Three were in serious financial trouble, and that if they weren’t assisted by the Government, they would not be able to stay afloat.

What came next was a media parade of shame. Conferences were held asking the leaders of these companies why the Government should give a shit whether or not they failed. They were criticized by everyone in the country. Meanwhile the CEO’s of AIG and other financial services came to the Government with the same plight. They had no money to cover their debts and they needed help. What came next was appalling. Without so much as a peep, the Government handed them all the money they needed and went right back to punishing the automakers. What was worse is that no one had a problem with this. For some reason, the media, along with everyone else wanted blood from the automakers. In fact, the media had the facts on the whole deal so skewed that it was sickening.

The Government gave the banks bailouts that the American taxpayers were going to eventually cover through raised taxes. The Automakers were given Bridge Loans, which was money given that had to be paid back with steep interest. The media portrayed it as though our tax money was going to the Automakers, when in fact, most of it was going to the banks. And speaking of the banks, once they were given their money they used it for the most ridiculous things. For example, Citigroup agreed to pay $400 million dollars over the next 20 years to name a ballpark Citi Field. AIG gave all of their executives Christmas Bonuses. And the funniest thing is that until the AIG bonus deal, the Government really didn’t do anything about it. Sure the Government asked what the hell they were doing. But in my opinion, it was almost like they were saying “Will you guys stop being stupid? We actually got away with giving you billions without the public caring, don’t blow it!”

Apparently AIG took it too far because the Government actually made them give some of it back through heavy taxing. But that was the end of it, no big deal was thrown over it, they just paid some of it back and went on to business as usual. Eventually, Chrysler and GM went into bankruptcy. Ford all of a sudden decided they didn’t need a loan and somehow skirted the whole bankruptcy thing. Now Chrysler is out of bankruptcy court and is back on track to being a profitable company again. GM has also emerged from bankruptcy, but their plan for the future is out in left field.

Hello, my name is Ed and my friend Tom and I have had a lot of discussions on what we think of the Big Three automakers and their decisions over the past year, among other topics. And we have decided to post our thoughts and opinions on this page. They are mostly, as I said, our thoughts and opinions, and we are entitled to them as are all of you. Love it or hate.