Posted by
m0t0r1zed on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 6:34:57 PM
too lazy to edi t this. read complete sentence not. dun care. goo
auto bailout hearing - listened to the auto bailout hearing. i
more or less how i would break down the anti- and pro-bailout arguments ... also added some of my own thoughts and ideas.
against bailout
1 - unions too expensive -> profit margins too thin to be viable
2 - shrinking market - products last too long, too much productivity
3 - aig moral hazard argument, the world won't end if they fail, encourages future irresponsible behavior
counters
1 - unions made concessions 2010 (however, still short of Japanese competitors)
2 - changing / emerging market - china, india
- tech jump - old cars swapped for new hybrids / electrics
3 - lehman -> the world does end
tech jump - ex. vcrs -> dvd players, tvs - flat screen / hd, vinyl -> 8-tracks -> cassette -> CDs -> mp3, etc. however, ultimately, this strategy will fail because the Koreans will unleash their RTS Starcraft-honed resource management, tech tree, and microing skills with APMs (actions-per-minute) over 9000 and zerg rush us with cloaked dark templars. wuh? lame meme yeah yeah. i've never played that game and have no idea what i just said.
also, i don't care about saving the auto industry. the main thing is, i don't want it to fail right NOW. it's an issue of bad timing. people made similar arguments about moral hazard with lehman - the psychological shock was underestimated. if the autos fail after the economy has recovered, and they have to merge or reorganize, i don't care.
essentially, we're paying a penny to save a dime.
i like chrysler's nardelli saying that they were burning 1 billion a month and then menendez asking for the exact same information 5 minutes later. wonderful.
i'm not surprised that dodd has no problem with paying auto workers not to work. hey, we pay people not to farm, and we pay senators not to do their job either.
dumbest senator award - Senator Jon Tester of Montana who suggested the brilliant idea that if GM was making money in Russia and China, why did they need the bailout? Couldn't they just use the profit from Russia and China? What??? Tester suggested that the CEOs should all take symbolic 50% paycuts. Great idea! I think Congress should lead by example on this matter. Dodd seemed to focus on executive compensation also. Nice to see such enthusiasm! I guess Tester really needed to empty his bladder - he meant that as a joke, but still, a weird and stupid comment.
Politicians don't seem to be great thinkers. They have other people do the thinking for them. I suppose thinking gets in the way of whatever the heck it is that they really do. Oh right, getting elected over and over again. That's all they do.
Nice to hear the autos mention technology sharing. When they're cash strapped and fighting for survival, it makes more sense to collaborate and reduce some redundancies and consolidate knowledge and innovations - at least temporarily. Then again, they probably just want to pass off the costs and responsibilities of developing new technologies to the gov't and just reap the benefits.
Actually, there is a reason why I could support GM, Chrysler, etc. going under in theory and having their carcasses picked apart, but the reasoning is my own peculiar one. Basically, by keeping higher level structures more fluid and under strong selection pressure, you will not achieve the required stability to form a long-lived organizational layer on top of that. As someone on the individual layer, I don't want too many levels above me because the higher up we get, the interests of the super-state become more alien and removed from my own interests, and my own individual viability becomes less and less important. unfortunately we are also competing against other nation states and oh blah blah blah blah afjiewjf;alsbasdfjlkeijdlkjfladjf oh enver mind. actually i
random ideas
1) Paycuts for C.E.O.s - Congressmen, Executives, Organizations. Since Congress seems to be soooo worried about executive pay and bonuses despite poor performance, I think they should lead by example and take a 50% paycut and cut their pensions for their own lousy stewardship. This act should further extend to the executive branch and organizations involved in the housing and financial mess.
2) Since Congress is all sooooo concerned about people losing their homes, Dodd, Barney Frank, aw heck ... all Congressmen should share their homes with people that have suffered foreclosure. Hey, John McCain has seven or eight, right? With three families per home, that's well over twenty families housed just by one millionaire senator! Obama and Biden have gotten new residences, so they should do the honorable thing and let people move into their old homes. This program should also be expanded to include past and present high level execs in Fannie and Freddie.
3) if they are unwilling to take a pay cut or to share their homes, then we, the American people, should force Congress and Washington execs to declare bankruptcy - since it has been their asinine policies that have bankrupted the country.
Also, whenever people say that the taxpayers will get our money back from these bailout loans ... does that mean Congress will use the repayment to pay off the increase in national debt plus interest, or will they just spend it all? Gee, I wonder ...
Bush and Obama have a great chance to move this country towards recovery. By boosting confidence and stimulating spending immediately, the Christmas season could act as a springboard to break the downward spiral. this is not an opportunity that should be missed. if they were smart they wouldn't . hah. . . iwflkjsfvc;lkjwqefijasf;lkjv;lkj
They should have some sort of joint statement or agreement in principle on energy independence and using that as the main focus to create not just a short term recovery, but long term growth. It would reduce the trade deficit by doing away with oil imports and keep wealth within our country, which will help in balancing our budget. It would create jobs and new sectors of growth. It would improve efficiency and lower overall energy costs. It would help national security by making our nation more self-sufficient and not dependent on foreign oil. shrimp gumbo gogogoasdfijwelakdfj lkdfj la bingo cat binadfoiwefjalfkdijv;ladfilkaf gogogoafiowefd;lffaof
Massive boost in spending, but it is an investment that should produce returns - the whole Keynesian deal.
I don't think it's as hard as people are making it seem.
Instead, we are doing nothing. Whatever. Do what you like.
the letter
a
The mistake I tend to make too often is assuming that Washington will make average -to-smart decisions. Bzzzt. Default is to assume they will make the wrong choices when given a tricky decision. The only time they will open the right door is when there is only one door to go through - after walking into the wall a few times for no good reason. then walk in as s first.
right now there are too many doors. they will probably go through the wrong one and destroy the economy further. they could have saved the economy months and months ago and avoided all of this. oh well. good job u suk. lalallalalallalalalalaflalaladflallalallalaal
ramble bramble rabmel bahafiwfalkfdf ijqwfadfj klwfiajdfklj
luckily, i don't have money in stocks right now. 8200 was the previous floor before all of this bad consumer news, so i figured it would go under 8k. if u cut loose the autos hahahah. wiley wile e. coyote running off a cliff.
you really need bush and obama to do that "leadership" thing. hahahah. good luck.
piracy. arrrr. gogogogo. at least there are no sneaky penguins. but they will hunt me becuse i've left too many tracks.s but i must set a polar bear trap to eat them when they enter the igoloo asf;lsfjqwfo34if;lkd v
heh. wuh?
edit: changed "zerg" to "rush" since dark templars are protoss - wtf am i talking about?
edit2: forgot it's wile e. coyote, not wiley. =P rest of the blog seems ok aside fro mthe brain-dirlling penguisn.