We now seem to be watching General Motors in its death throes with shares in GM hitting a 65 year low amid concerns that the automaker will run out of cash. Analysts say the only way it will survive is with a US government bailout. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says GM is too big to fail and she has a point, given the shock waves it would send through supply chain. If GM fails, it will take a lot of smaller businesses with it and will destroy jobs.
GM is in such a bad state that Deutsch Banks says its shares are worthless, or valued at $0.
With the stock down 74% this year, GM shareholders have been doing it tough.
But would a bailout fix the company? "Detroit has had a lot of time to understand what it takes to compete. They wouldn't stand up to the labor-union bosses, and now they're facing the consequences. We can't be in the business of picking winner and losers. What's next, the airlines? What about Starbucks or all of the other struggling small businesses out there?" Republican congressman Jeb Hensarling told The Wall Street Journal.
He has a point. Bailing out the banking industry made sense, in perverse sort of way, because if banks go under, so does trust and confidence and then the whole system collapses? But the car industry? Where do you draw the line?
Or as The Telegraph's Tracey Corrigan writes, it would solve nothing. "The purpose of propping up car makers – apart from saving jobs – is to allow them to keep producing cars. Why? There is now roughly one car on the road for every American old enough to drive. Car sales have fallen off a cliff. Pouring billions of dollars into the sector is pointless. Encouraging the industry to embrace new technology, for example by introducing tax incentives for producing more fuel efficient cars, would make more sense. Car makers are trying their best to sound like banks, by talking of the need for government help with their "liquidity", in order to avoid the "systemic" risk to carmakers, suppliers and retailers. The use of banking's buzz words may be emotive, but GM's problems are not the same as the banks'. People still want to take mortgages out, write cheques and save money. They don't want to buy cars."
All of the Big 3 – UAW contracts have been significantly restructured over the past few years, thousands of veteran employees were bought out and new employees are starting are very reduced wages and benefits (although many of these employees would likely lose theit jobs in a collapse and Chapter 11).
Let’s get the reporting right, huh?
If America bails out GM and/or Ford we should demand a change in the leadership and management teams. Until someone Disrupts these companies and changes their management approach these companies will not be viable competitors. Read more at http://www.thephoenixprinciple.com