I read that US car manufacturers are asking for up to 50 billion in help (in form of cheap loans) from the government to bail them out. That is to bail them out from their own management failures. For years now the American auto industry has pushed the large SUVs and gas guzzling models, even though the writing was on the wall. Other (foreign) car companies have not missed these trends and made the necessary adjustments.
Ich habe gelesen daß die amerikanischen Autobauer von der US Regierung billige Sonderkredite in Höhe von bis zu 50 Milliarden beantragen wollen, um damit ihren Firmen aus der gegenwärtigen Krise zu helfen. Aus einer Krise die das Management dieser Firmen selbst hervor gerufen haben indem sie jahrelang auf riesige SUVs und andere Spritfresser gesetzt haben, und das obwohl schon lange absehbar war, daß das so nicht weiter gehen könne. Ausländische Autobauer haben den Trent nicht verschlafen und entsprechend reagiert.
How come that Toyota and Volkswagen are not making similar requests to their respective governments? How come they are still making money (and profits) on their product offerings?
Wie kommt es daß Toyota und Volkwagen keine solchen Kredite von ihren Regierungen beantragen? Wie kommt es daß sie immernoch gut verdienen und Gewinne von ihren Produktlinien abwerfen?
Where were the American executives during the past 4 to 5 years? Were they too busy spending their multi-million-dollar bonuses? Were they so greedy to rake in the high profit margins for the gas guzzling models that they were blinded?
Wo waren die amerikanischen Autogeneräle während der letzten 4 bis 5 Jahre? Waren sie zu beschäftigt ihre multimillionen schweren Geldprämien auszugeben? Waren sie nur gierig und blind, während sie die hohen Profitraten für die riesigen Spritfresser einscheffelten?
And now those very same executives are telling us they need help. Please, please dear tax payer bail us out (and keep our hefty bonuses coming)! - Guess who is holding the bag if these loans default, due to (continued) mismanagement? -- Maybe it is time for some of these bosses to be fired, and forced to give back their bonuses. - Well, I am not holding my breath to see that happen.
Und jetzt rennen die gleichen Bosse mit dem Hut umher und flehen um Hilfe. Bitte, bitte liebe Steuerzahler, helft uns (damit meine satten Prämien auch in Zukunft weiter fließen). - Es ist natürlich klar wer bezahlt wenn diese Kredite, wegen anhaltender Mißwirtschaft, nicht zurück gezahlt werden können --- Vielleicht ist es an der Zeit daß einige dieser Bosse entlassen werden, und gezwunden werden ihre Prämien zurück zu zahlen. - Aber ich glaub das erst wenn ich es sehe.
Food for thought.
Man kann ja mal drüber nachdenken.
HD
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http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/OPINION01/809210507/1016/ARCHIVES
September 21, 2008
Financing a future
The question of whether to give the Big Three American automakers a $50 billion federal loan package at below-market interest (5 percent, versus 15 percent or more on the private credit market) is easy to answer if you're part of Ford's Louisville family.
The loans would help Ford, Chrysler and General Motors retool for a new generation of more sophisticated and efficient vehicles -- which makes sense, although some argue the money would be better directed at research and development.
It's true that Detroit has brought on many of its own problems. It was slow to move toward the kinds of vehicles that America needs, but that's partly because consumers were slow to demand them. Now it faces higher materials costs and gasoline prices, an economic slowdown and a fierce credit crunch.
Washington, which imposed $100 billion in new burdens with fuel efficiency mandates last year, is the only place to get real help. It won't come from private Wall Street lenders.
Yes, the Big Three are deeply in debt, so there's risk for taxpayers, but remember that the 1978 Chrysler "bailout" ultimately produced a $400 million federal profit.
Yes, bankruptcy is an option. That would make the free market militants happy, but it wouldn't do much for the Big Three's 250,000 U.S. employees and the communities where they live. Remember, one in 12 American jobs is linked to the auto industry.
In a sense, we're all Ford families around here, given the firm's 6,000 local employees and its $300 million metropolitan region payroll. We have special reason to look favorably at a sensibly hedged bet on American automakers' future.
Uli
The reason the financial institutions are being bailed out is greed. They wrote bad loans to people that couldn't pay. I call that very bad business practices. Even the FBI is investigating a number of these companies now.
The reason the car companies are asking for a bail out, is also greed because they continued to produce models that the US customers decided they don't longer want. They were reaping in the huge profit margins of the large gas guzzlers. And they were incompetent in seeing the writing on the wall.
If a company executive runs a company into debt, and thus into the ground, he/she is to be removed from the job and shunned in the industry. - But what is happening instead (over and over),the failed executive is rewarded and gets a lavish golden parachute, and lives happily ever after in a villa in Malibu. - There is definitely no accountability in the system.
The original (Secr. Paulson's) bail out proposal for the financial institution (currently being discussed in congress), didn't have a cap on executive pay in it. The Bush administration had to give in on this issue under pressure from Congress. Interesting mind set the people in charge have.
Also if a state takes over a private company and runs it (as in Fanny Mae & Freddy Mac), then this was (not too long ago) called socialism or even communism. What happened to the capitalistic principals that the US was touting around the world?
The argument that government intervention saves jobs is a weak one as well: where was the state when the US textile industry went under, or the steel mills; or when millions of manufacturing jobs went off shore?
My 2 cents,
HD
Na, da hab ich wohl falsch gedacht. Hab geschrieben daß die europäischen Autofirmen von ihren Regierungen keinen Billigkredit fordern. Naja, die haben wohl von ihren amerikanischen Kollegen gelernt. Siehe: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,582482,00.html
Well, I guess I was wrong when I wrote that European car makers are not asking for cheap loans from their respective governments, they must have talked to their American counterparts. Found this article: http://www.globalinsight.com/SDA/SDADetail14476.htm
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