While GM and Chrysler are trying to mooch Millions off of taxpayers, Ford says they might be OK on their own.

"GM and Chrysler have said they could collapse in weeks." Now why would anyone "loan" a company billions of dollars, knowing full well that they most likely are going out of business?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081202/meltdown_autos.html

 

cheay, right. Ford already mortgaged their asses off!

also, i feel like this is borderline political thread, should be in the sub group, so as not to interfere with my post whoring ...

 

At least they did something. Mortgaging is better than begging for money. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

 

no worries brother. I was just joshing.
I mean, go Ford. I'm down with the Ford. They's some patriots ...

 

How do you figure? Ford is still looking for a handout. All they've done is present a plan, that the Congress demanded at the last hearing, in order to prove worthiness as a "lending" *cough* BAILOUT *cough* risk.

 

... isn't a bailout and a loan different?
I got confused when people started talking about a bridge loan.
It's my understanding that the big three now need a bailout to GET to the bridge loan, which they would pay back because it is a loan, where as the bailout isn't a loan, it's more like socialism, or corporatism... or something evil like that.
Damn banks.

 

None of it is capitalism, which this country was founded on. Its a bailout, they can call it whatever they want. You just don't give billions of dollars to a business (Ford, GM, Chrysler, Whoever) that may not be their in 3 months. It's a handout. If you run a company into the ground, you should have to reap the consequences, not go crying to the government.

 

BINGO. Darwinism needs to reign in the free market. At the peak of this last boom, there was a glut of retail space not being filled. Now, the weaker players are leaving the market (closing shop) and the panic-button idiots in the media want you to think the market is in trouble; however, the stronger stores are posting gains. Go figure

 

Only problem is if the big three go down, the economy is going to take a huge hit, across many industries, not just the auto industry, and that makes it a national security issue. Same with the banks. The government is more concerned with maintaining their power than bailing out a corporation, but the loss of said corporations would weaken their power domestically, and on the world stage. It's hard to fight off enemies when you can't afford weapons and ammunition.

 

Bull****. They are not "too big to fail". Think about it -- *IF* one of these companies were to go Chapter 7 (liquidation), someone could come by, pick up the pieces for a song, and get the ball rolling.

Now, *IF* you want to say, "Oh, losing them affects national security", then reason would say they already ARE a national security risk because they put themselves in this jeopardy.

Out of the three, if Congress does nothing, I could see GM going Chapter 7 in the long run.