U.S. bank profits hit 5-year high -- YAY BAILOUTS!

GM's profits are at an all-time high; and so are the TBTF Wall Street banks'. Connection? They were both bailed out by the U.S. Government!

In fact, the bailout for Wall Street continues indefinitely. It's now at over $29.6 trillion.

On the other hand, the bailout of GM, Chrysler and their suppliers (and by extension, Ford) saved 1 million jobs and an entire U.S. industry from extinction. Detroit has come back leaner, meaner and arguably with better products. Whereas Wall Street has come back with... the same old shit: huge bonuses; millions spent on bribing, er, lobbying our leaders; telling us 99 percenters to get "real" jobs; lecturing us how stupid and anti-business we are for questioning their judgment, etc.

U.S. Bank Profits Hit A Five-Year High In 2011

February 28, 2012 | AP

URL: http://n.pr/x0eqku

Romney a hypocrite, poor businessman in opposing auto rescue

I realize there is an election this year and Republicans have to say everything Obama has done or attempted to do has been a complete failure, blah, blah, blah... but come on, the Detroit bailout has been a huge success. And it was started by Dubya, not Obama, which gives Romney perfect cover to ignore it. But no. He can't help himself.

Mitt Romney, the GOP's nominee apparent, has foolishly picked a fight with Obama and the revitalized Detroit auto industry in his erstwhile home state of Michigan simply to stand apart from the Administration and look good in front of the far Right. He wrote in an op-ed in the Detroit News saying, "The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse."

He called the auto industry bailout, "crony capitalism on a grand scale," writing, "I believe that without his intervention things there would be better." This is Romney kicking Detroit after it has lifted itself off the mat; but he also kicked Detroit when it was down in 2008 when he wrote a piece for the New York Times titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."

(For the record, GOP runner-up Rick Santorum also opposes the auto bailout -- but also criticized Romney for hypocritically supporting the Wall Street bailouts.)

To be fair, Romney called for a "managed bankruptcy" of GM and Chrysler, but this was a fantasy. With an auto industry collapse amidst a financial industry collapse, "No one — I repeat, no one — had the slightest interest in funding these companies on any terms," meaning the companies would have been sold off piece by piece, and all their suppliers would have gone belly up. It's shocking that Mr. Bain Capital did not recognize the facts then, and really calls into question Romney's judgment and financial acumen.

Thankfully, Obama did not listen to Romney, the U.S. did provide $85 billion in emergency loans to the auto industry, and as a result, in 4Q 2011, GM posted its largest profit in its 103-year history. Chrysler just posted its first profit since 1997. And most important, 1 million U.S. jobs have been saved. Let's not forget that even Ford, which did not accept bailout funds, lobbied Congress for the bailout of GM, Chrysler, and their suppliers, not to mention lobbied for "cash-for-clunkers," because if Ford's competitors had failed, the entire industry including Ford would have failed.

Fuel economy standards make strange bedfellows

Great example of Big Guvmint regulation spurring innovation -- and even cooperation among fierce business rivals!

Can cats and dogs learn to get along? Only if Washington regulates it!

¡Viva el Gran Gobierno!

Ford, Toyota to jointly develop hybrids for pickups, SUVs

By Chris Woodyard

August 22, 2011 | USA TODAY

URL: http://usat.ly/q34EVw

U.S. health care and the auto bailout

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/23/133602.php

This blog post was written 3 years ago but it's amazingly relevant today.  Would we be discussing a bailout of GM and Ford today if national health insurance had been adopted just a few years ago?   

When we criticize the Big 3 for not being competitive, let's remember that all their competitors enjoy: (1) state-funded health care for their workers and retirees (except in China); (2) state investment in their companies; and (3) non-reciprocal trade regimes, which protect their home markets against U.S. imports. 

So, in that context, what is the economically "fair" thing for Congress and U.S. taxpayers to do? 

The issue of national health insurance is especially important.  If you believe pundits like Michael Barone, it's health care costs that are killing GM.  That is, if GM were not solely responsible for paying the health care costs of its current and retired employees, it would not need a bailout right now.  So why aren't we debating a system of national health insurance right now, instead of debating a bailout of the Big 3?  If we want the U.S. auto industry (and other manufacturers) to be competitive on cost in the long run, they must not be burdened with health care costs of their employees.  Or, if employers will continue to be responsible for paying the majority of their employees' health care costs, Congress must adopt radical reforms to drastically lower the $2 trillion annual cost of health care in the United States.

This is not to say GM and Ford don't need to make big cost cuts and other changes to remain competitive.  But those are all changes that good managers are able to make.  Even the most excellent managers cannot overcome the high cost of U.S. health care.

Unfortunately, the situation is now critical, as GM will run out of cash in a matter of 1-2 months, and its survival won't wait for a fractious and bitter national debate over health care reform.  If we're going to save GM and Ford, we have to do it in the next several weeks.  We'll have to talk about reforming our health care system later.  But talk about it -- and act -- we certainly must, for the sake of America's global economic competitiveness.