Chrysler gets $4 billion U.S. government loan | Reuters

So "American" cars run on taxpayer money now, huh? I wonder what kind of crappy mileage numbers We'll get out of that...

Op-Ed Contributors - Four Ways for Detroit to Save Itself - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

Technology to the rescue? From an industry that very selectively chose technology to "boost" its position...and ended up bankrupt?

The Worst Predictions About 2008 - BusinessWeek

Worth looking at if only to note how utterly wrong some of these "experts" can be. (Note that the murderous moron of the Oval Orifice is included in the list, but he is not an expert on anything except failure, ducking responsibility and cronyism.)  

21 Dumbest Moments in Business 2008 -- FORTUNE

Yes, it's one of those "click for a new page" deals that some sites use to pad their numbers, but here's a summary of the awful that's worth a few cringe-inducing, chuckle-releasing minutes.

Kevin Drum - Mother Jones Blog: Nightmare on Main Street

"AlixPartners LLP, a Michigan-based turnaround consulting firm, estimates that 25.8% of 182 large retailers it tracks are at significant risk of filing for bankruptcy or facing financial distress in 2009 or 2010."

How bad is this? Let Me quote from this brief article, again: "Lawrence Gottlieb, a New York bankruptcy attorney at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP says that only two retailers have successfully emerged from bankruptcy proceedings since the amendments to the code were passed."

Hmm... E-commerce, anyone?

For all of you small business owners, you can relate to this

Five Million Dots.com:

"Here is what many of you (employees) don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it."

Donklephant--Bailout Hypocrisy: Banks Vs. Automakers

"I do think it’s shameful that the unions have gotten lambasted in the past few weeks as anti-capitalist boogeymen, but CEOs have remained virtually untouched. Sure, a few executives have been raked over the coals, but nothing close to the anti-worker rhetoric that has been coming out of the Republican party.

It’s as if it’s a bad thing that manual laborers want to collectively bargain and make sure they’re taken care of if they get hurt or make sure they have access to healthcare upon retirement when their bodies are showing the wear and tear of decades on an assembly line.

Personally, I think our priorities are seriously out of whack in this country if we genuinely think it’s better to have private jets and millions of dollars in stock options than a good job paying a fair wage with access to good healthcare and pension benefits."

George S May Blog | Who will benefit from the Auto Industry Bailout

"GM needs to be restructured, which means it must change the terms of its legal obligations to suppliers, bondholders and employees. The only vehicle to accomplish the needed changes is Chapter 11, which lets GM reject unfavorable contracts, renegotiate its debt obligations, defer interest and principal payments and gives it time to fix its business. Without a chapter 11 filing a government infusion of $10b cash will be gone in six months when GM uses the money in 2009 to pay bondholders and employees billions of dollars, payments which do nothing to help GM survive.

Chrysler, the stepchild of a distressed debt vulture fund, is also a prime candidate for Chapter 11. But Chrysler should be liquidated, not reorganized. A liquidating Chapter 11 case, expressly permitted by the Bankruptcy Code, can be used to keep Chrysler operating while its divisions are sold. With adequate Chapter 11 funding line workers can keep their jobs and benefits, and non-essential executives can be fired at minimal cost to the Chapter 11 debtor, known as the debtor-in-possession. Trade creditors will continue to ship to Chrysler because their post-petition claims will have a priority in payment. Chapter 11 also lets the Bankruptcy Judge appoint an examiner to conduct an investigation into the financial affairs of Chrysler and its equity owners, and to sue to recover any improper payments. Chapter 11 will also make it clear to Daimler and Cerberus (Capital Management) that their investment is worthless and they will not be able to use their position of control to improperly benefit." - Source

Washington Is Killing Silicon Valley - WSJ.com

Washington Is Killing Silicon Valley - WSJ.com

How do you take the strongest economic engine in the world and turn it into a captive goose that lays golden eggs in someone else's yard?

Read about it here.

If you think creativity and drive can be micro-managed in order to avoid the occasional massive failure (not to improve the process, but to avoid a rare aberrant result) the take a look at how the government is destroying the commonplace good in pursuit of limiting the rare bad.

Mass. investor saw inside Madoff scam - Yahoo! News

"His repeated warnings that Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff was running a giant Ponzi scheme have cast Harry Markopolos as an unheeded prophet.

But people who know or worked with Markopolos say it wasn't prescience that helped him foresee the collapse of Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud. Instead, they say diligence and a strong moral sense drove his quixotic, nine-year quest to alert regulators about Madoff.

'He followed through on everything he ever did. He never let up,' said his mother, Georgia Markopolos, in an interview Thursday. 'Some kids just let it go if it's too hard, but he wouldn't do that.'

'He feels very sorry for these people that got taken,' she added. 'It wouldn't have happened if they would have listened to him long ago.'

Markopolos waged a remarkable battle to uncover fraud at Madoff's operation, sounding the alarm back in 1999 and continuing with his warnings all through this decade. The government never acted, Madoff continued his ways, and people lost billions."

Sigh...

Madoff Scam Dates Back To 70s

Clusterstock.AlleyInsider.com

Hoo-whee! Three of the "Big Four" accounting firms were Madoff fund auditors... Does accounting need an upgrade or do regulations need downsizing, to avoid the "smoke and mirrors" of hundreds if not thousands of "cracks" in the system?

Bush approves $17.4 billion in aid to automakers - Los Angeles Times

Ford says "No, thank you" and the rest of Us get saddled with underwriting lousy cars made mostly outside of the country led by people who already suck at making a go of it in the auto industry. Some days it pays to stay in bed, with a pillow over your head.

ABC News: Morgan Stanley Is One Bank That Cites a Loan From TARP Money

Without oversight or public disclosure, does anyone think these damn fools playing with Our money will actually use it to help the greater good?

Puh-lease.

Carpocalypse Now: Chrysler Ceasing Production Friday, Won't Promise To Come Back

Apparently the statement reads, in part: "Chrysler manufacturing operation...will not return to work any sooner than Monday, Jan. 19, 2009."

Okay.

And General Motors? Well, according to Moody's, they have "a 70% chance of declaring bankruptcy." 

"What's good for General Motors is good for the United States." (Attributed to Charles Erwin Wilson.)

hahahahahafail

Another Look at Workplace Incentives: They Don't Work

Alfie Kohn.org

"What I observed almost a decade ago, in Punished by Rewards, is still true as far as I can tell: not a single controlled study has shown a long-term improvement in the quality of work as a result of any reward system. That would be an astonishing fact were it not for the existence of scores of studies – conducted with adults as well as children, in real workplaces among other venues – that have demonstrated how rewards tend to be not merely ineffective but powerfully counterproductive. 

What is astonishing is how many people continue to buy the party line – that the concept of using extrinsic inducements is sound – indeed, not even open to question -- and the failure to show meaningful results (yet again) is due only to getting the details of implementation wrong. In place of solid arguments and evidence, we find a continued reliance on that outdated ideology known as behaviorism, a version of which turns on the adage that “all behavior is controlled by its consequences.” Depending on how the key words here are defined, this is either tautological (that is, true by definition and therefore not especially useful) or simply false. Even if you accepted it at face value, this declaration begs the question of what kind of consequences we’re talking about. I might work harder at a job that gives me personal satisfaction, for example, but that isn’t even the beginning of a justification for setting up artificial consequences like bonuses or sales commissions.

A few years ago, Training magazine – hardly a bastion of anti-Skinnerian sentiment -- ran a cover article called “Why No One Likes Your Incentive Program.” They were acknowledging what every honest person who has spent time in the business world must concede: reward systems are highly unpopular and (partly as a result) ineffective. I wish I could tell you that tweaking an existing program, finding a new way to reward people, would make those problems vanish. The reality is that rewards cannot work, at least in any significant way, because of the problems that are inherent to the whole idea of extrinsic motivation. Merely eliminating those rewards will not transform a workplace. That step is not sufficient, but it sure is necessary." (Emphasis Mine.)

So what about "executive compensation" for CEOs who strangle their companies into receivorship? Rewarding the wrong behavior is stupid, right? Right?

What makes a car American? - CNN.com

"Fewer than half of the parts on some Big Three vehicles are made in the U.S.

Looking at a Ford Fusion? It is assembled in Mexico. The Chrysler 300C is assembled in Canada, but its transmission is from Indiana; the brand's V-8 engine is made in Mexico. Engines in the Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle are from China.

On the other hand, Toyota's Camry is comprised 80 percent of parts made in the United States, and 56 percent of Toyota's vehicles sold in the U.S. also are made here, according to Toyota spokeswoman Sona Iliffe-Moon.

The Toyota Sienna and Tundra also have 80 percent of their parts manufactured in the U.S."

Best part? Toyota don't need no stinkin' bailout.

Especially from a thrice-failed "businessman".

Bernard Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud - Yahoo! News

"Bernard Madoff, a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion 'Ponzi scheme' in what may rank among the biggest fraud cases ever.

The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market is best known as the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he launched in 1960. But he also ran a hedge fund that U.S. prosecutors said racked up $50 billion of fraudulent losses.

Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that 'it's all just one big lie' and that it was 'basically, a giant Ponzi scheme,' with estimated investor losses of about $50 billion, according to the U.S. Attorney's criminal complaint against him."

So the office pool for bailing out these Madoff Investment Securities people covers from December 13th to January 19th. Ten dollars to pick a half-day (A.M. or P.M.) and the winner gets nothing as all the proceeds go to giving Me a bonus. Welcome to bailout reality.

(I just noticed the writer could have led this article with "Bernard Madoff, a quiet farce on Wall Street for decades...")

The Associated Press: $14B auto bailout dies in Senate

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "terribly disappointed" about the demise of an emerging bipartisan deal to rescue Detroit's Big Three.

He spoke shortly after Republicans left a closed-door meeting where they balked at giving the automakers federal aid unless their powerful union agreed to slash wages next year to bring them into line with those of Japanese carmakers."

That the Republicans are union-busting confirmed here. In the wrods of Senator Juim DeMint:

"These car companies are in real trouble. And they should’ve been planning to restructure for a long time. But the political aspect of this is most of this is being done to protect unions, uh, it’s not to protect the workers. And what I want to do is make sure we have jobs for these workers and we have first-class American automobile companies. And we’re not going to do it with the barnacles of unionism wrapped around their necks." (Emphasis Mine.)

So let Me get this straight: Harry Hungover, CEO of Infidelity Bank, runs to Congress with a whiny plea, gets billions and his high colonic bonus, easy-as-you-please. But General Chrysler Ford shows up and suddenly Congress wants to cut the salaries of workers. In essence, Congress is trying to take money from the workers themselves--twice. Tell Me this isn't communism for only the rich. Go ahead, tell Me that. 

Now the matter will head to the murderous moron's Oval Orifice. As if things couldn't get any worse...

McDonald's Labor Practices More Harmful Than Its Food | Video | AlterNet

"It seems that McDonald's labor practices are more harmful than the food it serves. The fast-food chain employs over 600,000 people in our country -- many of whom make less than $10 an hour -- and yet the company is thriving during this recession; CEO James Skinner made over $13 million last year alone. So why can't McDonald's afford to allow workers to unionize?

Perhaps the most feeble excuse comes from lobbyist slimeball Rick Berman, who said the Employee Free Choice Act 'is a huge threat to fast food and has the ability to impact the long-term health of the industry.' Berman should know better than to associate the words 'fast food' and 'health,' just as McDonald's corporate should know better than to pick a fight on an issue that President-elect Obama has made a legislative priority for 2009."

I don't favor unions in most situations, but let's look a moment at McDonald's and Wal-mart: They are both gigantic, multi-location businesses, employing thousands of people at below-average wages. most of them without benefits. Why are they afraid of unions? Because unions would force them to adjust their sub-standard wage and benefit structures, a key piece of their "profit puzzle." Wal-mart just lost an anti-union suit in the Canadian Supreme Court, so I hope the EFCA and Obama can also pave a new path to better wages and working conditions for thousands of people. 

Mismanagement at the Big Three - Mises Economics Blog

"It was a dead heat. General Motors sold 9.37 million vehicles worldwide in 2007 and lost $38.7 billion. Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles in 2007 and made $17.1 billion.

That was the second best sales total in GM's 100-year history and the biggest loss ever for any automaker in the world.

For Toyota, that was roughly $1,800 in profit for every vehicle sold. For GM, it was an average loss of $4,100 for every vehicle sold."(Emphasis Mine.)

Bail these companies out? Bail out a company that after a century still hasn't figured out a way to not lose 16% on every sale? Isn't this rewarding total--and I mean, total--stupidity?