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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (437094)	11/28/2008 12:07:47 PM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1574005

Russia coking coal firms seek state relief package Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:40am EST MOSCOW, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Russia's leading coking coal producers have written to Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to request government assistance as receivables from steel makers mount, a copy of the letter obtained by Reuters showed. It states that Raspadskaya (RASP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is owed 5 billion roubles ($182.8 million), while Sibuglement and Mechel (MTL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are each owed 3.2 billion roubles and Belon has receivables of 2.2 billion roubles. The letter also said that non-payment woes have forced Raspadskaya to shut down production for seven days. The company, part-owned by steel maker Evraz Group (HK1q.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), was not available for comments on the letter on Thursday. It said this month it had only been paid for 21 percent of shipments made since September. [ID:nLC631958] The Russian government has unveiled a $200 billion-plus rescue package that includes $50 billion in refinancing loans and other amounts for struggling companies working in key sectors of the real economy. [ID:nLA553850] The coal producers did not say how much money they would like to receive from the Russian government. They also requested a variety of temporary priveleges including changes to the corporate tax code and special rail tariffs. In addition, they asked the prime minister to maintain import duties on coking coal from Urkaine, Kazakhstan, the U.S., Canada and Australia as domestic production declines during the crisis. (Reporting by Alfred Kueppers, Editing by Peter Blackburn) reuters.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (437094)	11/28/2008 12:15:40 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574005

It's also my impression that US car companies sell equivalent models for less (could be wrong) than their overseas competition. A combination of inferior quality and inferior marketing that hits GP$s and %. Also, with the exception of Cadillac, they really don't have a good selling premium brand that ups margins. I agree. I am also struck by the differences in gross margins between F and GM. The numbers I was quoting were YTD. Inode is saying in the latest quarter they are the same. I will check out the 10 Q later and see if that's correct. I guess what I was saying to Z is that the problem is fairly complicated and I question the conclusions that some on the right are making. When it comes to financial matters, the military and stuff like unions, the Republicans have ruled the discourse. In recent years, we have seen how they color that discourse with their opinions and bias, and that the truth is actually something quite different. I suspect the same thing is happening with the car companies and their problems.