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

To: combjelly who wrote (501864)	8/6/2009 10:28:14 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1577168

GM and Chrysler had cars in the top 10. YES, but Toyota had 3 of the top 5. Even the Ford Focus, which everyone was going on about, has now lost its first place standing to Toyota. And both companies have taken steps since they filed for BK that go a long way to fixing their problems. What, exactly, do you think makes these businesses more viable, long-term, today than they were 6 months ago? The fundamental problem 6 months ago was that the union contracts were so onerous that they couldn't make money. Have those contracts been materially improved? I don't think so. The talk coming out of management is exactly the sort of thing that all 3 companies have needed to do for decades, but Ford is the only to have have started the process and, even then only recently with any consistency. Talk. Really? That's what they need? Talk? These companies needed to get rid of the ridiculous union contracts or they will continue to languish for years to come. Five, ten years from now, they're right back where they started. A competent president would have stayed out of the middle of this. Fine, you want to lend them a couple billion, do it. But the taxpayers are now trapped, permanently, into funding years of continuing losses on 2 of the 3 and there is no way in hell you shut them down. Politically. And there is no way to get rid of them because nobody has the capital to make it happen. As to IPOs, who is going to buy shares in an IPO of a company that hits the ground burdened with union contracts that make it an untenable investment from the outset? With a brand that reeks of government intervention? I don't know. There is a sucker born every day, so we'll see. I sure as hell won't be buying any.