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![]() "Vic Smith" wrote in message ... On Sat, 9 May 2009 19:32:35 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote: "Vic Smith" wrote in message . .. Here's a different take. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/bu...html?_r=1&dlbk This ending comment should make many here happy. "This may come to be seen as Mr. Obama’s Nixon in China moment. Just as it took a conservative Republican to open relations with the largest Communist country in the world, it took a liberal Democrat to break the U.A.W." I do think this announcement of the UAW's death is premature. --Vic Consider this. If the Fed had not provided bailout money to Chrysler (and GM) this story would have an entirely different ending. What we are witnessing is the government controlling the destiny of a public corporation and screw the courts and bankruptcy laws. More to come. No doubt more to come, but consider this; Major banks are failing left and right. Hundred of thousands of Americans are losing their jobs. The survival of the financial markets are in jeopardy. The Dow Jones is in a precipitous dive, and trillions of dollars of American wealth is being lost. Home prices are in free fall and foreclosures are setting records as more $trillions of American equity evaporates. Suddenly, GM and Chrysler announce they can't operate without government aid. They must shutter operations. Perhaps millions of more American in the automotive industry and its ancillary industries will get pink slips. So George W. Bush and Hank Paulson bail them out. What would you have done then? --Vic Bullying a settlement isn't going to work. Who's going to give the new Chrysler financing (other than the government). The unions? Chrysler was DOA and should have been allowed a decent burial. But, to your comments: Major banks are not failing. They have more money than is good for them and the economy. In fact, bank failures were higher back in the S&L crisis. Unemployment comes and goes for all kinds of reasons. There's reason to believe we've turned the corner. It will be a while yet, but I think we are in recovery mode. The financial markets will adjust. Wall Street will adjust. It already has begun. Home prices have adjusted for reality and for the market. The trillions of dollars of "equity" never existed in the first place. GM and Chrysler have been insolvent for at least a decade or more. Same with Ford, but they are surviving the old fashioned way. Now, if *I* were king, I think I'd put a major focus on correcting our trade deficits. Screw being a nice guy. We need motivation, financial and otherwise, to encourage a rebirth of manufacturing here, not there. Increase tariffs on imported goods. Fight fire with fire. That in itself would go a long ways to revitalizing our manufacturing base. I'd focus on giving our proven system the tools it needs to compete in a global economy. Good for China if it can produce a TV for 33 cents. We can't, and we aren't going to try. The Chinese TV is going to have to cost about what ours sell for. Besides, the Chinese haven't figured out how to make a power supply yet that doesn't blow up or catch fire. We experienced a severe shock to the system due to the phony mortgage security derivatives that a bunch of crafty but sleazy financial types invented. That and greed in specific cases like the criminal Bernie Madoff. But, we'll survive. I am much more optimistic than I was a few months ago. Obama and his policies may help ease the pain temporarily, but it will be our free market, capitalistic system that will ensure our long term survival and prosperity. Eisboch |