GM was bailed out so it could move jobs to China

 

Flopping Aces

Barack Obama took another one of his endless “victory laps” the other day. This time he was boasting about his role as savior of the auto industry.

President Barack Obama, who has taken several victory laps to celebrate the successful U.S. bailout of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009, said today he is planning to attend the 2016 Detroit auto show.

The president touted the bailout’s success during his weekly radio address, reminding his audience that the industry nearly collapsed

“Seven years ago, auto sales hit a 27-year low. Last year, they hit an all-time high,” he said.

“Later this month, I’ll visit the Detroit auto show to see this progress firsthand. Because I believe that every American should be proud of what our most iconic industry has done.”

Let’s see if he mentions that bailing out Detroit was George W. Bush’s idea.

Are you ready for ‘Cash for Clunkers – The Return?’

American Thinker

This is beyond the definition of insanity, approaching cosmic delirium.

If derangement can be defined as doing the same thing over and over even if it doesn’t work, the Obama administration is about to go that one better and bring back the spectacular failure of the “Cash for Clunkers” program.

A GM unit in China’s hands

You don’t need to understand exchange rates and trade wars to grasp the economic change that has come to Saginaw, Mich. Remarkably, the largest private employer there will soon be the city government of Beijing.

In the weeks ahead, a 104-year-old unit of General Motors will be sold to new owners from China. The unit made steering equipment for decades under the name Saginaw Steering Gear. Now known as Nexteer, it employs 8,300 people around the world. Its new Beijing owners call themselves Pacific Century Motors.

You and the rest of the world probably missed this $450 million deal. General Motors, still controlled by the U.S. government, gave it little attention this summer as it readied its own high-profile return to the stock market.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/09/a-gm-unit-in-chinas-hands/#ixzz14pT6iFcN

Obama Lets GM Execs Fly Private Jets Again

Fox Nation

General Motors executives have been cleared for takeoff again.

The automaker has been given the go-ahead by the federal government to use chartered aircraft as early as Thursday to ferry managers on a “road show” promoting G.M.’s public stock offering, according to government and company officials who declined to be identified.

It is believed to be the first time that G.M. will use private jets for business-related purposes since the government demanded that it sell its fleet of corporate aircraft in 2008. As a condition for accepting emergency federal assistance, G.M. has required its executives to travel on commercial airlines.

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Feds Fail to Issue Recall for Chevy Cobalt Despite More Complaints Per Vehicle Than Toyota

Bob McCarthy Writes

If someone died as a result of faulty mechanics in a Toyota or Lexus vehicle, then a recall was indeed necessary.  But shouldn’t the playing field be level for all manufacturers, regardless of whether or not someone died?

I ask this question three days after publishing a pair of posts in which I expressed skepticism about the reasons behind the federal government issuing recalls on products made by the Japanese auto giant:

• In Obama Administration Sending Wrong Signals, I speculated about the possible reasons why the Obama Administration would want to bully Toyota; and

• In Is Toyota Paying Price for Not Supporting Obama?, I examined the number of campaign contributions made by Toyota executives to Barack Obama since Jan. 1, 2007, and found that only two of 151 executives listed on the Toyota web site gave a combined total of $2,500 to Obama for America.

Today, however, I discovered something more.

On Feb. 2, the Los Angeles Times reported that an estimated 905,000 2005-’09 Chevrolet Cobalt vehicles, including the Cobalt SS, are the subject of a new investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to complaints of electric power steering failure. Such an action is sometimes the precursor to a recall.  During the days that followed, Edmund’s Inside Line, The New York Times Wheels blog and two other publications reported the same basic story, informing readers that the investigation was launched after more than 1,100 consumer complaints were received.

According to a Chicago Tribune report Jan. 26, the Toyota recall was based upon some 2,000 complaints related to 2.3 million vehicles sold.

In doing the math related to these recalls, I found the following:

• Only 1 in 1,000 (.001) consumers complained about the Chevrolet product; and

• Fewer than 1 in 1,000 (.00009) consumers complained about the Toyota product.

In short, the Chevrolet product has received more complaints per car sold than the Toyota products!  So why hasn’t the federal government issued a recall on the Cobalt? Probably because Chevrolet is owned by General Motors (a.k.a. “Government Motors”), a taxpayer-owned company that stands to benefit greatly from having its foreign-owned competitors struggle with the public relations nightmares related to product recalls.

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