Auto industry sinking fast...others to come?

Partly true.....

we bought what they offered, no one would have bought a Hummer if GM did not spend billions on Hummer dealerships and manufacturing plants.

They made the decision to put most of their eggs in the gas hog market, never thinking that oil might hit $150 a barrel and gas would be $4+ a gallon.

Thank You, Randy

Remove 333 from email address to reply.

-------- see:

"Overall, the financial services sector has spent $3.5 billion lobbying Congress since 1998, it said. "

"A new study argues that the major banks owned or heavily financed the leading subprime lenders at the peak of the market

By Theo Francis Data from millions of mortgages show the big financial institutions at the center of the financial crisis were major players in the housing-market abuses that precipitated it, a new report argues.

Mining federal lending data, the May 6 report from the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog group, concluded that nearly all of the top 25 subprime mortgage lenders, responsible for roughly $1 trillion in high-interest loans from 2005 through

2007, were owned or heavily financed by major Wall Street and commercial banks.

"The mega-banks that funded the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse," said Bill Buzenberg of the Center for Public Integrity.

"These banks were deliberate enablers that bankrolled the type of lending that's now threatening the financial system."

Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) all backed New Century Financial Corp. which originated more than $75 billion in high-cost loans between 2005 and 2007, according to the non-partisan group. The center says it specializes in investigative journalism on issues of public concern.

In all, the Congress has cleared $700 billion in taxpayer money to help stabilize markets with Goldman and Morgan Stanley receiving $10 billion each while Bank of America got a $25 billion investment.

Bailed-out banks enabled subprime lending, study contends Many getting bailouts fueled the subprime mortgage market centered in California, the Center for Public Integrity says. By Tom Hamburger and Ralph Vartabedian May 6, 2009 Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- The major banks now collecting federal bailout money were not unwitting victims of the mortgage meltdown but instead were directly linked to the root cause of the problem: a subprime lending machine concentrated in Southern California, a new study asserts.

The banks were "enablers that bankrolled the type of lending threatening the international financial system," according to the study being released today by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based watchdog group.

The center collected data on the top two dozen subprime lenders in an effort to paint a comprehensive picture of how each major player was linked to the banking system.

"What happened to our largest financial institutions was very much a self-inflicted wound," said the center's executive director, Bill Buzenberg. "These banks owned many of the subprime lenders and financed their lending in order to get bundles of mortgage-backed securities that they could sell, reaping enormous profits."

The report noted that investment banks Lehman Bros., Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup "both owned and financed subprime lenders," and that others, including Goldman Sachs & Co. and Swiss bank Credit Suisse First Boston, were major financial backers of subprime lenders.

Chutzpah: One example given of the ultimate of chutzpah is: "A boy, having just been convicted of murdering his parents, begs the judge for leniency because he is an orphan."

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

-------- At most you get half credit for this answer.

The American people wanted to buy what they made because of the greatest propaganda effort since Joseph Goebbels founded and ran the Reich Ministry for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Only the imports and later a few of the transplants ever advertised economy, durability, safety and long-term value. The Detroit mantra was "We Build Excitement."

Detroit wanted [and wants] to build huge high-power limited life vehicles with every conceivable option [and a few inconceivable ones as well] as this is where the most profit is. So these roll over... So these burst into flames...

Yes, Detroit built what we wanted, but only after they told us what we wanted, and sold most people on the ideal of perpetual automotive debt [as in 60 and 72 month financing], as F and I [finance and insurance] generates more profit than does the manufacture.

A major danger is that the governments at all levels now have a vested interest in keeping the new car grift going, what with the excise taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, etc. they collect from new car sales.

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

Too_Many_Tools wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@o30g2000vbc.googlegroups.com:

Psychic too, eh?

Compassion for whom? For Obama making the economy worse or for people with the flu?

Thanks for the sanctimony. But if I remember correctly you started the thread and cross posted it outside your sandbox.

F. George McDuffee wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

It doesn't give them any more money. What it does do however is give the government voting shares.

Nice, eh?

If you think the banks were screwed up before, just wait, you ain't seen nothing yet.