Ahira's Hangar

WARNING this will sound a little like a RANT!

So, the fat cats, big wigs and coupon clippers, that do not actually make a real product, get HUNDREDS of BILLIONS in a bailout, but an industry that actually makes a real, tangible product are told to go 'pound sand'. FYI, the auto industry was only asking for a fraction of the hundreds of BILLIONS given to the fat cats, big wigs and coupon clippers. Is it right? Last week I lisened to a Senator from Oklahoma argue the two situations are so fundamentally different that the two different outcomes and solutions were appropriate. But, IMO, the more this Senator explained the more it sounded like a big, stinking, pile of crap!

Concrete examples, Bank of America who took some of the bailout fund (AKA, TARP) is paying its shareholders a big sizable dividend, but BoA would not extend a line of credit to a medium sized business in Chicago in order for that business to stay open. Fair? Appropriate, after being the recepient of a very large tax payer provided largess? Well not so much. The former CEO of Merrill, Lynch says very publically he's still entitled to his bonus; excuse me, this guy did such a horrible job of running Merrill that BoA was able to buy them, using some of their portion of the TARP, at a bargain price, depleting Merill's shareholders value, and he still wants more than a pat on the back and an 'ATTA boy', and he does not deserve those.

And yes the auto maker's CEOs don't get it any better, coming to Washington on their individual private jets. However, the CEO of Chrysler said at the Congressional hearing that he would reduce his salary to $1 per year if it would make a difference, and the former CEO of Merrill says he's entitled to his multimillion bonus. Give us all a break.

Also living in an auto state, it is very frustrating.

In addition, if the domestic auto companies are allowed to go under, who will make our heavy equipment if there is ever another large general war?

It was the car plants in places like Ypsilanti (Willow Run) and Warren in Michigan who tooled over and made the tanks and planes for WW2, as an example.

The senator from Alabama might be the most hated politician in Michigan right now - even more than George Bush or Kwame Kilpatrick. That tool wants the car companies to fail, dumping around three million Americans (most living in in blue states like Illinois and Michigan) and about half a million Canadians out of work - and he has a bunch of nonunionized foreign auto plants in his state. Conflict of interest anyone?

I don't know what else to do except shake my head in disgust as well. That business with Merrill Lynch and Bank of America is just the kind of thing people feared would happen: (some of) the bailout money ends up lining the pockets of the well-heeled, instead of going where it's really needed.

Did I miss something? I thought the auto-industry was getting its bailout?

$17 billion-odd.

--A

Both the US and Canadian governments are giving short term loans. These will help, but the car companies had to jump through a billion hoops to get them, which the financial companies - who largely got us into this financial mess - did not.

Also, the US Congress refused to help the auto companies - the Busg administration did an end run around Congress to give them the loans.

Today Toyota announced the first ever year of losses since they started keeping records for the company. They lost well over a billion dollars this year. Those people who say it is only the American car companies having problems need a wake up call. The bad global economy is having a bad affect on all car manufacturers.

Thank you Duchess, for seeing and stating my point. My original rant is only partially in terms of the financial sectors got what they wanted and the auto manufacturers did not. It's much more to do with that after the financial sector received its taxpayer supported bailout they were given a complete free hand and carte blanche, no conditions or strings attached, to do whatever the HELL THEY WANTED (give billions in bonuses to the CEOs who created this mess and ran their companys's into the financial ground or declare extra dividends to their share holders). As Duchess so well stated the auto money is given as a loan with some preconditions and some expectations, and the TARP funds given to the financial sector had none.