Hi Jane. Trying to keep up with all of these great posts.

I know in the go go years of the 80’s many of the companies still offering pensions decided to raid those pension funds because they were “over funded”.

I would like to know if the big one and a half are part of that group. The government allowed many of these companies to raid pension funds to fund current operations.

No one is talking about this right now.

That would make a great Oxdown diary.

besides the unfairness of putting requirements on the auto industry that the banking industry doesn’t have – how stupid is it to ask the clueless auto ceos to write the plan?

Maybe the Fed should get the naming rights to the screens and nets that sit behind the catcher in every MLB ballpark: “This backstop brought to you by the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.”

Yeah, I was thinking about that on my drive to work this morning when NPR told me about the big Citi bailout put together over the weekend, and yet, they won’t even think about a Auto bailout — I guess the big banks aren’t unionized so we can’t let them fail.

Why Jane, next you’ll tell us that folks like the Steinbrenners and the other owners of teams in the major sports don’t deserve big tax breaks for building their stadiums.

And anyone know what the tax deductions are on tickets and luxury boxes at the stadiums?

If the banks would lend out the money like those who promoted the bailouts said they would do, perhaps the auto sales wouldn’t have come to the screeching halt as they have. The sooner we get the banks up and running and performing like banks, the better off we’ll all be, including the auto industry!

And GM announced today that it was terminating its promotional agreement with Tiger Woods.

Not at all the same things, since Tiger actually worked to promote Buick as a spokesperson, but interesting that there is such divergence in handling sports.

PS: that won’t happen until they deal adequately with the number of wasting assets on the bank’s books due to the subprime lending crisis. Too much capital tied up in bad debts and illiquid capital!

besides the unfairness of putting requirements on the auto industry that the banking industry doesn’t have – how stupid is it to ask the clueless auto ceos to write the plan?

The new strategy to deal with all these crises is clearly to be as hypocritical about them as possible. Detroit can’t get chump change but Citi gets a much bigger deal with far fewer strings attached over a weekend.

Oh and the reason that Pelosi and Reid are demanding that the idiots who are currently running the auto industry come up with a plan is so no one will ask why Congress couldn’t come up with one of its own for them, as in if you want taxpayer money this is what you have to do.

Well there is that.

WHY the fuck and HOW the fuck does Bushco just get to give away our money? WTF is the Congress in all this bullshit?

PS: that won’t happen until they deal adequately with the number of wasting assets on the bank’s books due to the subprime lending crisis. Too much capital tied up in bad debts and illiquid capital!

And exactly why the banks need to be nationalized so that they can be forced to re-initiate normal lending and so that we can take a look at their books and figure out how insolvent they really are and come up with the best way to recapitalize them. Of course, this would be addressing a real issue in the financial meltdown so at all costs it must not be pursued.

Jane – not to be picky or anything, but you wrote above:
“No mention is made that right-to-work states like Alabama give foreign auto makers a protective advantage by making it illegal to unionize.”
Actually,(from wiki):
Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act goes further and authorizes individual states (but not local governments, such as cities or counties) to outlaw the union shop and agency shop for employees working in their jurisdictions. Under the “open shop” rule, an employee cannot be compelled to join or pay the equivalent of dues to a union, nor can the employee be fired if he or she joins the union. In other words, the employee has the right to work, regardless of whether he or she is a member or financial contributor to such a union.”

So, organizing is not per se against the law in so-called ‘right to work’ states; but the effect of the ‘open shop’ rule coupled with the generally hostile attitudes and culture against organizing which exists in these states generally has the same effect.

This was going to be an Oxdown post, but someone got there ahead of me….

This is what I had found so far regarding actual sponsorship deals.

Citibank/Citigroup sponsors the following (outside the already named $400 million “Citifield”):

Werder Bremen (Germany) soccer
Olympiakos Pireaus (Greece) – soccer
Rookie Golf
The 2010 Ryder Cup team (golf) and the President’s Cup
The Rose Bowl

AIG:

Manchester United
The Breeder’s Cup (horseracing)

But they were forced to pull out of long time Davis Cup sponsorship, see here

In regard to Citigroup, they also bought Wachovia, who has several named stadia and arenas throughout the country, including the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. AIG probably has some of these deals floating around as well.

And GM announced today that it was terminating its promotional agreement with Tiger Woods.

Yes, that makes sense, he’s black you know.

PS “Open Shop” = Free Riders on the backs of dues paying union members = wtf would join under those circumstances?

Oh and the reason that Pelosi and Reid are demanding that the idiots who are currently running the auto industry come up with a plan is so no one will ask why Congress couldn’t come up with one of its own for them, as in if you want taxpayer money this is what you have to do.

and here i was thinking it was because they didn’t have to have to be on the hook for writing a bad plan. so when trouble comes they can say “hey, not my plan – stupid management plan.”

no willingness to actually govern. amazing.

teh stupid, it burns.

Right on, Jane. I have been wondering how it is that no one has yet asked ANYONE to have a plan for the banks. Neither banks, nor their CEOs nor the Feds.

Just keep passing out the dough.

And just FYI, the “open shop” is just the cover for “no unions allowed.” Makes it looks all free choice-y and such. But the way it works, well for unions, notsomuch.

my own stupid burns too:

because they didn’t have want to have to be on the hook

A follow up post would be more than welcome!

The Citi-Wachovia deal fell through and Wachovia was taken over by Wells Fargo.

While fully understanding that some of the dollars thrown around here are completely out of whack, there is something to be said that some sponsorships should be allowed.

If we, as the American taxpayer, expect to see the loans and guarantees repaid that Citigroup, AIG and others have received or about to receive, some advertising is necessary to show “hey, we’re still in business!”

I am by no means an expert in regard to the cost-benefit analysis of sport sponsorships, but all of these companies do operate on some kind of profit motive and do benefit from having their named plastered all over the place.

While the sports landscape is littered with failed naming rights deals (Pro Player, PsiNET, CMGI, Enron), it can be a wise investment for a company and therefore its stockholders to have a naming rights deal.

Certainly the corporations accepting bailouts need to make prudent decisions so that they survive going forward. I would just suggest that just canceling all sports sponsorships without taking a hard look of which ones benefit the company and which don’t might be a smart business decision that benefits us all (since we’re the major stockholder now) in the long run.

You’re right – I just cut and pasted the start of my Oxdown post without double checking everything…

So is it going to be the Wells Fargo Center now?

The problem is that Jane picked out a lot of the points I was going to make, along with what I am saying in #25, that is, sometimes the proverbial baby gets thrown out with the bathwater.

In regard to AIG and their $125 million Manchester United deal, I personally feel, given Man U.’s exposure in Asia that, despite all the dollars involved, it might actually prove to be a wise business decision for AIG to maintain its sponsorship deal. And that coming from someone who cannot stand Manchester United……

“This backstop brought to you by the Federal Reserve Bank taxpayers of the United States.”

Fixed it for ya.

But thank gawd A-Rod can still pick up the tabs for those spending sprees if he wants to get busy with Madonna. I was getting worried there for a minute.

While I get the gist here, for the sake of accuracy, A-Rod plays for the Yankees, which will play in Yankee Stadium, which does not have a corporate sponsor (although Bank of America has signed some kind of sponsorship deal) that doesn’t involve naming the stadium and they haven’t asked for a bailout, yet…..

CitiField will be the home of the Mets.

Now if you meant that “C-Rod” used a Citibank credit card to go on said spending spree, I stand corrected, in fact it is a great metaphor.

I’m not against Detroit having to come up with a plan, nor am I per se against sports sponsorships — I have no idea how many jobs would be lost if they were cut.

It’s the double standard that grates. And the obiesence to Wall Street, whose leadership Must Not Be Questioned.

OUr taxes go to pay investors gambler dividend!!!
‘…yet the Treasury said it was okay for banks to pay out half of the funds they received to shareholders because “suspending quarterly dividend payments would have deterred banks from participating in the voluntary program.”
They could not pay dividends anyway WTF. Markets went up 6% Friday when the Obama Econ team was annouced. Again today he is really taking great care of Wall Street he better have an awesome bailout for the bailors…you know thosw who have nothing or little while the rich get richer. I knew this was on the way just not so brassy. The FU message is loud and clear.

Gawd, some of these idiots on TV.

Now its Obama being a community organizer and not flat out stating that rather than just let the tax HOLIDAY for the rich last until 2011 – by not saying that TAX HOLIDAY is good foverever his is ruining the econ.

Since rich people can’t put an extension on the house or buy a second boat (to keep boat builders employeed) – umm thats called trickle down so perhaps give it a rest for a few weeks as everyone has their bullshit detectors set to 11.

Yes we should not crush the small percent of the small percent who are just into the rich range (again this depends on where you work and live – NYC and Boston is not the same as Hope, AK). But no we should not destroy the econ and crush poor people so that boat buyers and boat buliders can live.

Sorry if someone posted this since it appeared in the newspaper yesterday, but Mitch Albom’s take( you know – Tuesdays With Morrie)on the auto talks is superb -
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs…..8811230371

Sh*t.

I just realized why SOMEBODY/IES might have wanted the Citi-Wachovia deal to succeed instead of the Wells Fargo deal. Didn’t make sense at the time why there’d been certain murmurs against any better deal.

Believe Wachovia was being investigated by Spitzer prior to his “political assassination.”

I suspect there were more friends at Citi than at Wells to clean up loose ends.

Jane, thank you for these ongoing posts about the unfairness of the Wall Street bailout(s) versus the auto industry bailout.

Below is a link to an interesting article from Nanacy Skinner on the greening of the auto industry, that is worth a read.
http://www.freep.com/article/2…../811200370

When I heard that announcement, my first reaction was they dropped Tiger Woods because of his knee surgery that is keeping him out of golf tournaments for two years. Interest in watching golf on TV has dropped considerably because of this, so fewer people to watch Buick commercials.

My second reaction was Buick has become the top selling luxury brand in Asian countries, like Japan and China, where golf is extremely popular. There has to be a connection between Buick and golf and Tiger the spokesperson. I was thinking that now Buick has established itself as the number one brand, maybe Buick feels like it no longer needs to spend the extra millions to hire Tiger Woods and a more traditional, non-celebrity, ad campaign will suffice.

I liked this part

Sen. Shelby. Yes. You. From Alabama. You’ve been awfully vocal. You called the Detroit Three’s leaders “failures.” You said loans to them would be “wasted money.” You said they should go bankrupt and “let the market work.”

Why weren’t you equally vocal when your state handed out hundreds of millions in tax breaks to Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Honda and others to open plants there? Why not “let the market work”? Or is it better for Alabama if the Detroit Three fold so that the foreign companies — in your state — can produce more?

Way to think of the nation first, senator.

And you, Sen. Kyl of Arizona. You told reporters: “There’s no reason to throw money at a problem that’s not going to get solved.”

That’s funny, coming from such an avid supporter of the Iraq war. You’ve been gung ho on that for years. So how could you just sit there when, according to the New York Times, an Iraqi former chief investigator told Congress that $13 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds “had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste” by the Iraqi government?

That’s 13 billion, senator. More than half of what the auto industry is asking for. Thirteen billion? Gone? Wasted?

Where was your “throwing money at a problem that’s not going to get solved” speech then?

I hope they terminate some lobbyist and lawyers.

Thanks Jane.

digg

Worry about having a product first then worry about advertising and sports endorsements.