Good Morning. CNN had a segment this morn about Waggoner’s golden parachute. While, they didn’t neccessarily support it they did point out that he’s worked for GM ‘his entire adult life’. Um…..as opposed to those UAW workers who only moonlighted there, I guess.

Wrt “good news”……..doesn’t it just make your heart sing to see a return to chucks of the best of our country being, well, ya know, actually “preserved” rather than destroyed?

Gosh, “elevating” Palin sounds like something that would be a violation of the Clean Air Act.

Good news.

In the immortal words of Marty Peretz (mid 1980’s)
maybe if this country had less wilderness
we would appreciate it more.

By the way, who was that smart left-winger being allowed to speak on GE-TV ?
Better hope Jeffrey Immelt doesn’t hear about it.

Morning BT – All the talk is about the UAW but the reality is that it was the bond holders who were not willing to come to the table.

Great job Jane. Thanks for posting the link, because I missed Jane’s appearance.

Waiting for us to pay them full face value. Let’s see if they can unload them in the next 60 days.

Morning, people. I missed this Kuchinich investigation yesterday.

Following the federal government’s promise of $10 billion in TARP funds to buoy the ailing firm through it’s roll-up, Merrill paid out $3.6 billion in bonuses: a package 22 times larger than compensation given by AIG, said Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s offices in a Monday release.

They didn’t even call them retention bonuses either! Dividing up the loot after the theft.

I find it hard to understand why Hellhole hasn’t gotten wider play. It’s about how American prisoners are put into solitary confinement for extended periods of time and driven mad.

After a few months without regular social contact, however, his experience proved no different from that of the P.O.W.s or hostages, or the majority of isolated prisoners whom researchers have studied: he started to lose his mind. He talked to himself. He paced back and forth compulsively, shuffling along the same six-foot path for hours on end. Soon, he was having panic attacks, screaming for help. He hallucinated that the colors on the walls were changing. He became enraged by routine noises—the sound of doors opening as the guards made their hourly checks, the sounds of inmates in nearby cells. After a year or so, he was hearing voices on the television talking directly to him. He put the television under his bed, and rarely took it out again.

It’s good to know that Webb is doing something about this.

I thought it was about the ‘ascension of the Virgin.’ Oh, nevermind.

My biggest concern regarding the auto industry lies with the health of the parts suppliers should one or two of the 2.5 fail.

It has been an ignored aspect of the debate as of late. Little to no “supply chain” talk in the auto industry retool. In the initial auto bailout discussions, it was central.

Furthermore, Obama has not put enough money into infrastructure spending or in new technology spending to redirect jobs from the supply chain. Jane, if you are reading, where and when will this aspect get picked back up in the restructure picture?

The supply chain has been hung out to dry.

This was discussed this AM and it seems that if Chrysler goes down Ford is going to need federal assistance to keep its supply chain alive.

Lachman of AEI on cspan2, laying out a dismal economic scenario. Couldn’t argue with a bit of it.

This just seems ass-backwards. It makes more sense to sink the $$$ into making something out of GM and Chrysler than to “prop” up the supply chain until the market adjusts and the supply chain reorganizes. My guess is, without crunching numbers, it would be cheaper to prop up the 1.5 then the parts industry. Additionally, this is where some major dialogue with Canada must come into the picture.

Just guessing but I bet some smart economist who has been here for a visit might answer that better than my “guess”.

Obama and the auto team have been crickets on this huge concern. The supply chain is much bigger than written about and major industry sectors would fall apart. Many have been hit currently and have gone through big layoffs and the remaining employees are taking weeks of furloughs, with talks of more weeks of furloughs.

Many of these supply chain industries, supply our military, defense industry, healthcare, marine and housing industry.

Right now, we cannot afford to prop up that many industry sectors in the supply chain. Life support for the 1.5 of the 2.5 would be cheaper. Ask Krugman and prove me wrong.

Ask Krugman and prove me wrong.

Should be:

Ask Krugman and prove me right or wrong.

The first is whether GM really can achieve the required degree of restructuring without entering into some form of managed bankruptcy. The second is whether Chrysler—even with Fiat’s assistance—has a future as an independent company. If not, would it make more sense to grasp the nettle now by selling those assets, such as the Jeep brand, that still have some value? The third is what help should be given to the car-parts industry, which receives far less attention than its famous customers, but which is facing acute problems of its own.

The plight of the parts-makers demonstrates both the urgency and the complexity of the situation. Their trade organization, the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), wrote to Mr Geithner on February 13th warning him that the entire industry, which is the largest manufacturing employer in the country, was facing “breakdown”. In the 18 months to June 2008 the industry’s employment fell from 783,000 to 653,000, since when the rate of job losses and bankruptcies has accelerated.

This from the Economist is worth reading the bigger picture of supply chain.

The sad part about this is, that this article just looks at the Tier I and II of the supply chain. Tier III and so on will be the bigger hits in reality, in terms of a cascade effect of unemployment.

This also has some good information too.

And here:

…what many observers, including this author have been expressing regarding the U.S. automotive supply chain. “The growing fear is that without help the auto industry may collapse from the bottom, rather than top down”, states Joann Miller, the article’s author.

More here and here on supply chain concerns and ideas.