GM and Chrysler have submitted their “restructuring plans” to Congress, who are going to mull them around for a bit before caving to the auto companies’ demands for another $21B of our money to keep them afloat.
GM plans to concentrate on its three strongest global brands, Chevy, Cadillac and Buick, plus GMC trucks. They’ll phase out Saturn (either sell it or let it die), kill Hummer (because who would buy it?) and cut Saab loose.
Chrysler’s talking about gaining concessions from dealers, unions, suppliers and management. Good luck with that.
But I’m not seeing where they say they’re going to build cars the people want to actually, you know, drive. And their lobbying efforts against fuel efficiency continue apace while the execs are holding out their begging bowls.
GM has announced it will cut 47,000 jobs worldwide; but meanwhile they continue incredibly wasteful spending on executive travel (have they never heard of video conferencing?), bonuses and ex-pat programs.
Naturally, the linchpin on which everything hangs is the threat that if the US taxpayers let them die the miserable death they've set themselves up for, they'll take the economy with them. Well, take it further. So Congress is bound to hand over our money to the executive extortionists, which they'll use to no advantage and then come back for more.
Can you say sinkhole? I knew you could.
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