President Obama's Weekly Address 12/20/14: America’s Resurgence Is Real

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week’s address, the President reflected on the significant progress made by this country in 2014, and in the nearly six years since he took office. This past year has been the strongest for job growth since the 1990s, contributing to the nearly 11 million jobs added by our businesses over a 57-month streak. America is leading the rest of the world, in containing the spread of Ebola, degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL, and addressing the threat posed by climate change. And earlier this week, the President announced the most significant changes to our policy towards Cuba in over 50 years. America’s resurgence is real, and the President expressed his commitment to working with Congress in the coming year to make sure Americans feel the benefits.

President Obama's Weekly Address 10/13/12: One Million American Jobs Saved and a Stronger American Auto Industry

WASHINGTON, DC—In his weekly address, President Obama talked about his decision to rescue the American auto industry from collapse and save more than one million American jobs. Some were calling to let Detroit go bankrupt, but the President refused; now the industry is leading the world again and auto sales are the highest they’ve been in more than four years. In the coming years, new American cars will have higher fuel standards, which is good for the pocketbooks of middle class families and the environment. And thanks to the President’s bipartisan trade agreements, we are selling more American cars in places like South Korea. The auto industry demonstrates that when Americans are knocked down, we get back up and come back stronger than before.

President Obama's Weekly Address 3/3/12: Taking Control of Our Energy Future

WASHINGTON, DC—In this week’s address, President Obama told the American people that three years after helping the auto industry save more than one million jobs, the American auto industry is back and creating cars that are even better than before. The entire industry has added more than 200,000 jobs in the past two and a half years, and thanks to the Administration’s new fuel efficiency standards, these companies are making cars that will save families money at the pump and help reduce our reliance on foreign oil. While this will help, there is no silver bullet for solving the problem of higher gas prices, and Americans understand that with only 2% of the world’s oil reserves, we cannot simply drill our way to lower gas prices. Under President Obama, our use of clean, renewable energy has nearly doubled, but we must also end the $4 billion in tax breaks that oil companies receive each year while collecting record profits. The President asks everyone to tell their elected officials to stop this corporate welfare and fight for a clean energy future that is within our reach.

 

President Obama's Weekly Address 10/15/11: "Made in America"

WASHINGTON- Speaking to the American people from Detroit, Michigan, President Obama highlighted the landmark trade agreements passed in a bipartisan way this week which will support tens of thousands of American jobs, level the playing field for American workers, and help us meet our goal of doubling our exports. The President will continue to urge Congress to do more and pass the American Jobs Act so we can grow our economy and create jobs now. Republicans in Congress will get a chance to support these common-sense measures or explain why they oppose providing tax breaks for working Americans, putting teachers, firefighters, and cops back to work, and repairing our crumbling infrastructure.

President Obama's Weekly Address 6/4/11: Growing Manufacturing with the Auto Industry Turnaround

WASHINGTON – Speaking to the American people from a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, President Obama commended the work of America’s dedicated autoworkers, who have helped reinvigorate the domestic auto industry. Each of The Big Three automakers is now turning a profit, and the domestic auto industry continues to add shifts and create new jobs across the country. When President Obama decided to lend a hand to the American automotive industry shortly after taking office, it was with the understanding that these great manufacturers would have to restructure, modernize and position themselves to thrive in a competitive global marketplace. Now, just a few years after the American auto industry teetered on the brink of collapse, America’s great manufacturers of yesterday have emerged as some of the great manufacturers of today.

President Obama's Weekly Address 5/28/11: Vice-President Biden on the American Auto Comeback

Vice President Joe Biden delivers the Weekly Address, celebrating the success of the American auto industry in the wake of Chrysler paying back their loans.

President Obama's Weekly Address: 4/24/10 Good News from the Auto Industry

As the auto industry and financial markets begin to stabilize, the President says the government’s emergency interventions are now winding down. He pledges that real reform, particularly on Wall Street, must now begin.

Michael Moore How The Auto Bailout Should Go Down

Michael Moore on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", talking about the controversy surrounding the Big 3 (GM, Ford, Chrysler) trying to get a $25 billion (or possibly $34 billion) in bailout loans from Congress.

Corzine Talks Recession with Rachel Maddow

On a segment on the Rachel Maddow show yesterday, NJ Gov. Jon Corzine made an appearance to discuss the recession and what he was going to talk to President elect Obama in Philadelphia today. 

Corzine mentioned that Obama is a great listener and he hopes that Obama will support a huge stimulus package for the States.

Coming up: A huge pension bailout?

The housing bubble lead to the mortgage crisis, then the financial crisis and the auto industry crisis, commercial real estate is on the verge of a crisis with so many businesses filing for bankruptcy and closing their doors, can a pension bailout be far behind? Michael Brush seems to think so.

Brush has posted an article on MSN Money explaining why he thinks a pension bailout is not far behind:

"Americans with 401(k) plans in stocks have been feeling queasy for months as they've watched their savings vanish at alarming rates.

But workers covered by traditional pension plans -- the ones 100% funded and managed by companies for employees -- have so far avoided that sinking feeling.

Unlike the 401(k) crowd, they don't get monthly statements bearing the grim news of the lousy performance of the investments in their pension plans.

But with stocks and bonds crushed, many of these old-school defined-benefit plans now look downright wobbly. If the economic weakness continues long enough, many could end up in the hands of the independent government agency responsible for taking over failing plans...."

Bailouts for Bankers, Not a Cent for Autoworkers

John Nichols, The Nation-

This is the part of our nation's surreal economic crisis that seems particularly surreal:

The U.S. auto industry, which employs 3 million Americans in auto plants, parts and supplier networks and dealerships nationwide is broadly understood as being essential to maintaining America as an industrial force. It's financial collapse, which even critics of moves to bailout the industry suggest is imminent, would devastate workers, retirees and communities in every state of the nation. Despite the grumbling from anti-union zealots, the auto giants have radically retooled in a manner that makes the cost of producing a vehicle at a unionized plant of General Motors, Ford or Chrysler roughly equivalent to the cost of running a car off the line at a non-union plant. And to top it all off: Auto plants actually produce something that most Americans consider to be useful.

Yet, proposals to provide what now seems to be a very small bailout -- $25 billion -- are currently stalled.

At the same time, the whole of the federal government is scrambling to buy as much as $50 billion in "toxic assets" -- bad loans and other products of irresponsible financial practices that are of dubious value -- from Citigroup, a global banking concern that makes money by charging working families exorbitant interest rates for credit. According to the Wall Street Journal, "[The move to protect the banking concern] would mean taxpayers could be on the hook if Citicorp's massive portfolios of mortgage, credit cards, commercial real-estate and big corporate loans continue to sour."

Perhaps, in some wild calculation of American interest, Citicorp is worthy of a bailout.

But what mad calculus would make Citigroup more worthy than the auto industry?

And why the urgency with regard to Citigroup and the casual disengagement with regard to the industrial giants that, for all their flaws and perils, remain what Barack Obama correctly described as "the backbone of American manufacturing"?

Something is fundamentally wrong with a federal government that offers bankers a bailout and autoworkers as cold shoulder.

Dodd Says Auto Bailout Lacks Votes in Senate

The NY Times has just posted a column by David Herszenhorn stating how Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who is Chairman of the Senate banking committee, has just announce that Auto industry bailout lacks votes in the Senate at this time.

"The chairman of the Senate banking committee said on Thursday that he did not believe there would be enough Republican support for efforts to aid floundering automobile manufacturers, raising doubts about whether Congressional leaders will call the House into a lame-duck session next week.

“Right now, I don’t think there are the votes,” the chairman, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, said, adding that he personally was in favor of using money from the $700 billion financial rescue program to help General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. But Mr. Dodd said he did not believe such a bill would get through the Senate.

“I don’t know of a single Republican who’s willing to support,” Mr. Dodd said. “So I want to be careful about bringing up a proposition that might fail in light of the fact the authority exists, and under an Obama administration there seems to be a greater willingness to deal with the issue. So there are some political considerations to be made.”

Passing any legislation to aid the auto companies would require 60 votes in the Senate. Democrats have 49 seats, Republicans have 49 seats and there are 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats..."

Click HERE to finish reading David Herszenhorn's column in the NY Times

How to Fix a Flat

NY Times Op-Ed Columnist Thomas L. Friedman rants on about the proposed bailout of the Detroit auto industry in his column today. While I don't always agree with what he has to say, I am with him on this. Those of us that can remember the Chrysler bailout in the 80's remember what a big deal it was then, now we're talking all of  Detroit. When will it end?

"Last September, I was in a hotel room watching CNBC early one morning. They were interviewing Bob Nardelli, the C.E.O. of Chrysler, and he was explaining why the auto industry, at that time, needed $25 billion in loan guarantees. It wasn’t a bailout, he said. It was a way to enable the car companies to retool for innovation. I could not help but shout back at the TV screen: “We have to subsidize Detroit so that it will innovate? What business were you people in other than innovation?” If we give you another $25 billion, will you also do accounting?

How could these companies be so bad for so long? Clearly the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts explains a lot of it. It led to a situation whereby General Motors could make money only by selling big, gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s and trucks. Therefore, instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw way too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers.

This included striking special deals with Congress that allowed the Detroit automakers to count the mileage of gas guzzlers as being less than they really were — provided they made some cars flex-fuel capable for ethanol. It included special offers of $1.99-a-gallon gasoline for a year to any customer who purchased a gas guzzler. And it included endless lobbying to block Congress from raising the miles-per-gallon requirements. The result was an industry that became brain dead.

Nothing typified this more than statements like those of Bob Lutz, G.M.’s vice chairman. He has been quoted as saying that hybrids like the Toyota Prius “make no economic sense.” And, in February, D Magazine of Dallas quoted him as saying that global warming “is a total crock of [expletive]....”

Click on to the headline to finish reading Thomas Friedman's article