On Thursday, I wrote this post on my companion political blog discussing those aspects of the current drama being played out on Capitol Hill involving the US-based auto makers.
After I wrote that post, there was still plenty of drama occurring, both in the Congressional hearing room, and outside, as all parties rushed to appear before cameras on CNBC and Fox to attempt to add weight and urgency to their positions.
In this post, I want to address the economic aspects of what was said, and not said, yesterday in testimony and various post-hearing interviews.
Perhaps the most outrageously insidious and disingenuous 'witness' at the hearing was the UAW chief, Ron Gettelfinger.
This union chief stopped at nothing to save his hide, and, parenthetically, his union, too. To hear Ron's view of the world, filing Chapter 11 is unacceptable, because it would cause GM to cease to function.
Of course, that's a lie. But what else can Gettelfinger say? The truth is too awful for him and his union members.
Gettelfinger kept banging away on the theme that millions would become unemployed, national production capacity would be lost, and cars would be unbuilt if GM, Ford and Chrysler file for bankruptcy. And that no consumers would buy a car from a producer in Chapter 11.
Trouble is, Gettelfinger's source on that last contention was hopelessly biased and suspect.
But, listening to the UAW chief, you'd think that filing Chapter 11 was somehow less efficient than having a giant pow-wow, before a filing, in which everyone magically sits down and negotiates in good faith, once you and I have agreed, through Congress, to write checks totally some $30B to the three failed auto makers.
The truth, of course, is that Chapter 11 is crucial to force such negotiations. Gettelfinger is scrambling to hold out for pre-bankruptcy negotiations, because, in bankruptcy, his union will have its benefits and wages slashed unilaterally.
In fact, one Democratic Senator explicitly accused, but not by name, some Republicans and pundits for using Detroit's problems to break the UAW. But the UAW is doing that all on its own. It doesn't need help.
Perhaps the most sickening aspect of the presentations by Wagoner, Mulally, Nardelli and Gettelfinger were their simultaneous claims of two mutually exclusive positions:
-If GM, Ford and Chrysler are not rescued, their failure will mean untold damage to the US economy, so dire is their current predicament. And this predicament, by the way, is only the result of the recent financial crisis, not the woeful mismanagement of the three firms and the UAW for decades.
-If GM, Ford and Chrysler are bailed out, they will magically become the best-managed, most eco-friendly, well-run, successful American companies you ever saw.
Actually, both positions are probably lies.
First, Chapter 11 filings by all three firms would allow them to operate under a Federal bankruptcy referee, who would assist in the pruning of loss-making operations, reorganization of the three firms into fewer, stronger firm(s), and/or sale of attractive operations to other car makers.
Further, shuttering Ford, GM and Chrysler, as we know them now, does not preclude Federal assistance to formerly-employed UAW workers, as citizens, though, not UAW members. Shareholders and creditors may suffer, as they should, but employees need not be totally cast adrift.
Too, if GM, for example, is truly within a month of failure, then it's way too late to claim that a few billion in cash will magically solve all its ills.
Also, the three CEOs attempted to con the Senators at the hearing into believing that it is natural and acceptable to forecast 18-30 month timeframes until which these firms will show a profit again.
No private investor would stand for this. No bank would lend on these terms. But the CEOs could offer no case for rescue, in this situation, other than trying to cause a fear of massive unemployment and national economic ruin, should they fail.
Simply put, the CEOs, and Gettelfinger, all of whom are culpable in having brought the firms, and the US-based auto making sector to this point, attempted to evade responsibility for ruining the three firms, but threaten to make the nation's taxpayers pay a high price for the mistakes of these four leaders, and their predecessors.
The second contention of the four leaders, that, if bailed out, they will magically become better-managed companies, is silly on the face of it.
Without significant change in management, union contracts, and various other vendor arrangements, these companies will never survive to repay the 'loans' they claim to want.
You have to ask yourself, how will GM, Ford and Chrysler, which mismanaged themselves to this point, magically change just by the infusion of tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money?
They won't.
Finally, there is a lot of emphasis on various surveys purporting to claim that, if in bankruptcy, these firms will lose customers, because, 'nobody will buy a car from a company in bankruptcy proceedings.'
These surveys are, when you carefully evaluate them, specious. Gettelfinger and Wagoner never actually cite the details of the 'survey' on which they rely.
Today, on CNBC, economic misfit Steve Liesman cited the network's own poll as showing that 52% of those questioned would buy a car under those circumstances.
Then the economic idiot claimed he had reversed his own numbers, and the correct value was a lower number. 37%, I believe, with the balance, some 11%, were undecided.
The flaw, of course, in Liesman's figures, is that one would need to carefully consider the sample makeup. To me, the most reasonable universe for these surveys would be current buyers of each company's cars. With such a small market share now, GM is really only worried about current customers, since most car buyers wouldn't take a GM product if you gave it to them.
Thus, it's probably a good idea to totally discount these 'surveys' purporting to show that the firms can't....just can't...be in bankruptcy, or they will sell no cars.
Finally, the CEOs, and supporters, including the Governor of Michigan, would have us believe that, without GM, Ford and Chrysler, valuable non-carbon-based car technology will lapse, and we'll be at the mercy of foreign producers of alternative-fuel vehicles.
Again, this is a red herring, and nothing could be further from the truth. If these technologies are so promising, why would not either other car makers with plants in the US, or simply other companies, buy these patents, technologies, or operations, in order to continue perfecting them?
It's not the assembly of something like GM's oft-heralded, but far-off Volt, that is crucial. It's likely the battery and drive train technology. Parts that a supplier could easily buy and finish developing.
In general, any parts of these companies that are valuable will be preserved and transferred, in Chapter 11, to a better, stronger parent. So will employees needed for ongoing car operations.
In summary, the cases made by Wagoner, Mulally, Nardelli, Gettelfinger, et.al., are deeply flawed, specious, and devoid of merit.
We should all hope that Congress only extends a debtor-in-possession loan to any of the three US auto makers which choose to enter Chapter 11, and then offers focused assistance packages to displaced employees.
To do more would be folly and insanity. Throwing our good taxpayer money after bad, lost shareholder and creditor money.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment