Tag: GM (page 2)

Not that anybody should expect an industry that still has a shock collar of union interest around its neck to do very well anyway.  General Motors is selling some of its action to lucky buyers.  In the filing of the IPO today, GM lowers your expectations:

"The ability of our new executive management team to quickly learn the automotive industry and lead our company will be critical to our ability to succeed.

Within the past year we have substantially changed our executive management team. We have elected a new Chief Executive Officer who will start on September 1, 2010 and a new Chief Financial Officer who started on January 1, 2010, both of whom have no outside automotive industry experience."

Per der kommisar's wishes, NO-ONE qualified to run the company need apply.  In fact, even if they did, and got jobs, the discovery of whats under the hood might scare the lug nuts off em.  Continuing:

"We have determined that our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting are currently not effective. The lack of effective internal controls could materially adversely affect our financial condition and ability to carry out our business plan."

So the filing for the IPO for the NEW Government Motors includes a disclosure that: A.  They have potentially incompetent leadership, and B. No idea where the money gets spent and a lack of oversight for such things.?

GM breached a contract promising to fund a voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, for Delphi retirees, according to the lawsuit filed yesterday in Detroit federal court. General Motors, Delphi's former owner, made the promise in 2007. The court overseeing Delphi's bankruptcy approved the agreement in October 2009, the union said.

In October, "the UAW made a written demand that the company honor its contractual obligation to make the foregoing payment to the DC VEBA," the union said in its complaint. In November, "that UAW demand was rejected and since that time the company has failed and refused to make the contractually required payment."

Besides, if you didn't wake up with a giant smile on your face and a song in your heart about Michigan's economy then I know just the ticket(s).  They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and have I got news that'll put joy in your heart and a song in your head.

The magnificently written, gorgeously published and almost always typo-free Detroit Free Press reports this morning that General Motors might in August announce the possible creation of 100 new battery production jobs right here in Michigan!  

They like 100 of us!  They really like 100 of us!

In even happier news for a lot of the good folks in the big, giant heart of Detroit, the new Police Chief is on the job and has a really awesome, creative way to stop murder... he's going to tow away men's cars before they have a chance to use them to drive somewhere an kill someone.  The Detroit News reports on this cutting-edge, outside-the-box anti-crime tactic:

The chief announced the measure during Thursday's Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting and said the policy would go into effect Monday.

Evans told the board that many shootings in the city are committed at night by young men in their late teens and early 20s without valid driver's licenses.

He figures by seizing their vehicles for traffic offenses, he can cut down on the number of drive-by shootings.

I sat here at the computer for two or three minutes, put on my thinking cap and tried really hard to come up with something happier than not getting shot and I couldn't do it.  I think not getting shot might actually be the happiest thing in the entire world.  If there is a parallel universe that runs on happy, I'm 99 percent sure the happy it needs is generated by people not getting shot.  

(If you read on it'll make me happy...)

No, wait, scratch that.  Too much access for the average Michigander. Change of plans from the White House.

Breaking!  Breaking!  President Obama is going to visit Macomb County today and will be holding an open forum where Michigan moms and dads, while not permitted to speak, will have a chance to attend and hear what the President has to say in person.

Nah.  White House thinks that, too, amounts to too much face time with normal folks.  Try this one...

Breaking!  Breaking!  President Obama is going to visit Macomb County today and will hold a glorified press conference in front of a sycophantic press corps and select invite-only Democratic Party big-wigs?

There's the ticket.  And the only ticket.  No duckets for Michigan's working or unemployed.  Which is a shame.  Even if he isn't inclined to speak to us "normal folks," there's a lot the average Michigander could and very likely would communicate to the man who has injected the federal deficit with anabolic steroids.

Read on...

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Happy Friday here on RightMichigan.com, where we're going to dig into the headlines and specifically and explicitly find a way to accentuate the positive!  

With Michigan moms and dads hurting the way they are it can be difficult accentuating the positive.  Mostly because there's very little positive to accentuate, amidst a landscape of hurt and tough times.  Today, though, seems to represent a perfect storm of happiness.

And what could possibly make anyone happier than hearing Detroit City Councilwoman Martha Reeves performing a one-song-tribute to Michael Jackson at a local Motor City eatery complete with electronic keyboard accompaniment?  The answer, if you're searching for it, is nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Take a listen here, courtesy of the Detroit News.  

The video also features longtime Detroit Democratic political consultant Adolph Mongo claiming Governor Granholm "played the fiddle while the state's been sinking," then calls her "the worst governor in the history of me being alive."

And Reeves defending her decision to keep cash from the Synagro deal that's sending Monica Conyers to jail.

"The only way you can get into the political ring is by donations," Reeves said, explaining that her change in position from yes to no on the contract was a matter of conscience and good sense. "Am I going to give it back? No!"

Watch the video.  You'll want to cry. Some days I worry there's very little hope for the human race.

But her song is amazing as coffee-shop solos go.  *weep*

Seriously, though, happy news. Like this...

Booth Newspapers reports that GM is headed OUT of bankruptcy protection this morning with "no place to go but up."

GM is expected to close on a deal Friday in which most of its assets would be sold to a new company 60.8 percent controlled by the federal government...

GM, which was the world's largest automaker for more than 70 years and a symbol of American industrial might for much of the 20th century, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy June 1.

If the federal government controlling 61 percent of GM isn't good news then the fact that the UAW will control nearly 20 percent is even better.  So turn that frown upside down.

Because no matter what is happening at GM, in Congress, in City Hall or in the parking lot at Mr. Fish, big things are popping at Comerica Park where the Detroit Tigers learned yesterday that they'll be sending a FOURTH member of the team to the Summer Classic.

Brandon Inge won the fan voting and is now an All Star.  Congrats to the 2009 Gold Glove winning third baseman (knock on wood).

And sure, Comerica Bank which still has it's name affixed to the Tigers' home ballpark recently high-tailed it out of Michigan, relocating to Texas because that state offered a significantly better environment for job creation, but we're not dwelling on the past.

It's Friday.  Happy, happy Friday.

A House panel in Washington, DC yesterday unanimously approved a measure that would "save" 2,100 GM and Chrysler dealerships across the country. Which is great, right?  I mean, who doesn't want to take a single, simple vote that on her face looks like it'll do nothing but save thousands of Michigan (and non-Michigan) jobs.  

Except of course for the fact that the dealership cuts were one big leg of the stool the bankrupt automakers were standing on to save many more thousands of other Michigan jobs.  And you know what happens when you knock the leg off a stool.  The Ivory Tower:

The bill would turn back the clock to before the companies filed for bankruptcy, restoring the 789 dealers cut by Chrysler and 1,300 dealers GM chose to wind down...

Executives from GM and Chrysler have both told Congress that cutting dealers was essential to their survival outside of bankruptcy, saving each company billions of dollars a year and strengthen their remaining sales force.

"This legislation, if passed, would put our long-term viability at risk," said GM spokesman Greg Martin.

I get where the good Congress-people are coming from.  I really, really do. Those dealership closings were tough, particularly because they hit folks across the country, even in states where there's never been any other Big 3 related work force.  

If you could save fifty local jobs simply by pushing a button, wouldn't you push it?

The problem is, politicians are not (for the most part) businessmen.  And before the Obama administration started nationalizing major Michigan employers, no Congressman was any kind of boss at GM or Chrysler.

Suddenly, though, the Federalized Two have over 500 new quasi-members of their Board of Directors, and not a Utilitarian among them.  

Sure, you may save a few dealerships today but the entire company will be dead tomorrow.  

The market has been screaming for contraction for years. Excess dealerships are bleeding BILLIONS. Bankruptcy is targeted at helping these manufacturing giants contract as quickly and easily as possible so that they can survive into the future and eventually grow again.  

That can get sticky when every decision that gets made can suddenly be overturned by politicians and bureaucrats in DC who are more interested in reelection NEXT YEAR than a company's viability NEXT DECADE.  

Congress wants to save 2,100 dealerships?  Great.  We all do.  But it's going to take more than a single populist vote on the floor of the US House of Representatives.  Especially a vote that winds up doing much more harm than good.

How about we try something else, just as a change of pace... the Obama administration and Congress stop micromanaging Michigan companies and let the businessmen and the bankruptcy courts figure out the best way to save the most jobs the quickest.

Otherwise, all we're doing is prolonging the pain, delaying the inevitable and forcing thousands of working moms and dads across the country to float in one heck of a nasty breeze, tossed about by the whims of political expediency. That's not good business and that's not fair.

Hmm.  Not quite as pithy.  Nevermind.  Besides, you get the point.

I mean, we could discuss General Motors escape from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Ivory Tower even manages to poke a little fun at the Obama administration, which is a little bit jarring on first blush, but nice for a switch.

We could discuss the Associated Press's revelation of additional shady business from elected Democrats in the Motor City.  Shady unless you consider using emergency funds to purchase a $1,600 floral arrangement good stewardship.

Then there's the Detroit News taking the Granholm-Cherry administration out to the woodshed for lying about Michigan's graduation rates.  

(And oh so much more... please read on...)

Let's start with the "municipality" and work out way up, shall we?

We learn today that the Detroit Public Schools, long a paragon of Lefty administrative virtue, have 257 "ghosts" on the payroll.  According to the Ivory Tower these are folks who are pulling down major bank but aren't even supposed to be on the payroll.  The local public school bureaucracy is so wasteful of taxpayer dollars they don't even demand a lick of work to get them.  

There were 37 unclaimed paychecks and 220 unclaimed direct-deposit slips totaling about $208,000, said Odell Bailey, DPS' auditor general. He added that the recipients are not on approved leave.

Robert Bobb, DPS' state-appointed emergency financial manager, also said an audit has begun to determine if employees have unapproved health care  dependents that are running up costs.

Probably important, too, that we don't blame this entirely on the bureaucracy. That means there are 257 individuals who at one time or another were entrusted with the education of Detroit kids whose integrity was so poor they continued cashing the checks they knew they hadn't earned.  

DPS might want to audit their character assessment and their hiring practices next.  And they're not the only ones.  As frustrating as a chronically bungled payroll can be it isn't nearly as dangerous as the mistake the Granholm-Cherry administration made this week when they took a convicted murderer who'd wracked up 124 "major misconducts" since entering prison, took him out of jail and dropped him off at his grandfather's house without medication.  

Because that sounds like a safe thing to do.

Read on...