Rufus steps to the mic with a guitar and a Karaoke machine.
Is this thing on?If I had a million dollars
(If I had a million dollars)
I’d buy me some stock
(I would buy me some stock)
If I had a million dollars
(If I had a million dollars)
I’d buy me General Motors stock
(Maybe a nice Camaro or a Malibu)
If I had a million dollars
(If I had a million dollars)
I’d not buy a K-car
(A nice reliant automobile)
If I had a million dollars, I’d make a speech.
(Apologies to Barenaked Ladies)Before we get started. let me thank the GM shareholders who have joined me here on the steps of General Motors World Headquarters. I also need to thank the networks, business, and automotive reporters for covering this event.
And now, here’s Dick Harper who did have a million dollars before he traded it for a million shares of General Motors stock…
![[Image]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/GM_headquarters_in_Detroit.JPG)
Thank you Rufus.
If you believe your company has been stolen from you by a conspiracy of politicians, union leaders, and other hoodlums, you’re right.
If you believe 316 people in Washington see the recession as a beneficial event that allows them to institute their grand plan that will sweep into your lives and bankrupt your children and your grandchildren’s grandchildren, you’re right.
If you believe you can’t do anything about it, you’re wrong.
There is a shared cultural belief inside the Beltway that General Motors makes lousy cars and needs to be taken down. That’s just wrong, too.
During his 1955 Senate confirmation hearings to become Secretary of Defense, Charles Erwin Wilson, then Chairman of General Motors, said “for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”
We certainly know now that what is bad for the country is bad for General Motors and vice versa.
I have a four-part plan to fix GM. It’s good for General Motors. It’s good for the country. Here’s what we need to do:
- The Department of Justice needs to prosecute the UAW under Taft-Hartley as well as under United States antitrust laws. Heck Judge Harold Greene broke up AT&T with less grounds. Frankly, I think the D.O.J. should bring R.I.C.O. indictments but I’m afraid the evidence would get buried in a landfill somewhere.
- The U. S. Congress needs to prosecute the Administration for Grand Theft (Autos). If lying under oath is grounds for impeachment, isn’t stealing the 600 million shares held by almost every pension fund, mutual fund, and individual investor in this country grounds for conviction?
- The Department of the Treasury needs to force the banks to start making loans or they need to take the bank bailout money back and make the loans themselves.
- The Main Stream Media needs to stop scaring people out of GM dealerships.
Unfortunately, none of that will happen unless we take action.
The Administration says it has reached a deal with GM.
The UAW says it has reached a deal with GM and the government.
GM’s bondholders say they got screwed.
Here are the deals:
- The Administration has “lent” GM $19.4 billion dollars. The Administration will now “forgive” $10 billion of that for half of all GM stock.
- The UAW will “forego” $10 billion of the $20 billion in cash payments owed to the UAW health-care trust for 39% of all GM stock.
- The Administration says the bondholders must “abandon” $27 billion for just 10% of all GM stock.
- The Administration says we existing shareholders can pound sand for just 1% of all GM stock.
If any publicly traded company (like GM, for example) had fragged their shareholders and creditors this way under law that was in place up through a couple of weeks from now, prosecutors wouldn’t have time to indict the directors under R.I.C.O. because said shareholders would have already burned down this glass-towered Detroit headquarters right behind me.
If I really had a million shares of General Motors stock, do you suppose anyone would really listen?
We drove the money changers from the Temples 2,000 years ago.
We drove the Princes from the parishes 400 years ago.
We drove the Kings from the land 200 years ago.Somehow, they’ve all come back to haunt us.
The Senate has 57+2 “pretend” Democrats; the House has 256 registered ones for 315 total votes. The guy in the White House adds number 316.
General Motors reported 173,007 deliveries of those “lousy cars” in April. All four GM core brands reported sales increases compared with March.
D.O.J. may be too busy going after companies for “foreign bribes” to go after the unions for domestic ones.
Among anti-competitive union activities, the Taft-Hartley Act prohibits union political donations.
It is only a slight digression to mention that the majority of Chrysler dealers who were closed had contributed to the GOP.
Other shared cultural beliefs inside the Beltway have included:
“We are all guilty of [insert the meme of the day]”;
“The Taliban has the right to impose religious beliefs. Christians do not.”
“The life of a Soft Shelled turtle is more important than the traffic fatalities of people on an old old bridge.”
and “Don’t trust anyone over 30.”
Oh. Wait. Never mind.
Beware. There is arithmetic here so it may be a little hard for Congress to follow.
There are about 600,000,000 current GM shares issued. GM will soon do a 100:1 reverse stock split. That puts about 6,000,000 GM “new” shares in the hands of current shareholders. The market price of the GM “new” shares will be about $115 per share, based on current market trends.
GM will issue 62,000,000 more new shares to cover all the stock giveaways. That brings the total shares in play to about 68,000,000.
The bondholders paid about $27 billion for their bonds. Existing shareholders paid a total about $11 billion for the shares they now own.
Remember, The Administration will “buy” 50% of all GM new stock for $10 billion. The UAW will “buy” 39% of the GM new stock for $10 billion. The bondholders must “buy” 10% of the GM new stock for $27 billion. Existing shareholders will effectively “buy” the remaining 1% of the GM new stock for the $700 million market value that they paid, on average, about $11 billion for.
Does anybody see fairness in forcing one group to pay 57 times more than another group for exactly the same item? It means the government effectively will pay $438 for the Silverado I just bought for $25,000.
That sounds rather like the way Medicare works, doesn’t it?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The conference room soon after the explosion.
The 20 July plot of 1944 was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, inside the Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg, East Prussia.
The plot was the culmination of the efforts of the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi regime. Its failure, both in Hitlers Wolfs Lair (Wolfsschanze) Headquarters and then in Berlins Bendlerblock, led to the arrest of at least 7,000 people by the Gestapo.[1] According to records of the Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 4,980 people were executed,[2] which ultimately led to the destruction of the resistance movement in Germany.
The 7,000 people were not armed.
–George
The most impressive part of this is that there are two general populations who pushed GM into their financial Donnybrooke:
1. As you mention, there is that shared cultural belief within the beltway, especially among libruls, that GM makes junk. The leader of this population is none other than the POTUS and the Democratic Party, which at this point in time pretty much encompasses the majority of the US gummint. Their steadfast public denigration of GM products has certainly not helped GM sales volume, which translates directly and quickly to lost profitability.
2. UAW strikes against GM and GM suppliers cost GM billions over the last 2 years — a billion to resolve American Axle alone. And UAW work rules rendered GM’s EFFECTIVE labor expenditures to be nearly double what they should be. (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_606661.html)
SO — It is clear that these two groups have pushed GM to bankruptcy. Whether they did this intentially or not, how is it that they get the best deal?
And if it WAS intentional, why are they not in jail?