On Jun 1, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Charles Bennett wrote: > Neither, I just think it's a shame that the bond holders were > portrayed as a bunch of fat cats that could afford to take 10 cents on > the dollar, when, in reality there are a lot of small folks that are > going to get hurt. *if* the government was going to get involved at > all, it should have made sure that the small bond holders. say 150k or > less, were protected first.
I'm not without sympathy for the small bondholders but my sympathy is tempered by the realization that when GM decided to abandon their electric car and de-emphasize smaller lines like the Saturn in favor or pushing Hummers it was pretty obvious that they were making a big bet on declining real oil prices. My recollection is that GM bonds have been low rated for years. They were a fairly risky investment and most people knew it. > I have this bad feeling that we will end up driving Trabants because > some Barney Franks type > will decide that GM needs to make a small car, regardless of whether > anyone wants to buy it and he will have the full power of the treasury > to insure that they stay in business. This argument would carry a lot more weight if events hadn't proved the Barney Franks of the world right. I'm a big white guy and I own a big white truck but I have to shake my head in wonder when some of my buddies talk as if GM's problem was that they didn't appeal to our demographic. Their problem is they didn't do anything else. Should've listened to Barney Frank. > > Add to that that the unions vote can now be bought by simply pouring > government money into their company, profitable or not, and you have a > witches brew that boggles the mind. You can make an argument that unions still have too much political power but to be credible you have to start out acknowledging that their power has been diminishing for decades and that they certainly don't bear much responsibility for the current financial collapse. -- The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. -Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945) _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
