Nope. That money came from the Fed Reserve (Private Bank) which has nothing to do with our government. They call it the Fed Reserve to confuse the public. They're simply loaning money to private companies that struggled during the crisis. Nothing at all wrong with that.

 

This is a hilarious zinger to those guys who "went to Ford because they don't take any government money".

 

Cool, the few times I've been down there with Michelin I noticed alot of BMWs. IIRC thats one of the reasons why they use BMWs over at the Laurens Proving Grounds.

 

The same type of people that say Ford didn't take any government money are the same types of out of touch people (on the opposite end of the spectrum) that are still pathetically still posting that the government buying GM was bad. They aren't operating in reality.

Every car company that does business in the US (especially if they had a plant here) got some government money during the recession. Regardless as to if it was money to help consumers with financing, money to retool plants, money or in the form of special tax breaks (tax breaks are spending too). And, it's just like you and me... the Feds gave us stimulus checks a few years ago...we didn't exactly refuse it, now did we?

The way the story was structured, it attempted to imply that Ford (through some secret, away from the public eye) took government money, most likely as a way to soften the reality about GM by pointing the finger elsewhere.

However, the whole comparison is like comparing an apple to a bulldozer. A poorly managed company that was at a point where it's market value was measured in negative numbers having the Feds actually buying them after bankruptcy to save the economy, versus another company that has done perhaps the turnaround of the decade, neither having sales or quality issues getting Federal money to offset the effects of banks refusals to lend money to people to buy cars.

In all of this, there is one glaring item I think you're missing.

While giving GM over $100 billion was the lesser of all evils, and at the time it was iffy if the Feds would get that money back, money to help US car makers with car loans are granted to individuals with intrest and there was never, ever, ever any doubt that those dollars to FMC and GMAC would be repaid.

Ford uses Ford Motor Credit, and GMAC does car loans for both GM as well as Chrysler, so all US car companies were helped. It was done to keep car sales going and keep people working.

Completely different from the Fed's "investment" in GM.

Again, not much of a story here.

 

What really disturbs me are all those guys who left GM because GM took government money.

Those paint chip eating, moronic retards never comprehended the fact that if the Feds hadn't stepped in, there would have been no GM whatsoever to leave from.

Between taking the money and restructuring and surviving, versus oblivion, I imagine the educational level (let alone the IQ level) of GM's customers have gone up a couple of notches....

.....and maybe Ford's has gone down?

 

Dude, maybe you should dial the my-s**t-don't-stink attitude down a notch or three. It's getting a little old.

 

Not defending anything else in here, but it wasn't 100 billion. The total may have been 60 billion. The US bid for GM included debt owed the gov't. That would be counting the numbers twice.

 

You still didn't respond to my original post....show me proof GM received $100B.

I still think its odd this was just now released. AFAIK the name of every other company who received TARP funds was released....

 

Yeah it's been about 10 years since I worked there, fun job as far as jobs go.

 

This wasn't TARP money, although GMAC received plenty of that, also.

This was commercial paper buying, by the Federal Reserve. This is what happens every single day, by the banking system, when it is operating properly. At that time, it was not operating at all.

The Federal Reserve buying the commercial paper from these lenders (auto loans that are serviced), put the money back in the lenders hands, to be lent out to other people.

As has been said many times, this is how it is handled every single day. This is how lending institutions have the money to lend.

There is alot of confusion about the differences between the Federal Reserve, TARP, and the "Feds."

I believe that Guy is counting all monies received by GM, which also includes GMAC monies.............. if I am not mistaken. There is also the chunk of money that was given to GM, by GWB, that noone talks about.............. and will never be paid back.

The reason the companies were not named, at the time, was to prevent the further eroding of confidence, by the public. The general public really had no idea how close the entire banking system came, to total collapse.

 

While not quite the same help as GM, Chrysler or AIG received there are not many companies in any form of American business that can honestly brag thet they didn't receive any help from the federal Gov't in this recession.

 

Well, I almost said, "just like mine..." to this, but honest reflection on my part is that some of our work (if you look closely) has federal tentacles. I suspect most of us are in this camp.

 

Guy said

They didn't buy them after bankruptcy for $60B....it was money already loaned that was converted to stock (equity in the company).


And yes you are right about GWB giving them money. It was $13.4B. To say no one talks about any of the money receive by GM is laughable....

GM received $20.57 prior to bankruptcy & an additional $30B more after. Total $50.57B They repaid $6.7B taking it down to $45.3B - $13.5B repaid through the sale of stock leaves the tab at $31.8B.

It is up for debate whether the Fed will recoop all of this money or not....but the fact is GM is working on repaying their debt unlike Chrysler. There is a huge chunk Chrysler has already announced they will not repay.

BTW GMAC got $13.5B so it still doesn't add up.