GM- Contract Law is Now a Handi- Wipe
May 31, 2009 Political
Yea, I know, another interminable piece on the Auto Industry, but this has wider implications than just your ride to work, or even what you drive. The bedrock of our legal system, at least when it comes to doing business in this country, as well as many other countries, is Contract Law.
A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act, which resulting contract is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement. [1] That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.
Agreement is said to be reached when an offer capable of immediate acceptance is met with a “mirror image” acceptance (ie, an unqualified acceptance). The parties must have the necessary capacity to contract and the contract must not be either trifling, indeterminate, impossible or illegal. Contract law is based on the principle expressed in the Latin phrasepacta sunt servanda (usually translated “pacts must be kept”, but more literally “agreements are to be kept”).[2] Breach of contract is recognized by the law and remedies can be provided.
Technically, any oral agreement between two parties can constitute a binding legal contract. The practical limitation to this, however, is that only parties to a written agreement have material evidence (the written contract itself) to prove the actual terms uttered at the time the agreement was struck. In daily life, most contracts can be and are made orally, such as purchasing a book or a sandwich. Sometimes written contracts are required by either the parties, or by statutory law within various jurisdiction for certain types of agreement. For example when buying a house[3] or land.
en.wikipedia.org
In plain language, the written contract trumps all else- unless kyou are the United States government intent on rewarding friends of those in power. In that case, contract law becomes null and void- or what ever the king says it is.
In this case, the King and his diminutive jester, little Timmy Geithner, have declared that the unions, who supported the Chicago gangster in his bid to steal our country, have to be repaid, and now they have received not one, but two shiny car companies to play with, while the people who invested in GM and Chrysler have to stand in the back of the line, hat in hand.
I know that Barama and his party love class warfare- without it they wouldn’t have been elected- however, the facts are that these “big, greedy, Bond- holders” that the liberals love to demonize are holders of the same bonds that school teachers, pipefitters, and other, more mainstream workers have in their portfolios for their retirements, and now they are darn near worthless, all because Barama put the unions at the head of the line.
And it’s not just that, although the breaking of contracts is as serious as a heart attack, legally- all of this could have been done six months ago, without all of our money going into a pit of no return- the sheer idiocy is shocking.
GM’s bondholders had a 5 p.m. Saturday deadline to accept an offer to swap their $27 billion in debt for at least a 10 percent stake in a new GM. If the Treasury doesn’t get the support it wants, bondholders could wind up with far less in bankruptcy court.
The Treasury Department had no immediate comment on the deadline passing, and GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the automaker did not plan to make any statements Saturday.
GM took a huge restructuring step Friday when the United Auto Workers union agreed to a cost-cutting deal, and early Saturday, Germany’s finance minister said a plan was approved for Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. to move ahead with a rescue of GM’s Opel unit.
But there was still much to do to beat the government’s Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. The company already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.
But there was still much to do to beat the government’s Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. The company already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.
Houston Chronicle, Sunday May 31, 2009
Over 50 billion dollars, and that is just GM that they are talking about. If we had had the bankruptcy in November, we could have saved this money, and the unions would have gotten what they deserved under the law- far less in the immediate future, but a possible future, at least. This way, they have a shiny toy they have no idea how to operate efficiently, nor will they have the time to learn on the go, because I am certainly reluctant to buy something that would be designed by the government, and bossed by the unions.
Unions are good at putting nuts on bolts (and even then they have robots to show them how and help. What unions are not good at is management- they are vastly unsuited to the task, as unions and management have been natural adversaries for as long as there have been unions. Oh what will they do when someone has that inevitable grievance- who will they demonize? The we did it to ourself scenario doesn’t play well with liberals who like to always deflect responsibility and blame- but with the unions in charge the buck’s gotta stop somewhere. Perhaps they’ll play a version of spin the bottle to see who to blame.
Meanwhile, the poor bondholders have to do as the government tells them to do- they have no options, unless they want to run into a buzz saw of governmental red tape that would make their life hell for the next five years or so. Wow, what a deal- this is certainly a day to remember, when your own government screws you out of the money you are legally obligated to by law, but are denied because of crass, lowly, political favoritism dished out by a group of mafia wannabes in governmental guise.
They’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Wish in One Hand…
May 29, 2009 Political
My goodness, there was only one thing that Barama HAD to get right in his first one hundred days, and that was the housing crisis, and he hasn’t even come CLOSE to making a dent in the bad news. One has to wonder if they even know how, or perhaps they are too busy naming “czars” to realize that the rest of the country, who don’t have cushy jobs with free housing, free food, free limos, are losing first their jobs, and then their houses.
About 5.4 million of the country’s 45 million home loans were delinquent or in some stage of the foreclosure process in the first three months of the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. About 12.07 percent of all mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, up from 11.93 percent at the end of 2008.
Suspensions on foreclosures imposed by lenders and underwriters have mostly ended, and banks are moving quickly against homeowners who fall behind.
Housing specialists said the number of foreclosures would probably keep rising as more people lose jobs or are forced to trade full-time work for part time. Nearly six million jobs have been lost since the recession began a year and a half ago, and many economists expect unemployment to rise to 10 percent by next year, from 8.9 percent now.
More and more people are losing their homes simply because Barama has done nothing, except throw money away- the Chinese are appalled at the profligate behavior, specifically because they own most of our debt, and they do not want to lose their money. Money is serious business to them, and Barama’s mishandling of or nation’s finances horrifies them.
It’s not making us feel real good either. Five months into his reign- er , term, the situation has gone from bad to worse, as the Auto companies GM and Chrysler have gone bankrupt, AFTER receiving billions of dollars that are just GONE- we will never be able to recoup this money. We could have put these companies through the bankruptcies without all of that money disappearing. Now, even after giving control of these companies to the unions in a remarkable display of sheer idiocy- after all, unions are great at putting huts on bolts, but balance sheets are altogether different- these unions will survive, from the top down. Do any of you union people who will lose your jobs (and there’s an estimated 20,000 of you), truly think that any of the union bosses will lose THEIRS? Not in Barama’s world.
The wave of employment-driven foreclosures could pose new challenges for the Obama administration as it tries to stabilize falling housing values. In March, the administration outlined a multifaceted program that aims to help as many as nine million homeowners refinances mortgages and stay in their houses.
A group of economists at the Boston Federal Reserve said in a recent paper that foreclosure prevention programs could be more effective if they gave direct aid to struggling homeowners, rather than modified loans to reduce monthly payments.
The figures released Thursdaysuggested that prime fixed-rate loans were supplanting risky subprime loans and rising adjustable-rate mortgages as the force behind the foreclosure crisis.
Barama has been so concerned with doing as much as he can in a short time that he has done nothing effectively- it is possible to dilute any effectiveness by spreading it too thin, and that is what has been happening. Now, no one is satisfied, noone is better off, with the possible exception of union leaders and all the “czars”, with their fancy new titles, and do nothing jobs. So much tried to so LITTLE effect- an award for total incompetence should be called an “Obama”, but in this case, the entire administration can share in the shame of so utterly failing the American People.
Liberals love to point out that it was Bush who began this with the 350 billion that he spread out as the TARP funds, but that is now chump change, and this folly is fully Barama’s to own and enjoy. Boy oh boy, is he enjoying our discomfort now- he surely must, because he just keeps on piling on, using the mantra “Too Big To Fail”. Perhaps he can borrow Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” when he finally bankrupts this nation as seems to be his agenda.
They say when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging, but Barama just gets a bigger shovel- perhaps he’s digging his way to China.
That way it will be easier to go kowtow to them when asking for more money- after all we all know Barama must be “Too big to fail”- even if, in the end, nothing else is.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: foreclosures, gm, monetary waste, unions
Those who do not know History…
May 13, 2009 Political
I get frustrated sometimes, having to tell someone that this time isn’t unique, and if you take away the election of an African- American, and just substitute the election of a man, (which is how it should be viewed), all of this economic cycle, complete with both the recession and the attempted government interference in the free market has all happened before in history. Study the terms of Franklin Roosevelt and you have almost the same things attempted, and the same things failing.
Roosevelt tried “stimulus”, in the form of temporary jobs, and they did have the effect of slowing the fall, but they had no real, long- term effect on the economy, because in order to affect the economy in a positive, long- term way, you actually have to make “new” money, not recirculate money around. If you have several people in a circle, and you pass a ten dollar bill from one to the other, everybody gets ten dollars, for a minute, but it is the same ten dollars, versus someone from outside the circle putting money into the circulation, which is new money, and it accumulates- more and more money finds its way into the circulation.
All these “green” jobs, and road jobs are fine and dandy for the moment, but they truly are not adding much to the economy, because to do this, we need to actually create something, and it must be private industry that does this. And when private industry does this, government must stand out of the way.
Government has always been a handicap to free markets, first, because government wants its cut of any profits, and second, because government has this irrational compulsion to “make things fair” in the markets. That concept is hilarious- that’s like trying to make a snake and a rat good friends- that’s not going to happen. The business world is in a constant state of flux, with companies rising and falling according to the markets.
Our problem has come about because of a lack of blue- collar infrastructure, and no- I am nor talking about the unions, they have been part of the problem here.
It all began with the experiment of “Globalization”, and the global economy, as if we would ever do well having our economy tied in any way to that of Sri Lanka, or Thailand, or Venezuela, for that matter. People in governments around the world have been pushing to “Globalize” the economy, much as the Europeans did with their common currency, and relaxed borders.
This won’t work with us, or I should say, it shouldn’t work with us, but Barama is part of the group that thinks that having one happy world will be a good thing. The problem is, in order to do this, our economy will have to go down to third- world levels, and we all become poorer because of it.
A good example might be a container with several compartments- you can fill these several compartments with different levels of water, but if there is no separation between the compartments, the water seeks its own level, and everybody has the same amount. This is contrary to free and open markets, where a person can make as much as the market can bear. A country that is productive doesn’t have to prop up a country that does no work- the last thing we need is a country on welfare.
Then you mix in the unions, which began as a good thing, but became useless, because they believed they were bulletproof- not so, and their thinking was so calcified, that they didn’t see it coming. Globalization, NAFTA, CAFTA, all the various openings that appeared in the world trade situation did the unions no favors- their status and membership shrank like a cheap chinese cotton shirt.
Unions, with the exception of those with captive corporations, lost their influence, because the manufacturing corporations found that they could move to a more favorable climate with regards to wages and taxes, and so they moved from our shores. No unions, lower wages, less taxes- what was not to like? Who cares if the quality is shoddy- if everybody wears shoddy clothes, who knows the difference?
There is no way to get them back. Absent lowering our wages to third- world amounts, those companies are gone forever. Neither can we completely close our borders to trade, for we no longer make what the world wants- they are beating a path to someone else’s door.
The best we can hope for is that we learn our lesson, re- institute a free market, and do what Americans have done through the ages- re- invent, retool, and rebuild our economy, but we will not be able to do this successfully if the unions cannot bring some innovative ideas and flexible thinking to the table. Neither can we do this if the government insists on impeding these ideas with government regulations. The government needs to step out of the way, and try to sweeten the deal with tax breaks for companies that locate here.
Manufacturing must return to the United States. Blue collar jobs must be held by Americans first, because blue collar jobs are the backbone of this country, and lets face facts- not everybody is cut out to be a software designer or a lawyer. The Nation needs carpenters and bricklayers also, and these people deserve a living wage in order to be a productive member of society.
Only by being able to get ahead can they begin to start their own small businesses.
And that is how we begin to get out of this mess.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: globalization, living wage, nafta, small business, unions
The Unpleasant Truth
May 5, 2009 Political
Well, if you had even a rudimentary brainstem, you had to see this coming- well, if you were not a liberal, you had to see this coming. The Chinese no longer want to buy our T-Bills, the government bonds that Barama has been borrowing against in order to pay for his little spending spree.
Addiction psychiatrists call what is happening, “Refresh the Joy”, by which they describe the urge of compulsive buying, usually seen in Lottery winners who constantly need to buy stuff to re- energize their pleasure. Sooner or later, they DO run out of money, or in Barama’s case, sugar daddies. This is the truth- there is no more money- the Chinese have cut up our credit card, and the Saudis are not far behind.
Barama went to the well too often, or to paraphrase Rhomboid Emmanuel, we’re gonna have to waste a few crises. There are no more people who will lend us any money, and truth be told, we have nothing that anyone wants right now- we no longer manufacture anything of any material value except cars, and we can see how well that is going. Our manufacturing base, the true base of any economy, has vanished over the years, leaving a hole you could pitch Al Sharpton through. No more good textiles, no more good steel, all of the manufacturing infrastructure has vanished- outsourced to the cheapest bidder- never a good outcome in the long run.
I could lay the blame at the feet of the unions, and they do deserve some of the blame, but NAFTA, and CAFTA, and the “Global Economy” that the last three Presidents have touted have done their dead- level best to wreak havoc on our economy. The minute that companies found that they could have a world full of workers they could get at starvation wages, they jumped at the chance to relocate to a less- taxed, less unionized, less worker overhead environment in a heartbeat.
You see, Corporations have no soul, except that of the CEO and Board of Directors, and to rely on their uncertain loyalty while the government and public cusses them and penalizes them and taxes them to within an inch of their life, only makes them relocate even faster. There is no national loyalty anymore, unfortunately- why should there be? Just loyalty to the bottom line, and as one market’s wages come up, these companies will relocate yet again to try and retain their market share.
So now Barama has no other option but to tax people- a lot- a lot of people, a lot of taxes, in order to just pay the vig, and he will. A lot. Oh, he’ll put on his unhappy face, so you know he feels your pain, but he will still do it- “Give ’til it Hurts” used to be a motto, and he will expect that of everyone he can get ahold of. Some companies have already skipped out- Haliburton, every liberal’s whipping boy, has relo’ed to Dubai, and I am sure there are others who saw the taxes on the wall, flung there by the Democratic Party.
I have to say, I have no good idea of how to get out of this situation, but I DO know it is not by spending more money. AIG could have, and should have been broken apart, and the various divisions sold- most of them were solid, it was only the division relegated to dealing with the sub prime loans that was the problem. It should have gone to bankruptcy re- organization, or written off as loss, and we the taxpayers would not have had to dole out 150 billion dollars.
GM, and Chrysler should have gone straight to bankruptcy- no bail out at all. The banks should stand or fall on their own. Sure some people would get hurt- but not the whole nation, as is the case now. Pain, even that felt financially, is a wonderful teacher- it teaches us that an economy based solely on spending is a hollow economy, rotten to the core, and we must somehow find our way back to being a producer of substance, because a true, solid economy is based on what a country can and does produce.
I saw this in a newspaper, and thought it worth passing along- There are about 40 million people in the U.S. over the age of fifty. The crisis would be solved if Barama gave each one of these over fifty people a million dollars, with three conditions attached: One- Quit your job- forty million job openings, job crisis solved. Two- pay off your mortgage, or buy a new home- housing crisis solved. Three- buy a new American car- forty million cars sold, auto crisis solved, all for less than Barama has used up until now.
I don’t know about you, but that would work for me, and it would have been faster than this garbage he’s trying now.
And THAT’S an Unpleasant Truth.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Beware The Union Label
May 1, 2009 Political
Well, it’s finally happened, the union bosses finally own a business- Chrysler. 55% of the ownership will be the unions- this is part of the payback for the unions supporting Barama, and helping cram him down our throats. Now the Bosses can play with their very own company.
Let’s see if they can bury this business as quickly as Tony Soprano could bury his enemies.Maybe they’ll go from house to house, making an offer we can’t refuse, but I ain’t buying it.
The only way they will make money will be if every union guy buys a Chrysler. Then, we’ll know when they are coming down the street.
This would be hilarious if it wasn’t such a large chunk of and American business- it gives me the mental picture of Lucy Ricardo on the candy assembly line. I imagine the unions may do as well as Lucy.
The unions have absolutely no business owning anything-they have no history of being competent to own anything. Heck, their membership has been shrinking for years, as they and their legacy demands have driven businesses out of the U.S. Even airlines are opting to get their mechanical repairs done overseas, to avoid onerous costs. This is because after the “Global Economy” opened up, the companies realized they had options , and, as everyone knows, corporations have no soul, and no allegiance to a country. It’s all a balance sheet item to them.
So unions miscalculated, and like the rest of the world, were behind the curve in accepting the new, Global paradigm that NAFTA, CAFTA, and Free Trade brought about. Believe me, if we could change it most of us would. Sure we might not get plums from Chile out of season, or cheap bananas from Guatemala, but we could still have clothes that were made right, not like they were made in a communist country with artificial everything, and no safety checks on what we wear or consume. I’d rather not go up in flames just by wearing a foreign product. I know, but I’m just crazy that way.
We have almost no manufacturing capacity left. I used to love American made clothing- it was high quality, and it lasted. We have ceded almost all of our steel- making factories to China, and indeed, almost everything else, including food safety. Up until last year, I wasn’t aware that Melamine was considered, in China, to be a major food group. The companies that haven’t relocated overseas to escape crushing union costs have been bought by foreign competition, such as the Mrs. Baird’s Bakery, an institution in Texas for over 100 years, which was sold to a Mexican bakery chain.
The only unions that still have viability today are those with captive corporations, like ATT, GTE, and other communications networks, the service industry union which cleans rooms in hotels, and the auto industry.
All the rest of the unions may be hanging on, but it’s by their fingernails, and I blame the union management. While massive changes were going on, changes that shifted the power structure against the unions,the bosses were having a party on the union members dime, and missed it, just flat missed it completely.
So now the bosses want the Card Check act, or as it is otherwise known, the Employee Free Choice Act- a deceiving piece of legislation by which they hope to fool or force others into union membership, by signing a card indicating that they want a union, in front of a union steward, rather than having a secret ballot with no union intimidation.
A secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of American voting life, so why would a group that professes to be American to the core be willing to sacrifice a traditional American value such as the Secret Ballot? Easily explained, it’s all about survival- with union membership going down, and companies fleeing our shores for cheaper and less contentious labor overseas, the union bosses have to come up with some other cash cow, or management will actually have to find a job, and that, in their minds, is just not right. Other people work, they have better things to do, like party at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami, where the rooms start at $400.00 a night, and that is not even ocean view. All on the union member’s dime. Don’t you think, in this economy, they could have scaled back their “meeting”?
If card check passes, (and it probably will, with all the socialists in office), this will be the death knell of many businesses and certainly the utter demise of any and all manufacturing in this country, except what is ordered by the union’s new partner, the government- who will do everything they can to ensure that we the people buy union, even if we can’t afford it, or just plain do not want to. We the people will become the peon class to our new lords the union bosses and government hacks, oh joy.
I’m getting a tingle down my leg- if I am lucky, it’s the precursor to a stroke.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: coercion, global economy, nafta, unions