Back in the middle of the one and only Poppy Bush term (we were smarter back then, I guess):
1) GM was supposed to be in major financial difficulties, close to bankruptcy. Sound familiar? They didn't get govt money but
2) they did close many of their US plants with thousands of permanent lay-offs, claiming they had to downsize because they just couldn't afford to keep them open. Meanwhile, unnoticed by the American press, who even then were practicing their Sgt Schultz imitation,
3) GM was building and opening plants overseas in low-tax, low-wage countries.
1) In November, GM announces that it's near bankruptcy and pleads for govt help.
Just two months after celebrating its 100th birthday, General Motors is facing the grim prognosis that it may not survive to see another year unless it is rescued by a bailout from the federal government.
Shares in G.M. sank to their lowest point in 65 years, to $2.92, on Tuesday, the day after the company revealed in a federal filing that its “ability to continue as a going concern” is in substantial doubt because it may run out of money by the end of the year.
2) In January, after receiving a $13.4B grant from a compliant Democrat Congress and a none-too-picky President Obama, GM - which has a history of using lay-offs to balance its stateside books - says that it "is now focused on its latest plan for how it will cut its labor costs." Gee, I wonder how they'll do that?
3) In February, GM announces - in a South American paper - that it intends to build a plant in Brazil. (Via Suburban Guerrilla)
General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."
"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
"Emerging markets" my ass. Those cars will wind up here. We're the market. I know that GM's execs are stoopid beyond belief but even they can't believe that Brazil has a stronger car market than the US or will be less hurt by any global depression that may be wandering around just now looking for a place to land.
This is the same old carnival sideshow refreshed for a new audience of suckers. They've done it before, why not do it again? After all, it worked. As unimaginative as always, GM's corporate mediocrity doesn't allow for invention much less originality. They simply repeat the same formulae, over and over endlessly while the times change around them, patting themselves on the back that in 2008 they are successfully dealing with the crisis of 1978, even though they aren't really doing that, either.
It's nothing more than yet another shameless attempt to break the UAW by making it irrelevant and to weaken it by laying off its members, as well as a blatant gambit to increase its profits at our expense. There is no excuse and there is probably no real bankruptcy threat iac. It's all part of the Korporate Kabuki.
I haven't seen this on the business pages of any major papers and frankly I don't expect to. There aren't enough reporters left in our corporate media who can see far enough past the ends of their noses, buried as they are in the trough, to even notice what's happening let alone then suspect there might be something wicked going on here and actually, you know, report on it.
Arrrrrgh indeed.
Last I knew about Brazil, it was positioned to suffer marginally less than other countries during the recession - good planning with their foreign currency reserves (I think) and smart diversification of their economy. So it's possible that Brazil won't land as hard as other places. But I don't disagree with your point. I didn't think that they could use funds from our gov't to build plants abroad! How nice for GM.
Posted by: eRobin | February 02, 2009 at 10:02 AM