GM, Ford report huge losses, worries about survival loom

[JohnWxy]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-11-06-GM-Ford-Pelosi_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip


General Motors and Ford on Friday reported huge third-quarter losses and said they burned through cash at a furious rate.
Before the market opened, Ford Motor said it lost $129 million in the third quarter and burned up $7.7 billion in cash. Later, GM said it lost $2.5 billion and had $6.9 billion in negative cash flow and could run out of cash early in 2009.
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The numbers show the traditional American auto industry is near collapse — so close that industry and labor chiefs have been pleading for a federal bailout to survive. Detroit auto executives and the head of the United Auto Workers union met Thursday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to ask for broader access to low-interest federal loans.
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New vehicle sales have tumbled to a level that, adjusted for population growth, hasn't been this low since just after World War II, an "unsustainably weak level," says Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis.

Without significant revenue — never mind profits — from new vehicle sales, Detroit's cash on hand soon may dwindle to where automakers have too little to keep up day-to-day operations. GM, for example, needs some $14 billion in the bank at any point just to keep the doors open — make payroll, pay for supplies, put aside money for retirees.
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If GM and Ford or Chrysler go under, count on it we're going into a depression. That's too many jobs lost to not affect the rest of the economy.

[amdezurik]

1. sigh, so how much do they want now?

[Kolesar]

2. Wow. 792 posts in six weeks ... eom

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[moofamoofa]

4. c'mon people, buy some SUV's.

do your part an buy a suburban. or an expedition. or my favorite, an american-built nissan armada

[JohnWxy]

5. and that's exactly what people were buying, in great numbers.

And they could do that because the Oil industry had their way, for decades, and our government had policies that gave oil companies tax benefits which artificially lowered the price of gas in the U.S.

Anytime the Democrats tried to do the responsible, forward looking thing (like increase CAFE requirements), the Republicans made them pay for it by telling the public we could ignore reality and keep on using oil like there was no end in sight or that global warming was just "junk science". because the Republicans were being paid by the oil companies they also ignored the enormous cost to our economy of the out-flows of cash to import billions of barrels or oil each year.

But when did Republicans worry about what was right for the country? They only lust for MONEY and POWER.