Now THIS is how you bail out GM

[Gutenberg]

I stand by my premise that distributing stock certificates will result in nothing much more than premature sales of the stock, driving the price down and decapitalizing the company. That should not be the point of trying to save the company.

As far as simply letting the company fail, the collateral damage is too severe to contemplate.

I have owned nothing but GM cars in the last ten years. They have been fine cars. I liked them much better than the Toyotas I owned before them. The Toyotas cost me money every time I turned around, it seemed. Exhaust, temperature control, body rust, cracked engine block, etc. etc. etc. Nothing but trouble.

[Greg the dogsitter]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
You seem to have this idea that this is going to turn into some sort of subsidy (once again the ACORN nonsense rears its head) for unworthy people. Same old broken record from the dittoheads.

Just remember, those awful ACORN people will own shares right along with you, as will their swarthy compadres.

I am tired of this sort of veiled bigotry.
Did you just accuse yourself of being bigoted in a quoted post?

:-)

[OWC Jamie]

The government is giving them credit that doesn't exist.

Unless each individual taxpayer is actually ponying up the dollars to purchase these shares the tax payer is buying absolutely nothing. There is nothing to "give back".
It'll be your great great grandkids who pay for any non returned bonds.
You want shares you can buy them right now.
Government doesn't have to hold your hand.


My previous vehicle to my current one was a Pontiac Grand Am. 340,000 miles.
Gave it to a nephew for school, he traded it in on a Miata when he graduated and started working.

[kj]

Gutenberg wrote:
I have owned nothing but GM cars in the last ten years. They have been fine cars. I liked them much better than the Toyotas I owned before them. The Toyotas cost me money every time I turned around, it seemed. Exhaust, temperature control, body rust, cracked engine block, etc. etc. etc. Nothing but trouble.

That's cool. You put your money where your mouth is. It sounds like you really do think it's a sound investment. And it could be. kj.

[Dennis S]

The government "bailouts" are odious enough, but apparently necessary. But, we shouldn't take another another step toward more government entanglement in private enterprise by issuing stock certificates.

[Gutenberg]

kj, the 2008 Cobalt I bought in May cost me $13,788, and it came pretty loaded. Cruise control, AC, automatic transmission, keyless remote, a little jack for my iPod, side airbags. I could not have gotten a comparable Japanese car for the price. I don't blame people for passing over GM cars because they were so horrible in the 70s and 80s but they're competitive now.

[Mac1337]

Dennis S wrote:
The government "bailouts" are odious enough, but apparently necessary. But, we shouldn't take another another step toward more government entanglement in private enterprise by issuing stock certificates.

How does government buying GM stocks and then promptly divesting itself from them is entanglement? Buying and keeping shares, the way they did with some banks, is entanglement. Would you buy stocks in your brokers name hoping that he will return capital gains to you?

[kj]

Gutenberg wrote:
kj, the 2008 Cobalt I bought in May cost me $13,788, and it came pretty loaded. Cruise control, AC, automatic transmission, keyless remote, a little jack for my iPod, side airbags. I could not have gotten a comparable Japanese car for the price. I don't blame people for passing over GM cars because they were so horrible in the 70s and 80s but they're competitive now.

Can't argue with that. I drove two rental Malibus, which I think are very similar cars to the cobalt (epsilon platform?) and they were nice, solid feeling cars. I liked the one with the smaller engine better though (the v6 made it a pig). And even if they are less reliable, you can make a lot of repairs for a few thousand. kj.

[Dennis S]

Issuing stock certificates is even MORE entanglement. Enough is enough.

[lafinfil]

So is it cheaper to mail these stocks than the checks you were complaining about mailing ?

I'm still working on the cost benefit analysis