By MARC McDONALD
It's difficult to imagine a more poorly run corporation than General Motors these days. The company reported a $2.5 billion loss in the third quarter and warned that it could run out of cash in 2009. GM's share price is down 78 percent this year.
A lot of people at GM are feeling a lot of pain these days. GM has been shedding jobs left and right and announced it will lay off 3,600 workers beginning early next year.
One person who is not feeling the pain, though, is GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner.
This year, Wagoner will pull down a salary of $2.2 million, in addition to other CEO perks. And last year, Wagoner's total compensation was $14.4 million. That works out to $39,452.05 per day, including weekends. (Note that in 2007, GM lost a staggering $38.7 billion).
And now, Wagoner has the gall to push for a government bailout for his company. In other words, Wagoner is a firm believer in the "capitalist" system when it comes to defending his obscene pay. But he apparently has no qualms about asking for billions of our tax dollars to help fix his sinking company.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of all this is that GM's woes are entirely self-inflicted and the result of poor management over the years. While Toyota was perfecting hybrid technology for its now wildly popular Prius, GM was betting the farm on clunky gas-guzzling SUVs. Now that the latter are out of favor, thanks to sky-high gas prices, GM is on the ropes, because it was too short-sighted and stupid to have a "Plan B."
Actually, I guess GM does have a Plan B---stick out its hand and beg for the government to give it billions of our tax dollars.
So in the end, all of us will wind up paying for this fiasco. GM's workers, who're being laid off by the thousands will suffer the brunt of the pain. We taxpayers will also likely suffer. In fact, just about everyone is going to suffer, in the end. That is, except for the people directly responsible for GM's mess: the over-paid GM executives like Wagoner whose short-sightedness and poor decisions led to the fiasco at GM in the first place.
What's even more astonishing about this story is that Wagoner's fat paychecks dwarf the pay of Toyota's executives (who have traditionally earned only a small fraction of what their Detroit CEO counterparts earn).
Although Japanese CEO pay is not publicly disclosed, it is estimated to be only a fraction of what U.S. automaker CEOs make. For example, the estimated pay of Toyota's CEO in 2005 was under $1 million.
In fact, in recent years, U.S. CEOs have made vastly more than what their counterparts make in other nations. For example, in 2005, a typical Japanese executive made 11 times what a typical Japanese worker earned. In the U.S., the average CEO pulled down a staggering 475 times what the typical American worker earned.
Great Memes, Cont.
1 hour ago
18 comments:
CEO $ = -.1 x Profit
What can you say that hasn't been said before. The people are going to simply have to stop complaining about it and DO something about it and they could start by making sure that they're elected representatives know that a vote for any bailout of GM that doesn't address this kind of crap once and for all is political suicide.
I firmly believe that Wagoner and all of his overfed ilk should fail and fail miserably. They have bled the capitalist system bone dry and run the country into debt. However, GM (all of the Big Three) cannot be let to close their doors. If our large companies fail, the bad job market (which will continue to soften in coming months) will get much worse. The results could be catastrophic: hundreds of thousands or millions suddenly unemployed and poverty rippling through the economy. Wagoner and the bad shepherds that pushed us over this brink are the problem. Not the hundreds of thousands who stand to suffer. Wagoner and company ought to be ousted. Their fortunes ought to be clawed back. But, their companies must be kept afloat or we run "unthinkable" risks.
Right about *here* is where the "free market" fails the test. Obama - please bring the word REGULATION back to the White House.
The only reason to keep this stinking rotten corpse of a company alive - is because the hard working blue collar slaves to this industry had no say in it's terrible leadership. They should be the ones to receive "golden parachutes".
The wonderful thing about capitalism is where one company fails another will swoop in and take that business. Let GM fail, the autoworkers deserve to work for a better car company anyways.
Everyone gets their comupins:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy
Hi Tom: thanks...I couldn't agree more.
Adam: good points you make. But if my tax dollars are going to be used to keep the likes of GM afloat, then I want a cut if GM turns around and becomes profitable again.
Ray: thanks for stopping by. It's interesting how the GOP claims to be against all regulations when in fact, they have no qualms about regulating every single aspect of our lives, (such regulating what goes on in the privacy of our bedrooms).
Over a million people are arrested every year in this nation for marijuana possession--and all of this can be traced back to the GOP's idiotic "war on drugs." (And don't the authorities have better things to do than arrest people for pot in our post 9/11 world?).
Regulating people's personal morals is just fine and dandy with the Repukes.
But letting multinational corporations run amok and destroy the planet---well, to hear the Repukes tell it, my gosh: we can't regulate that in any way.
and fed is doling out loans without much fanfare
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide
when is america - especially the 57 million dolts who voted for mccain and palin going to realize it is not socialism, it is not even capitalism that is killing us
it is CORPORATISM
BEIJING -- General Motors Corp., which is lobbying for a bailout from the U.S. government, is in talks to increase its stake in a Chinese joint venture that makes small, inexpensive vans and trucks, people familiar with the situation said.
The U.S. car maker has entered into negotiations with the government of Guangxi province in southwestern China to expand its stake in SAIC GM Wuling Automobile Co., said Hu Maoyuan, chairman of Chinese car maker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., the majority partner in the joint venture.
The move, according to people close to GM, is aimed at consolidating GM's ownership ...
something seems odd in Alaska and something seems odd all around with 58 Dollar Oil after 150 Oil.And that is after Opec dropped Production by 1.5 million Barrels a Day.For us gold bugs it is important to figure out what is going on.With 50 Dollar Oil we will slide to 600 in Gold.
I can't figure it out.Some say that Bilderbergers are trying to break Venezuela , Iran and Russia to make them more comply end toward not using Euro for Oil.
If somebody here has any explanation could you please let us know.
According to Lindsey Williams there is some huge Fields in Alaska that dwarf Saudi Arabia and enough Gas to last America for 200 Years and it is all sealed of as Wilderness Area for some unknown reason.
I remember on my last blog, in Assclowns of the Week, I reported that GM had two pension plans: One was for the rank and file and the way it was set up, it was actually making money for the company in interest payments.
The second pension plan was for the executives. The way this one was set up, it was a drain on the bottom line. The company had to get rid of one. Guess which one they 86'd?
You got it.
The link is here, if you're curious.
Legacy costs, my ass.
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Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012
Trend forecaster, renowned for being accurate in the past, says that America will cease to be a developed nation within 4 years, crisis will be "worse than the great depression"
Paul Joseph Watson
Propaganda Matrix
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.
Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week.
Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".
"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.
Watch the clip.
Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.
The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.
The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."
In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America.
"There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."
"The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."
"It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more."
"We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."
The George Washington blog has compiled a list of quotes attesting to Celente's accuracy as a trend forecaster.
"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."
— CNN Headline News
"A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties."
— The Economist
"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right."
— USA Today
"There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about."
- CNBC
"Those who take their predictions seriously ... consider the Trends Research Institute."
— The Wall Street Journal
"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark ... he's one of the most accurate forecasters around."
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Mr. Celente tracks the world’s social, economic and business trends for corporate clients."
— The New York Times
"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority."
— 48 Hours, CBS News
"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing."
— The Detroit News
"Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, ‘green marketing,’ and the boom in gourmet coffees."
— Chicago Tribune
"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture."
— The Los Angeles Times
"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."
— New York Post
So there you have it - hardly a nutjob conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now. Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start.
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Hi Distributorcap,
re:
>>>>...it is not socialism, it is
>>>>not even capitalism that is
>>>>killing us
>>>>it is CORPORATISM
Great point and one that we all need to remember.
Hi Jurassicpork, thanks for your comment and the link on pensions. This is truly outrageous.
Hi Anonymous, thanks for this piece on Gerald Celente. I hadn't heard of him before, but now I want to check out his works. He sounds very informed.
This video has been viewed 45,000 times since Friday and now 126,000 times.Gerald Celente predicts Revolutionby 2012. Its on utube. Pleaseeee watch this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MEqEgdLTg
Gerald Celente: Dollar Will Fall 90 Percent
Gerald Celente is not your garden variety doom-and-gloom crackpot. Celente, director of Trends Research Institute, forecasted the subprime mortgage financial crisis and the decline of the dollar a year ago and gold�s current rise in May. He also predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis and the fall of the Soviet Union. �We are going to see economic times the likes of which no living person has see More..n,� he told United Press International.
Wait a minute. That includes people who lived through the so-called �Great Depression.� Does Celente think the �Panic of 2008″ will be worse than the Depression? It would appear so.
�The Panic of 2008 will lead to a lower U.S. standard of living, he said.�
�I have no crystal ball, nor do I claim to have well-developed psychic powers, but I�d be willing to bet almost anything that next Thanksgiving season will be dramatically different from this one,� writes Carolyn Baker.
We are confronting �dollar plummeting hysteria, monumental levels of debt, foreclosure, bankruptcy, unemployment, energy depletion, skyrocketing gas and food prices, illnesses treated without health insurance coverage�or just not treated, unprecedented levels of homelessness, and by all indications, within a few months into 2008, America will be well on the road to a re-run of 1929-or something inconceivably worse,� Baker frets. �These are the good ole days, my friend, and these are also the dark new days. Happy Thanksgiving; savor every bite.�
�Derivative dealers, hedge funds, buyout firms and other market players will also unravel,� Celente predicts.
Massive corporate losses, such as those recently posted by Citigroup Inc. and General Motors Corp., will also be fairly common �for some time to come,� he said.
He said he would not �be surprised if giants tumble to their deaths��
Some giants, however, stand to gain, especially when it comes to real estate. �There is going to be a grab on this property by people who have cash, and that�s not going to be the middle class. People will lose their homes if they have large mortgages that they cannot comfortably sustain or pay off,� Jerome Corsi, economic expert and foe to the emerging North American Union told Alex Jones last August. �There�s going to be a grab where the institutions and the people already wealthy will only gain, it�s not going to be an opportunity for the average person to gain.�
Corsi believes the economic crisis now revealing itself is engineered. �It is engineered because again, the move toward globalism, the pumping of this liquidity to stimulate the markets was totally artificial.�
The federal reserve is going to get caught right now in a total dilemma, if it raises rates to protect the dollar, its going to further tank the economy and cause the housing markets to be in even more of a crisis. We have economic stagnation, the loss of real income, the loss of real wealth and inflation at the same time. With the dropping of the dollar the crisis is going to be manipulated to the point where people will take the Amero or any regional solution if it is proposed as the way you get out of your problem.
It�s all about wiping the chessboard clean, or rather turning it over and dumping all the pieces:
�This is the fastest run I�ve seen ever to get to the goal line of creating a Untied States regional economy, a North American Union. The elite are running like they�ll never have this chance again. It is the tenth hour, the eleventh hour where this battle will be fought. They believe that they can win now and they are going for broke to create a North American Union and tank the dollar.�
Steven Watson, writing for Infowars, summarizes:
The decline of the economy in the US is being caused by the very predatory globalist policies that are still presented to us as the solution for economic turmoil. Globalist vampires such as the IMF and the World bank, but two of the elite central banks and private interests, have drained the third world dry, and are now focusing their attention on enslaving the developed world.
The single currency and a �new economic order� is a major step on the road to global governance. Europe already has its own strong single currency, while the dollar�s days seem to be numbered. When money is being printed and distributed by private corporations is it any surprise to see a push for a merger with other countries� currencies?
Of course, in order to realize this �new economic order,� a whole lot of people will need suffer�and if we are believe Gerald Celente, worse than their grand and great-grand parents did during the so-called �Great Depression.�
�There�s no doubt now, that Fed chairman Alan Greenspan�s plan to pump zillions of dollars into the system via �low interest rates� has created the biggest monster-bubble of all time and set the stage for a deep economic retrenchment,� writes Mike Whitney. �Greenspan�s inflationary policies were designed to expand the �wealth gap� and create greater economic polarization between the classes. By the time the housing bubble deflates, millions of working class Americans will be left to pay off loans that are considerably higher than the current value of their home. This will inevitably create deeper societal divisions and, very likely, a permanent underclass of mortgage-slaves.�
Greenspan has successfully piloted the nation into virtual insolvency. In fact, the parallels between our present situation and the period preceding the Great Depression are striking. Just as massive debt was accumulating in the market from the purchase of stocks �on margin�, so too, mortgage debt between 2000 and 2006 soared from $4.8 trillion to $9.5 trillion. In both cases the �wealth effect� spawned a spending spree which looked like growth but was really the steady, insidious expansion of debt which generated economic activity. In both periods wages were either flat or declining and the gap between rich and working class was growing more extreme by the year.
Anonymous:
"Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start."
bringing an end to profit would be a good place to make a start, anything else is just getting in the way...thankyou for fucking up the entire world in the name of 'freedom' (whatever that is).
All I can say is, God bless you brother! I'm new to this blogging thing with a blog called, socialismisnotevil. All I get are far right wing guys responding to anything I write, I was starting to think I was alone in the universe! Keep up the good work.
Mike
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