What's Good for GM isn't What's Good For America
Sunday, June 7, 2009
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PDF So. Alea iacta est, as Julius Caesar might have said, if there had been a major Roman chariot manufacturer in putative need of nationalization. The nation's largest automaker, our most iconic firm, is bankrupt, GM and Citigroup exit the Dow in favor of Travelers and Cisco.
The first obvious thing to say is that the only alternative the US government probably had to this massively expensive reorganization was probably liquidation. I take seriously the claims that there was no DIP financing available for the automakers.
However. The reason there was no DIP financing available is, at least in part, that there's no obvious upside here. The government is acting as if GM's main problem is that it stubbornly refused to enter the lucrative market for small, fuel-efficient cars. But the market for small, fuel efficient cars is not lucrative--they're the cars with the thinnest margins. And no one's making it up on volume, either: at the height of last year's oil spike, when barrels of Brent Crude were being quoted in first-born sons, small cars soared to . . . 20% of the American market. Yes, there was a glut of SUVs, but that's because American companies were making a lot of SUVs. Foreign companies make money on small cars because they develop them for lucrative home markets before modifying them for American production.
GM's main problem is not that the market is unreasonably unwilling to finance a potentially profitable company. Nor that it can't produce an awesome small car that shockingly few people want to buy. (Believe me, as the owner of a tiny, ultra-efficient car, I would that there were higher demand for my rapidly depreciating asset). GM's main problems are
1) A terrible, bloated cost structure
2) A terrible, bloated bureaucracy
3) A bunch of meh car lines
Which of these is the government going to solve? That terrible, bloated cost structure supports a bloated union whose jobs are the entire rationale for the government intervention. Leaning on the parts suppliers just risks UAW jobs further down the supply chain. Maybe we can take it out of the budget for copy paper and pencils.
Forgive me if I am skeptical that the government is going to show GM how to streamline its bureaucracy. Nor do governments historically have a good record as cutting-edge auto designers.
All the government can give GM is money. Our money. Perhaps we should change the name to American Leyland.
What's Good for GM isn't What's Good For America
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
What's Good for GM isn't What's Good For America
[Source: News Herald]
What's Good for GM isn't What's Good For America
[Source: Mexico News]
posted by tgazw @ 11:33 PM,
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China To Geithner: It Would Be Helpful If You Could Show Us Some Numbers
PrintEmailPDF Geithner told China yesterday that the Obama Administration was committed to bringing down the US deficit.
Really?
Barack Obama will quadruple the deficit this year.
Geithner also told China that Team Obama wants to bring down the deficit next year from 12.9% of GDP this year to 3% of GDP next year (a near impossibility)...
Or, in other words, back into Bush territory.
In response, China told Geithner to show them some numbers!
Bloomberg reported, via Bizblogger:
In an interview with Bloomberg Television May 21, Geithner said the administration?"s goal is to cut the budget shortfall to 3 percent of gross domestic product or smaller. That would be down from a projected 12.9 percent this year.
Seventeen of 23 Chinese economists polled in connection with Geithner?"s visit said holdings of Treasuries are a ?Sgreat risk? for the nation?"s economy, according to a Chinese state media report yesterday. Still, the majority argued against quickly cutting them, the Beijing-based Global Times reported.
Geithner, 47, needs to show how the U.S. can prevent the value of China?"s investment from being eroded by a weaker dollar or by the inflation that might be stoked by the stimulus money being pumped into the U.S. economy, according to Yu.
?SIt will be helpful if Geithner can show us some arithmetic,? he said.
...The Treasury released a transcript May 30 of a briefing Geithner gave last week at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. In it, he said he will stress with Chinese officials that he?"s intent on maintaining the dollar?"s strength.
?SI will, of course, make it clear that we are committed to a strong dollar, that we are committed to bringing our fiscal deficits down over the medium term to a sustainable place, to a sustainable level,? Geithner said in the briefing May 27. ?SWe believe in a strong dollar. A strong dollar is in the U.S. interest.?
This doesn't sound good at all.
No wonder China is concerned.
The US has lost 16,000 jobs each day since Obama signed the Spendulus Bill and sunk the US economy further into debt.
China To Geithner: It Would Be Helpful If You Could Show Us Some Numbers
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
China To Geithner: It Would Be Helpful If You Could Show Us Some Numbers
[Source: Nbc News]
China To Geithner: It Would Be Helpful If You Could Show Us Some Numbers
[Source: Home News]
posted by tgazw @ 10:41 PM,
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Bin Laden in hiding, Obama in public
PrintEmailPDF by Mark Silva
On the eve of President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world from Cairo, where he will deliver an appeal for mutual understanding, the Arab world has heard from another voice: A recorded audio-tape attributed to Osama bin Laden, fugitive leader of al Qaeda, accusing Obama of fomenting "hatred'' with military action in Pakistan.
The purported broadcast of bin Laden's words, aired by the Arab-language Al Jazeera satellite television station as Obama was arriving in Saudi Arabia today, stood as a stark reminder of the hurdles that the United States still faces throughout the region.
While the president is intent on "resetting''' U.S. relations with the Muslim world in his planned televised address from the campus of Cairo University in Egypt, some of the long-elusive sponsors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults against the United States remain at large and refocused on overturning the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"I don't think it's surprising that al Qaeda would want to shift attention away from the president's historic efforts ... to reach out and have an open dialogue with the Muslim world,'' Robert Gibbs, Obama's press secretary, said as the president was holding private meetings with the king of Saudi Arabia.
Bin Laden, son of a Saudi family that gained enormous wealth in construction and built the royal palaces of the late King Saud, became involved in the militant Jihadist movement in Afghanistan after the Soviet Union invaded that nation. After returning to Saudi Arabia, he was confined to house arrest, and left the country in the early 1990s - his Saudi citizenship publicly revoked in 1994.
If Obama's mission in the Middle East has a clear purpose, the administration maintains, so does the timing of al Qaeda's message.
The tape's broadcast follows comments from al-Qaeda's second- in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urging Egyptians to shun Obama and contending that the "torturers of Egypt" and "slaves of America'' had invited the American leader to speak in Cairo.
The administration has attempted to draw a contrast between an al Qaeda in hiding and an American leader taking a high-profile stance with his appeal to the Muslim world.
"You have, you know, the leader of the free world speaking from one of the great cities in the world, and you have, you know, bin Laden speaking from an undisclosed... location,'' said Philip J. Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs. "That speaks volumes in terms of the contrast.''
Bin Laden in hiding, Obama in public
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Bin Laden in hiding, Obama in public
[Source: 11 Alive News]
Bin Laden in hiding, Obama in public
[Source: Sunday News]
posted by tgazw @ 9:14 PM,
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Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
PrintEmailPDF My cup of sartorial joy brims over with the discovery of Ari Cohen's blog, Advanced Style, which chronicles the style of the chicest, wackiest and best dressed of America's older generation. Here you will find inspiration from vintage style mavens, ranging from 93-year-old model Mimi Weddell, to a dude from Seattle whose fine legs are displayed in stockings and who is topped off with a blazer and cap. Then there's fabric designer Elizabeth Sweetheart, who dresses entirely in green - a different outfit every day. She was recently profiled in New York magazine where she explained the genesis of her eccentric but bizarrely successful look. "I began wearing green nail varnish and it just spread all over me."
Cohen, 27, started the blog last summer. He works in the bookstore at the New Museum but originally came from Seattle where his best friend was his grandmother. "I adored my grandparents. Older people's style has evolved and they don't mind what other people think so much. They just aren't so self-conscious." He says that when he moved to New York last May he noticed immediately how vibrant and stylish older people in the city were, and wanted to start a project to bring that into focus.
The site is gathering momentum along with a mood of greater acceptance and respect for the older practitioners of style consciousness. "People have started to notice older people more," explains Cohen. "You can learn so much from the way an old person wears a coat that they have had for ever with maybe a hat, for instance - these are the last people around who know how to dress formally and they have a confidence about them that younger people just don't have."
Recent trends spotted on the site include bright red lipstick and huge dark glasses - neither of which are age specific but do look fabulous on the denizens of Advanced Style. There's no doubt that when the fat lady finally starts singing, she will do so in Balenciaga, with a slash of red lipstick and possibly some kid gloves taken out of a closet and smelling of the lavender in which they were for decades preserved.
? Emma Soames is editor-at-large of Saga magazine.
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: News Paper]
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Abc 7 News]
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Online News]
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Mma News]
posted by tgazw @ 7:16 PM,
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Some Conservatives Have A Heart!
PrintEmailPDF Some Conservatives Have A Heart!
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Some Conservatives Have A Heart!
[Source: Sunday News]
Some Conservatives Have A Heart!
[Source: Murder News]
posted by tgazw @ 7:12 PM,
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Inviting The Brotherhood, Ctd
PrintEmailPDF Crowley talks to a member of the group:
[Mohamed Habib, deputy chairman of the Brotherhood in Egypt] explained his skepticism about Obama's speech here on Thursday. "If there is no radical change in American policies, I don't think it matters what he says," Habib told me through a translator. "I pity Obama because I know he is not on his own. He is surrounded by different forces--business congolmerates and the Zionist lobby." Nor did Habib care much for the prevailing debate in the US about how much emphasis to place on democracy promotion. "Understand that democracy in the Bush administration was not a goal itself but a curtain to hide the atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan." When it comes to Egypt's internal affairs, all the Muslim Brothers ask, Habib said, was that the US end its support for Hosni Mubarak's regime. "We don't want anything from the U.S. but to back off from supporting existing dictatorships. That's it," he said.Inviting The Brotherhood, Ctd
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Inviting The Brotherhood, Ctd
[Source: October News]
Inviting The Brotherhood, Ctd
[Source: 11 Alive News]
posted by tgazw @ 6:39 PM,
,
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
PrintEmailPDF My cup of sartorial joy brims over with the discovery of Ari Cohen's blog, Advanced Style, which chronicles the style of the chicest, wackiest and best dressed of America's older generation. Here you will find inspiration from vintage style mavens, ranging from 93-year-old model Mimi Weddell, to a dude from Seattle whose fine legs are displayed in stockings and who is topped off with a blazer and cap. Then there's fabric designer Elizabeth Sweetheart, who dresses entirely in green - a different outfit every day. She was recently profiled in New York magazine where she explained the genesis of her eccentric but bizarrely successful look. "I began wearing green nail varnish and it just spread all over me."
Cohen, 27, started the blog last summer. He works in the bookstore at the New Museum but originally came from Seattle where his best friend was his grandmother. "I adored my grandparents. Older people's style has evolved and they don't mind what other people think so much. They just aren't so self-conscious." He says that when he moved to New York last May he noticed immediately how vibrant and stylish older people in the city were, and wanted to start a project to bring that into focus.
The site is gathering momentum along with a mood of greater acceptance and respect for the older practitioners of style consciousness. "People have started to notice older people more," explains Cohen. "You can learn so much from the way an old person wears a coat that they have had for ever with maybe a hat, for instance - these are the last people around who know how to dress formally and they have a confidence about them that younger people just don't have."
Recent trends spotted on the site include bright red lipstick and huge dark glasses - neither of which are age specific but do look fabulous on the denizens of Advanced Style. There's no doubt that when the fat lady finally starts singing, she will do so in Balenciaga, with a slash of red lipstick and possibly some kid gloves taken out of a closet and smelling of the lavender in which they were for decades preserved.
? Emma Soames is editor-at-large of Saga magazine.
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Mexico News]
Emma Soames on fashion and style for the older generation
[Source: Boston News]
posted by tgazw @ 6:07 PM,
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Need to Detox?
PrintEmailPDF 
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Have you ever heard the saying 'my body is a temple'? The typical American doesn't follow that mantra at all. The food we eat, the hygiene products we use and the solvents we clean with all contain artificial preservatives and chemicals that can block up our body's system until we flush them out properly. Just like you change the oil in your car, every now and then it is good to clear out the toxins in our systems and replenish our bodies with healthier vitamins and minerals.
If you often feel sluggish throughout the day, now is a good time to detox your body. The basic tenets of detoxifying focus on ridding the body of the toxins we encounter at work, home or through personal care and replacing them with nourishment for our body. A great place to start is with a detox diet. Simply drink more water and eat more nutrient-rich foods, such as fiber and organic fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile, cut out refined foods with preservatives, additives, hormones and hydrogenated fats. Most importantly, make sure to cleanse and protect the liver, your body's filter, by cutting out all drugs, alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. With dedication, a detox diet should leave you with more energy and you may even lose weight. Number 4 on our list claims that the Orovo Detox will help you lose 7 pounds in 7 days!
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Also Try: Liver detox, detox diet, dieting
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Need to Detox?
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Need to Detox?
[Source: Chocolate News]
Need to Detox?
[Source: News Argus]
Need to Detox?
[Source: Cbs News]
posted by tgazw @ 5:11 PM,
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