China Overtakes U.S. Car Market
The Associated Press recently published a report saying that the Chinese now buy more cars and trucks than Americans. It appears that over 12.7 million new cars will be sold in China compared to about 10.3 million projected to be sold in America. This is the first time ever that any country has surpassed the U.S. in new car sales.
This could have been good news for the U.S. because China loves GM’s Buick…they consider it a luxury car. But alas, China requires that Buick build it’s cars in China—not the United States. Interesting concept.
Well, that at least should help GM’s bottom line even if it doesn’t make any new jobs in the U.S.
UAW vs. the UAW?
One of my readers asked what my take was on the ownership of Chrysler and GM stock by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. Here is what I see today.
Restructuring of the auto industry by the government auto task force (Treasury staffers, and the Boston Consulting Group) requires the United Auto Workers (UAW) to become shareholders in both Chrysler and GM. This is because the union’s employee trust–VEBA–(this is the one that manages health care for workers and retirees) is owed about $9 billion by Chrysler, and about $20 billion by GM. Yes…that’s BILLION dollars. So, the government task force is forcing the UAW to take shares of stock for one-half of those obligations.
The UAW has taken about 55% of Chrysler’s total shares, and is expected to take about 39% of GM’s total shares. Although the union plans on selling their shares “eventually,” they are now faced with some unusual issues for a union. Here are just some of them:
- The union’s trust (VEBA) needs the money owed them in order to remain solvent. So, if the value of the shares received does not go up rather quickly, so the union can sell their shares, the trust will run out of money. Hard to say which will come first, or if Chrysler, for instance, ever does create shareholder value.
- Many people have the perception that the UAW is to blame for the downfall of the auto industry, and now owns a great deal of it. This will be a problem when the union tries to organize the workers of other industries, like casino workers in Atlantic City.
- When the UAW tries to organize another automaker (Honda?), they will be viewed as a substantial owner of competitors, and therefore will have a conflict of interest.
- When bargaining for the next contract, every dollar the union gains for the workers is a dollar of value the UAW may lose from their shares in the company. If bargaining reaches an impasse, and the union goes out on strike, thus crashing the stock value…who are they actually hurting?
There are other more subtle problems the union is going to have in this situation, but as UAW President, Ron Gettelfinger pointed out…this is still the best option available.
What do some others think about this situation?
Who’s In Charge?
I seem to recall that, in his last press conference, President Obama said the government was not going to run auto companies. I guess I must have misunderstood what was said, because here is what BusinessWeek writer David Welch said in a recent article.
“Make no mistake: The Whitehouse and the task force overseeing the restructuring of both GM and Chrysler since February are calling the shots.”
You can take a look at Welch’s complete article here, but I will point out a few interesting highlights from his article in the following.
“Treasury has a couple dozen staffers and executives from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) scrutinizing operational details at the car company. (BCG is getting paid $7 million from the government for its work on both GM and Chrysler.)”
“Some GM insiders fret that Treasury’s key players have precious little industry experience.”
The head of the Treasury Task Force is Steven Rattner, the Wall Street financier and co-founder and Managing Principal of the investment firm, Quadrangle Group. (Yes, this is the same Rattner who is being investigated for his alleged connection to a scandal involving a New York State retirement fund.) No one on the Treasury Task Force has any experience in the car industry.
Welch also reported that a dozen Treasury staffers and outside consultants recently descended on GM, and pushed them to dump Buick and GMC, in addition to Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn. The staffers said that Toyota was successful with just two brands—Toyota and Lexus—why couldn’t GM just sell Chevrolet and Cadillac? After GM pointed out that Buick and GMC were moneymakers, and that Buick was in high demand in China…Treasury relented.
Treasury and BCG were not finished, however. The staffers and consultants made GM managers jaws drop when they questioned why GM was spending money to continue development of the Volt. Apparently, Treasury thinks the current lineup of gas-guzzling Chevrolets and Cadillacs is just fine.
Not to be outdone by staffers, one Treasury Official wanted to know when the new Chevy Malibu would go on sale. It has been in showrooms for 18 months.
I’ll bet Ford is glad they didn’t take any bailout money from the government.
Gee, I can hardly wait for these folks to take over my health care.
The Nationalization of Big Business
Good grief, what has happened to America’s capitalistic, free enterprise system? As a red-blooded American, native Michigander, and alumnus of Kettering University, I am more than a little shocked, disappointed, and angry at what I see as a major blow to free enterprise, and more importantly, to democracy. Here’s why:
Following is a condensation of a couple of articles that came to my attention today. These are excerpts from an article by Monica Langley and Neal E. Boudette in the WSJ’s Morning Brief, and an article by Dr. Jeffrey Feldman in the Huffington Post.
WASHINGTON — Inside a windowless, ornate room Thursday (3/26) just across from the Oval Office, President Barack Obama and a group of senior economic advisers began the job of remaking the American automobile industry.
The first order of business: Oust General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner.
Steven Rattner, a former investment banker who is heading the administration’s auto restructuring; chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers; and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were among those gathered around the polished wood table of the Roosevelt Room in the White House’s West Wing. They were there to decide under what conditions the government would continue to prop up once-powerful Detroit car companies GM and Chrysler LLC. At Thursday’s meeting, once the Obama administration concluded the pair were running out of money, their effective dismantling began.
The White House meeting at which Mr. Wagoner’s fate was decided came five days before a March 31 deadline when the administration was set to rule on the viability of the companies.
The auto team (headed by Steve Rattner) prepared briefs for Mr. Obama on his options, as well as viability reports on both companies. The car team wanted an executive who could accelerate the changes it (the administration) desired. Mr. Wagoner didn’t have any support within the group. “This is Obama, and symbols of change are important,” said one person familiar with the situation.
A much harder decision was what to do with Chrysler. A conclusion that the company wasn’t viable could lead to 40,000 workers losing their jobs. To combat that threat, the government is negotiating with Chrysler and Italian car maker Fiat SpA for an agreement that Fiat will continue to make cars in the U.S. if it buys Chrysler, according to an official of the Obama administration.
After the Thursday meeting at the White House, Mr. Rattner asked Mr. Wagoner and Mr. Henderson to come see him the next day. Mr. Rattner broke the news to Mr. Wagoner at his office at the Treasury, according to an administration official. Afterward, Mr. Rattner met with Mr. Henderson, and told him he would take over as GM’s CEO.
Once word started to trickle out that a White House decision on the auto makers’ fate was imminent, GM officials and some Michigan lawmakers began making calls. Michigan’s Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm, called the White House to ask for a meeting with Mr. Obama. Told she’d need to come in by Friday, which wasn’t possible, she had a personal phone call with the president and urged him to consider the communities that could suffer.
Mr. Wagoner told GM’s board Friday evening that he was asked to step down and informed directors the administration wanted a majority of them to resign, according to two GM officials. Several volunteered to quit over the weekend. Other GM officials speculated that they would also be asked to resign.
On Sunday, …Mr. Obama made one call himself to some of the Michigan delegation, including U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and his brother, Rep. Sander Levin, and Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow. He told them that he planned to put some administration staff into the Detroit companies, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Sen. Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, said he told Mr. Rattner on Monday that he was alarmed that the administration would dictate what kind of vehicles would be constructed. “Deciding what vehicles and plants will survive is setting industrial policy,” the senator said.
For the complete article, click here.
Let me see if I have this correct-
- The administration does not give money to the auto industry-Congress does. (Unless the Treasury dept. is diverting funds Congress provided previously.)
- The President has formed a small group of people (the auto team) who are dictating how the American auto industry will be run.
- The head of the administration’s new auto team is Steve Rattner, a former Investment Banker.
- Steve Rattner personally fired Mr. Wagoner and personally appointed Mr. Henderson as the new President of GM.
- The administration is dictating what cars the auto industry will build, and what plants will survive.
- The strong-arm tactics by President Obama and his auto team run roughshod over the Articles of Incorporation and By-laws of GM, rending corporate law meaningless. (Nationalization?)
- The President told some of the Michigan delegation he was going to “put some administration staff” into the Detroit companies.
- The auto team is doing the negotiation between Chrysler and Fiat.
There also seemed to be a few people missing from the Thursday meeting–like:
- Where was the Board of Directors?
- Where was the Michigan delegation?
- Where were the shareholders (the government is only one shareholder)?
- Where were the “car guys?”
- Where were the “union guys?”
- Where were the Congressional leaders?
- Lastly, where is the fairness, executed by the administration, between the auto industry and the banking industry?
What does Michigan think of all this? Here is what Dr. Jeffrey Feldman had to say in his article in the Huffington Post today:
Fear and anger are rising in Michigan: Fear that things are about to get much, much worse than they already are; anger that the federal government is strong arming the Mitten State just a short while after opening up America’s coffers to Wall Street with no strings attached. New York gets what it wants, when it wants it from Washington, Michigan gets slapped in the face. The fat cats on Wall Street caused this problem, they sank the economy, and they got paid off…Executives in Detroit get tarred and feathered and escorted to the door.
For the complete article, click here.
Now, I am not saying that all these things shouldn’t happen to, or within the American auto industry; nor that they wouldn’t happen anyway, but I am shocked, and disappointed, at the way events are being dictated to the auto industry by the President, and his select few, who are taking over the entire industry. That is not how capitalism works. That is not how democracy works.
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