There is reason to believe that General Motors is failing again, after having been bailed out by America’s taxpayers. It stopped reporting monthly sales back in April of 2018, despite the fact that all of its domestic and foreign competitors had been reporting them on a regular basis. This was a drastic decision by GM’s management, which had reported such figures during the last auto sales crisis—described as the Crash of 2008.[2]
GM was on the ropes then. Chrysler and Ford were too, but company founder Henry Ford’s great-grandson Bill Ford and Boeing’s Alan Mulally[3]—who had become Ford’s president—put together a winning plan to save Ford without going into bankruptcy. They hunkered down and sold off Aston Martin, Land Rover, Volvo, Jaguar, Ford’s dominant interest in Mazda, and consigned the Mercury brand to the dustbin of automotive history. In the process, their strategy succeeded impressively. Today, Fords are the largest selling vehicles in the United States; and the Ford F-Series trucks outsell all other vehicles.
Both GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy; and with his Fiat conglomerate hanging by a thread in Europe, its gutsy chief Sergio Marchionne bought Chrysler, and the rest is business history. Marchionne saved both of his companies.[4] Today GM manufactures vehicles in 37 countries, and sells its core American automobile brands—Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac—through its U.S. dealers, some of which were put out of business following the last crash because they were deemed not to be buying enough cars from GM.[5]
It has been reported that the company plans to halt production at several of its American plants, and reduce its salaried workforce by 15 percent—or more than 14,000 employees—in a massive restructuring that will cost up to $3.8 billion. The Detroit automaker said “plants in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and Ontario will be ‘unallocated’ in 2019 and it will cease operations at two additional plants outside of North America by the end of next year.”[6]
This time, there must be no bailout for the company. It must be allowed to fail and go out of business—which is exactly what GM did to many of its best dealers and their employees. In the process, long-time and loyal GM customers were hurt too, having been the source of monies to bail out the company. No mercy was shown to any of them by GM’s management; and none should be shown to GM this time around. This is true as well with respect to electric vehicles, and their taxpayer subsidies.[7]
© 2018, Timothy D. Naegele
[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see www.naegele.com and Timothy D. Naegele Resume). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com
[2] See http://www.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html#autosalesE (“Auto Sales“); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/a-34-trillion-swindle-the-shame-of-global-warming/#comment-14697 (“Is General Motors Failing Again?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/a-34-trillion-swindle-the-shame-of-global-warming/#comment-14324 (“The Passing Of An Auto Giant”)
[3] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Clay_Ford_Jr. (“William Clay Ford Jr.”) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Mulally (“Alan Mulally”)
[4] See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/a-34-trillion-swindle-the-shame-of-global-warming/#comment-14324 (“The Passing Of An Auto Giant”)
[5] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors (“General Motors”)
[6] See https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/26/gm-unallocating-several-plants-in-2019-to-take-3-billion-to-3point8-billion-charge-in-future-quarters.html (“GM to halt production at several plants, cut more than 14,000 jobs”); see also https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2018/11/26/ontario-plant-closure/2112539002/ (“GM closing Hamtramck, Lordstown, Oshawa plants, cutting jobs”)
[7] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/a-34-trillion-swindle-the-shame-of-global-warming/#comment-10525 (“The Swindle And Shame Of Global Warming: Electric Cars”)
It is clear that the boycott movement is growing.
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