Word: auto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...saying, in terms that are hardly subtle, that if its programs to improve the credit markets, the Treasury's plans to help banks and the auto companies, and the Administration's budget and stimulus package works, then the American economy will walk away from the worst recession in memory. It is a preposterous statement which implies that, left alone, the financial health of the country would be in ruins. The sole salvation of the production, housing, and employment sectors of the United States rests in very few hands, all of them in Washington. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...same time, an important feature of the latest Detroit dealings is the lopsided favoritism shown the United Auto Workers (UAW). Take the Chrysler plan: Taxpayers were to trade in a $4 billion IOU (i.e., the government loans) for about 5% of Chrysler's stock. The UAW, on the other hand, was trading in a $4.5 billion IOU (related to its VEBA health-care trust for retirees) in return for 55% of Chrysler stock. Does that seem fair? A third group, the secured debt holders, were to trade in a $6.9 billion IOU and get $2 billion in cash - an amount...
Rotten economy? Not if you're in the business of radically overhauling American government. Between the Obama Administration and Congress, the assembly line for Big Ideas is running triple shifts, cranking out stimulus plans, bank-rescue plans, foreclosure-prevention plans, health-care-reform plans, alternative-energy plans, auto-industry-reorganization plans, climate-protection plans, Afghanistan-war plans, Pentagon-spending plans - and that's just the first 100 days...
...middle of the year, the federal government will own large, and in some cases, controlling interests, in two car companies and several major banks. There is a chance the the extent of rescue efforts and government ownership could move to auto parts suppliers and insurance companies. If the Treasury can pick up stock in Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel (INTC), it can control most of the important sectors of the economy. That raises the issue of how the federal government gets all of that taxpayer money back...
...When the seven-year itch set in, I finally traded in my Sunbird for a 1986 Honda Accord that had earned rave reviews from a savvier journalistic colleague. In the years since - not wanting to be burned again - I've paid attention to the annual auto guide from Consumers Reports, checking to see whether Pontiacs rated better than the Honda or Toyotas I had become accustomed to buying. Didn't happen, although Pontiac had made some gains in recent years...