Anyone gonna be effected by GM's bankruptcy?

With the GM bankruptcy now official, I got to wondering how many of you will be effected by this? Here in NE Ohio, we're lucky (so far) that the Cobalt is made here or else Lordsstown would have shut down before this.

I certainly will as I'm a taxpayer.

In one way or another, we'll ALL be effected.

As a recent retiree, I will be losing a good part of my insurance. I think this is only a 1st step. In 5 years or less, I figure I will lose most or all of it, along with part of my pension. Talked to a friend of mine Saturday, he just lost his job working for a company that does backup generators. 10 years down the tubes. And he has 150K into his house. Now houses in his neighborhood are selling for 20K. No jobs locally. Under the new contracts the new workers are gonna get $14 per hour, no pension, very limited bennies. Don't see how those folks are gonna pick the economy back up. Well, I guess I have to say that I was very fortunate, I had a good job for 30 years. Retirement is gonna look a lot different than what I thought.

I had 6500 in bonds,pretty much worthless now.

Somehow though with the New external_link-math he"ll come out next month and tell us how many jobs he saved and created. Not much one for gloom and doom but boy the rides about to start.

If it weren't for paying the taxes on those now cheap but high dollar houses they are beginning to look pretty inviting.

EXACTLY!!!!!! I can't wait to return to the days of 20% interest and Weimar Republic/Zimbabwe style inflation.

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Yeah me. I own 1400 shares of GM HGM series notes. (I basically will get some new GM common stock in place of it) Basically GM is defaulting on $27 billion in bonds due to they *issed away the $27BB on over paid salaries, bonuses, company cars and running their business like *hit.

Think about this for a minute...If I took out a home equity loan for $50,000 and then paid the interest on it for 5 years and I was supposed to pay the $50K back in a ballon payment in 10 years but I defaulted on it and said to the bank----Sorry you were dumb enough to loan me the money, I can only pay you back $5k. (too bad)
This is what GM has done to the bondholders and the common stock holders are left with nothing.

GM shot themselves in the foot by screwing the shareholders and bondholders. Who would buy GM common stock even after the bankruptcy? (no-one)

GM was dumb enough to allow the UAW, salaried employees and the executives to dictate their own salaries, bonuses and work rules.

The UAW got most of everything they wanted.....which finally did the company in.

And of course the salaried engineers and technicians said "me too" we want more pay, bonuses, blah, blah, blah. (recipe for failure)

GM should have declared Bankruptcy last October and not taken any gov. money. Once they take gov. money it means that they are bankrupt.

I think GM makes great cars and trucks, but the the company has been managed by idiots and the executives should hang from ropes for allowing it to come to this.

It sickens me to see this.

How is that old saying that GM had.
"as GM goes so does the USA"
I guess the USA is bankrupt too.

I feel that all employers need to get out of heathcare and retirement and go back to being an employer. My wire and i fight about that one a lot.

I think that the pensions are covered by an insurance company up to 80% of what you are getting.

Did you have the option of putting into a 401K? while you were there.?

Remember why they got into providing health insurance. It was due to wage freezes imposed by another big government president, FDR. If wages are frozen, employers are pretty limited in how to attract the best employees, so they offered health insurance instead of higher wages.

We'll all be affected since it's $50 billion out of our collective pockets that we'll be lucky to get 10% of back. Plus the Gov't will effectively OWN another car company. Yippee. Mussolini would love this.

I always contributed to the 401K, and have a Roth IrA, now I have converted my 401K to a self directed IRA. BTW, GM never contributed to our 401K, just salary got that. What isn't covered by the insurance is the supplemental pension, that carries me to age 62. That makes up 50% of my pension. The VEBA for health care does not have enough funding. Every veba done so far has gone broke. I give it 5 years to be broke. The health care thing is the worst, it is just so darn expensive, especially if you are in your 50's - If I had to buy health insurance, even a cheap policy would cost me much of my pension. Not good. I think health care is gonna break this country. It already sucks up about 20% of the GNP.

We'll all be affected. Now that the government with their infinite wisdom is going to design cars according to what so-called environmentalists think we can say good bye to most of our pick-ups and SUVs. Hope all of us can do everything we need with a GEO Metro. The blame for GM, Chrysler, and really all of the rest including Toyota & Ford lies with themselves. They had this crazy idea of building cars and trucks that the public wanted to buy. Now that we have allowed the government to be in charge we won't have to worry about buying what we want or need, it has been decided for us. Sorry for the rant, been in the automotive business for 45 years, and so sad to see what has become of free enterprise.
Paul

Ford is really screwed in this deal, they took no money and now has to compete with the Federal government. As soon as ford makes a product that outsells something made by GovernmentMotors then the feds will just make fords product illegal, too long, too loud, too heavy, too dark etc....

The only reason people will allow health care to wreck the country is that every fat slob that smokes and eats piles of crap gets health care by the employer......There should be an exam by the health insurance company, just like term life insurance----I had to take a 8iss test, drug test, plus BP looked at and heart rate to get qualified. I pay $90/year for a 10 year term policy.
Health care is also expensive due to the lawyers suing doctors, (some deserve it) and all the expensive drugs......Health care costs more now cause there are more drugs then ever.

Can't see how it will be any good for anyone..unless you work for the Government...This road is TOO long and downhill ALL the way!! There will either be a ballot box revolution OR one IN the STREETS....no other way at this point...Charles

yea and the jerk takes moochelle to new york for dinner and a play on our (the taxpayers) airplane and dime.
i can't aford to take mrs 730 to pizza hut which is 10 miles away

What ever happened to the great Capitalist system?

It's going to affect all of us. I can't afford anew vehicle,but if I could it would not be from Government Motors.

Larry in Michigan

GG, your last statement is on the mark. There are so many drugs that treat every little non-life threatening symptom now, that most of us would have said "Oh well, that's life"

It can work if greed, not caring who is screwed from underhanded deals, and profits not properly reinvested are not part of the equation A house of cards gives the illusion of stability until a breeze knocks it down. and I think that's what we saw this past year

Paul, I don't believe that the Big 3 built cars that the people wanted, as convincing the public that these were the vehicles that everyone NEEDED. I could never plunk down $40.000 or more (I'd have a hard time forking out $15.000)for a vehicle that will not have any substantial value 10 to 15 years down the road. Free enterprise is still alive in the U.S.

Too bad they cant build 'em like old tractors!

I second what Larry in Michigan said. My next new car/truck will NOT be a GM or a Chrysler. And those are the only 2 I've bought from over the last 40 yrs.

Unlike Spook, I get no pension or health care in retirement, so my GM stock was supposed to tide me over when I retired at 67 or so. Not anymore. Shareholders lost everything. There are many more like me who had stock or bonds who were wiped out. Plus, Spook has obviously retired in his fifties with health care and a supplemental pension. One of the reasons that the Big 3 can't compete is because of these legacy costs on both the salaried and hourly side of the business.

A company cannot pay people to leave (six figure buyouts plus a car) in their fifties and them pay them for 40-50 yrs with pensions, health care, life insurance, etc. and expect to be competitive.

I'm not saying this is the only reason. It always boggled my mind when the company would not show a profit and the executives and other managers just went to work like business as usual. When I had a business, if I didn't show a profit, I cut expenses and took drastic action until I did. The problem is that the execs of these public companies don't treat the money like it's their own. The Boards of Directors should fire the top guys the first time they show a loss.

On the original topic, if you look at all the stakeholders involved in GM (shareholders, bondholders, banks, suppliers, dealers, salaried &amp; hourly workers), it is the UAW that made out the best in the deal. Sure, Spook is concerned about the VEBA 5 years down the road. But in a normal bankruptcy, the VEBA would have been canceled and they would have been in line with other creditors, not given 17.5% of the new company.

Well, I won't buy Ford and support their support of gay rights!
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