auto industry

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Scrambling, GM Offers Equity for Debt

Wagoner needs strategy to win federal aid by Tuesday

(Newser) - GM officials are pushing bondholders to swap out the debt they hold for equity in the troubled corporation, reports the Wall Street Journal. The unique strategy represents a last-ditch attempt to stave off creditors and obtain federal aid to survive. A debt swap could leave unsecured debtholders with major losses....

South Short on Sympathy for Detroit's Woes

Dixie welcomes foreign automakers and disses Big 3 bailout

(Newser) - West Point, Georgia, looks a lot like Main Street USA but its people aren't overflowing with pity for the struggling American auto industry, the Los Angeles Times reports. Kia Motors is building a plant in the town and residents are looking forward to new jobs and learning to love Korean...

Soaps Slip on Auto Ad Woes; Even Lucci Takes Pay Cut

Dramas cut budgets amid fears of lost advertising

(Newser) - Trouble in the auto industry is causing drama for daytime TV as soaps lose big advertising dollars, Advertising Age reports. Local dealerships are key backers of the shows, which have been in a ratings decline for years. The upshot: trimmed budgets, fewer sets, and dropped actors, including a pair of...

Market Now Runs on Politics, Not Economics
Market Now Runs on Politics, Not Economics
OPINION

Market Now Runs on Politics, Not Economics

Krauthammer: In bailout era, Democrat fiats are dangerous

(Newser) - Once upon a time, “if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way,” writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. “You learned to read balance sheets.” That changed with the Bear Stearns rescue. Today, political maneuvering is what moves the markets, and...

'Demand Accountability' from Citi: Podesta

Transition boss discusses bailout, Cabinet

(Newser) - The government should “demand accountability” from Citigroup in return for bailout funding, Barack Obama’s transition team leader says. “If we’re going to have one rule, we ought to apply it to all of the financial institutions that we’re taking a look at,” John Podesta...

Luxury Car Sales Hit the Skids
Luxury Car Sales
Hit the Skids

Luxury Car Sales Hit the Skids

Shine wears off top end of auto market as downturn bites

(Newser) - Sales of luxury cars are dropping as fast as their downmarket counterparts, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sales of top-end vehicles plunged 30% last month, spelling major trouble for carmakers who had been relying on fat profit margins on luxury cars to offset falling demand for mass-markets vehicles. Analysts...

Ford Doesn't Want to Cut CEO's Pay
Ford Doesn't Want to Cut CEO's Pay

Ford Doesn't Want to Cut CEO's Pay

Mulally rebuffed $1 salary suggestion, 'OK' making $2M

(Newser) - Though it’s under pressure to trim costs and update its business plan in order to get federal bailout funds, Ford doesn’t like the idea of cutting its CEO’s salary, the Wall Street Journal reports. Alan Mulally made a $2 million salary and $21 million in total compensation...

GM Doesn't Want You Tracking Its Private Jet

Automaker asks feds to block public tracking of plane leased for execs

(Newser) - General Motors doesn’t want the public tracking a private jet used by its executives, Bloomberg reports, asking the Federal Aviation Administration to block it from its public service. “We availed ourselves of the option as others do to have the aircraft removed,” said a GM spokesman, though...

GM Considers Axing Brands to Win Aid

Pontiac, Saab, Saturn could go on chopping block

(Newser) - General Motors is considering eliminating some of its brands in an effort to win federal aid, sources tell the Detroit Free Press. The automaker, sent back to Detroit by Congress and told to come back with a better business plan, is said to be considering all options, including ditching its...

Automakers Will Get Another House Hearing

Panel sets Dec. 5 date; Detroit's new plan due next week

(Newser) - A House committee will hear struggling automakers out on their new ideas for federal aid Dec. 5, the Wall Street Journal reports today, with Detroit’s plan due to Congress’ Democratic leaders by Tuesday. Dems say approval of billions in federal funds hinges on making Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler...

EU Unveils $260B Stimulus Package
EU Unveils $260B Stimulus Package

EU Unveils $260B Stimulus Package

Struggling industries, member governments targeted in 2-year plan

(Newser) - The European Union Commission passed a $260 billion stimulus package today intended to boost its members’ economies during the next 2 years, Der Spiegel reports. The plan calls for more funds than most economists expected, but as the commission president Jose Barroso put it: “Exceptional times call for exceptional...

Want to Save Detroit? End the Iraq War
Want to Save Detroit?
End the Iraq War
OPINION

Want to Save Detroit? End the Iraq War

People are dying, and more importantly, money is being lost

(Newser) - You don’t hear much about the Iraq war these days, though the US death toll hit 4,205 on Monday. If human life isn't a convincing enough reason to bow out, writes Roger Simon in Politico, then here's one that "really is upsetting people these days: money."...

Ford Tops Safe Car List
 Ford Tops Safe Car List 

Ford Tops Safe Car List

With help from Volvo, firm leads with 16 vehicles

(Newser) - The insurance industry named dozens of new cars and trucks, led by Ford and its Volvo subsidiary, to its annual list of the safest vehicles today. Ford and Volvo saw 16 of their 2009 vehicles make the list; Honda followed with 13. Some 72 vehicles received the top safety pick...

Green Auto Industry at Odds With a Viable One

Car companies lose money for years on new technologies

(Newser) - Critics of Detroit complain that the stubborn Big Three are dying because they won’t make the energy-efficient cars people want. But it can take years for a new hybrid or plug-in model to become profitable, putting lawmakers' vision of a green auto industry at odds with their desire for...

Tough Love Only Option as Detroit Loses Friends
Tough Love Only Option as Detroit Loses Friends
OPINION

Tough Love Only Option as Detroit Loses Friends

Fading support on both sides of party divide leaving Big Three in the slow lane

(Newser) - The retooling of America's political landscape has left Detroit painfully short on friends and settling for "tough love"—or no love at all—these days, Gerald F. Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal. Foreign automakers building plants in red states have become cozy with GOP lawmakers, while...

Crunch Puts Crimp in Luxury Ad Sales
Crunch Puts Crimp in Luxury Ad Sales

Crunch Puts Crimp in Luxury Ad Sales

As consumers budget, luxury brands slash promotional spending

(Newser) - The echoes of the economic crisis continue to reverberate, with luxury brands trimming spending on newspaper and magazine ads as their target audiences cut back, reports the New York Times. Display advertising was already in decline, and spending on luxury items, which started softening in the spring, fell off a...

GM Needs a Hand From Unions, Lenders

Automaker scrambles to retrench ahead of Congress' deadline

(Newser) - General Motors is revving up its efforts to prove to Congress it can survive if it receives a multibillion-dollar federal loan, reports Bloomberg. The automaker is asking unions to ease work rules, attempting to reduce its debt load, and considering cutting brands from its lineup as it tries to stretch...

Bill Ford Driving a Green Future

Ford's chairman sees auto industry getting leaner and greener in recovery

(Newser) - While General Motors, Chrysler, and Congress are haggling over what strings to tie to a federal bailout, Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr is working behind the scenes to further his company's move toward greener, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The automaker, with enough cash on hand to get through 2009, isn’t...

Detroit Should Look at the History of Steel
Detroit Should Look at the History of Steel
Analysis

Detroit Should Look at the History of Steel

Bankruptcy saved that industry, but auto isn't exactly the same

(Newser) - When the steel industry was floundering, many people thought the worst possible outcome would be to allow the big, old companies to go bankrupt. But it took that failure to pare down the industry to a workable size and inject new life into it, David Streitfeld writes in the New ...

'Public Sick of Partisanship': Lieberman
'Public Sick of Partisanship':
Lieberman
talk show roundup

'Public Sick of Partisanship': Lieberman

Joe says Obama never called back; politicos talk bailouts on TV

(Newser) - Joe Lieberman told Meet the Press today that he regrets "some things I said in the heat of the campaign that I wish I'd said more clearly," and hopes Barack Obama will put, er, "country first" by leading in a bipartisan fashion. Lieberman said he called...

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