Market crash: are we there yet ?

[sailaway21]

Actually Mazda has a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.

[sailaway21]

CD,
Climb off your moral high horse for about two seconds and read what I posted. I did not say that I approved of tortuous child labor nor the horrific conditions you cite.

What makes you think those companies are "American"? Is Exxon American? Is Opel or Vauxhall an American company? Why is the largest fleet of merchant ships in the world Liberian? How can such a country as Liberia, with the world's largest merchant navy, be such a basket case? (g) Surely, they must be rolling in money and enjoy one of the world's highest standards of living. (vbg) I'd respectfully suggest that you do some reading on the nature of international trade. I'd less politely wonder why no one seems to object to burning Saudi, Nigerian, Iranian, or the former Iraqi oil in their cars despite what conditions there are like. Et tu?

[wind_magic]

I think they should come up with a common nomenclature for all these bailouts so we can keep track of them easier. Right now we can only refer to them either by the amount i.e. 800 billion $us, or who they are aimed at i.e. the auto makers bailout. With talk of another 300 billion $us bailout on the horizon and no doubt a lot more after that, I think they give them numbers like the 17nov08 bailout, or maybe names like tropical storms ... bailout Alisha. It's getting to the point when you talk about the bailout nobody really knows which one you are talking about.

[sailaway21]

Windy,
Funny you should mention that! The always reliable Mark Steyn has anticipated your request. From "The Corner" at NRO he writes this:

Anyway, this routine airline whinge is merely prologue to my thought for the day as the "bailout" metastasizes: The most dysfunctional areas of American life are those that are most deformed from the normal market (ie, seller/buyer) relationship, airline travel being only one of the most conspicuous.I don't see any good that can come of bailing out the "Big Three" auto makers. As in Britain in the Sixties and Seventies, the government will simply be subsidizing a regime that is institutionally incapable of making a car at a price anyone is prepared to pay for it.

The sclerosis afflicting more and more areas of endeavor is sad to me. When I first visited America as a child, the single dominant lasting impression was the way everything worked so much better here: It was brighter, newer, nimbler, more responsive, more inventive. No one will say that about Bailoutistan.

[sailaway21]

Mr. George Will on the auto industry bailout:

RealClearPolitics - Articles - To Save Detroit, Let It Go Bankrupt

[sailaway21]

This article, and it's references, pretty well sums up the auto industry situation. And we've even got yer charts! Read it and then tell me why we're even having a debate.
The Corner on National Review Online

[wind_magic]

Looks like buying is really picking up in Treasuries, not just in the United States, but foreign buyers as well. It's an escalation of a dangerous trend ...

Foreign Treasury Bondholders

[sailaway21]

It's time for a laugh. (the only other option is to cry)

This is quite funny:
The American Spectator : A Modest Proposal for Solving Both the Economic and Energy Crises

[121Guy]

Further financial difficulties at Mazda during the 1990s (partly caused by losses related to the 1997 Asian financial crisis) caused Ford to increase its stake to a 33.9-percent controlling interest on 31 March 1997.


...Last I heard Ford was considering "streamlining" this investment off their books with no movement yet. Therefore, I'd consider the plant at Flat Rock a Ford plant. The only reason it is there was at the masters insistance.

121Guy

[sailaway21]

Mazda is currently planning on buying Ford out of their stake in the company.