GM has yet to pay off its debt to the U.S. Government. G.M. is still owned by the U.S. Taxpayer through the debt owed to the Government. The U.S. Government still owns 61% of G.M.. G.M. owes the U.S. Taxpayer billions of dollars…
G.M. has not finalized its plan to present an IPO or initial public offering to sell public stock and reimburse the American Taxpayer.
There is little interest in the investment community to purchase GM shares and to enter into a business or investment relationship with the UAW as a silent partner and GM’s recent bankruptcy history… just ask the previous G.M. bond holders and the private owners of thousands of closed G.M. dealerships …
AmeriCredit specializes in “substandard auto loans” and “substandard auto leases”, the same types of loans made by GMAC, GM’s former lending unit… GMAC is in bankruptcy and was one reason for the original GM/GMAC bailouts…. the purchase and control of AmeriCredit by GM will simply help to “re-inflate” the “substandard” auto loan/lease “bubble”.
G.M. is paying a 24% premium to purchase this company and re-enter the “substandard auto loan/lease” business … pay a 24% premium with money loaned by the U.S. Government … G.M. continues to work with GMAC under the “rebranded” name Ally Financial or Ally Bank … Can’t Ally Bank write bad auto loans/leases quick enough to generate the numbers G.M. and the Obama Administration want?
What is next, a return of the “pull ahead” lease or “pull ahead” financing? A practice that resulted in the automaker making $30,000 loans to purchasers of $20,000 vehicles.
Who will be on the hook after the re-inflated substandard auto loan/lease” bubble” collapses.
Didn’t Congress just pass a “Financial Reform Act” … and promise that we, the American people, would never see this type of activity again?
If a Democrat’s lips are moving – they are telling us another lie …
I don’t object to this business plan because of its structure … I object to the plan because G.M. is not a privately owned company”. Stop giving public money to companies that can’t find “private investment” to support its business plans.
GM’s proposed plan is politically motivated … The November elections are just months away … G.M. and the Obama Administration are desperate to generate “good numbers” … making substandard auto loans/leases that are doomed to fail are of little consequence to these “players” … look to the “mortgage loan modification program” for an example …. 100’s of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars wasted on a “political” program designed to “create” false numbers. Sadly, 90% of those to receive “mortgage modifications” have seen their loans fall into “foreclosure” …
GM agrees to buy AmeriCredit for $3.5 billion in cash
LONDON (MarketWatch) — General Motors Co. on Thursday announced a deal to buy car-financing giant AmeriCredit Corp. for $3.5 billion, in an effort to fill the pothole left in 2006 when the automaker gave up controlling interest in GMAC.
Terms of the agreement call for AmeriCredit stockholders to receive $24.50 in cash for each of their shares.
The hefty premium sent AmeriCredit /quotes/comstock/13*!acf/quotes/nls/acf (ACF24.01, +4.31, +21.88%) shares up more than 22% in opening trades in New York.
The transaction, which has already been approved by the boards at both companies, is expected to close by the end of the fourth quarter.
“This acquisition supports our efforts to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles by expanding the financing options we can offer to consumers who want to buy GM vehicles,” Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre said.
GM said the move, in conjunction with a program the two companies launched nearly a year ago, will help reach more subprime customers as the Detroit giant progress toward a massive public offering. Launching its IPO will allow the U.S. government to cut its GM stake down from the 61% it currently holds.
Ft. Worth, Tex.-based AmeriCredit also plans to get back into the leasing business, which will open the door for more leasing options for GM customers.
“We’ve set up a very competitive solution for our financing needs, which will be resilient through credit and business cycles,” said Chris Liddell, GM’s chief financial officer.
Ally Financial, formerly GMAC, will continue to support GM, Liddell added.
AmeriCredit’s management team will remain intact following completion of the transaction, GM said.
“We’ll continue to offer our loan products to the more than 11,000 dealers across the country we serve today,” noted Daniel Berce, president and CEO of AmeriCredit.
David Silver, an analyst at WStreet.com, praised the deal and said it increases the future value of GM stock. But he still urged some caution.
“This could also indicate that the company is worried about the next few months in terms of sales as it is looking to generate additional cash flow to help stem that weakness,” he said.
The Financial Reform Law: Never have the corrupt done so little for so many while shielding the guilty from “true change”.
False claims and exaggerations about the “proposed changes” to a small segment of America’s financial markets.
McAuley’s World Comments Bolded Blue
But with a few exceptions, the measure avoids dictating to Wall Street what it can and cannot do. The bill does not break up big banks or ban the trading of derivatives. Nor does it significantly streamline the confusing array of financial regulators in Washington.
A flurry of deal making allowed several industries to escape the new system. At the last minute, auto dealers were granted exemptions from new consumer rules, despite their major role in lending. Most mutual fund and insurance companies avoided a ban on some risky trading. Community banks, which make up the vast majority of their industry, got a carve-out months ago.
“This legislation is a failure on both counts,” Sen. Judd Greg (R-N.H.) said in a statement. “It will not encourage the much-needed stability and confidence in our financial markets. It will not significantly reduce systemic risk in our financial sector.”
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) agreed to scale back a controversial provision that would have forced the nation’s biggest banks to spin off their lucrative derivatives-dealing businesses. The proposal had been a particularly thorny issue for Democrats, causing internal divisions that threatened to derail the entire process.
True. The Democrats prevented the needed reform in the derivatives business, the business that brought down AIG and Lehman Brothers, derivatives based on the “toxic mortgages” produced by Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
Media claims that the “reform” contains the following “significant provisions”:
Give the government the power to wind down and seize failing firms
This “provision” extends the Government’s “right” to take over failing businesses using U.S. taxpayer money, instead of letting the companies fail as they should.
Create a consumer protection agency under the authority of the Federal Reserve
Oh, please. More on this “eye candy” in just a bit.
Require banks to spin off their riskiest derivatives activities
Window dressing, pure window dressing. The banks can still “own” the “spin offs” and direct their activities. The banks will fund the “spin offs” and if the “spin off” fails financially and cannot repay the parent company, the Federal Government will be standing by with another “bailout” in hand.
Curb the ability of firms to trade their funds for their own profit
This writer believes the “curbs” will not be effective in doing what is claimed.
It (the proposed regulation) also does not re-impose laws similar to the Glass-Steagall Act that passed after the Great Depression (and partially repealed in 1999) that separated the activities of commercial and investment banking.
True: The regulation does not reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which for months was the cry of the Democrats – “This problem started when Glass Steagal was repealed” …. Well, now that they had the chance, why didn’t the Democrats reinstate Glass Steagal?
Two major players were left out of the bill and the negotiations the whole time: Mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have already received more than $145 billion in assistance from the taxpayers. Many Republicans — and a few Democrats — were angry that Democrats did not include Fannie and Freddie in the reforms. Many on Capitol Hill remain skeptical that will happen.
True: Oh so true! The entire financial collapse rests at the feet of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yet the single piece of legislation produced so far doesn’t even mention Freddie or Fannie. Meanwhile, this same Congress has actually increased Fannie & Freddie’s power. In December, President Obama, by Executive Order, removed the $200 million dollar cap on funds available to Freddie and Fannie and provided these “Agencies” unlimited funding through the Federal Reserve.
So, if you thought that the “Great American Financial Reform Act of 2010”, the reform that will protect us from ever having the same type of financial collapse occur again, might just take some type of action against the Agencies that caused the original collapse, well, you would be “dead wrong”. Not one word about Fannie or Freddie, in fact Fannie and Freddie are more independent, less regulated and have greater access to American taxpayer money than at any time before in the history of the Country. Congress refused to implement even the most modest of changes to Fannie & Freddie – to make Fannie & Freddie subject to the Sarbanes Oxley Act or require Freddie and Fannie to file periodic reports with the SEC.
The conference committee votes were 20-11 among House negotiators and 7-5 among Senate negotiators, strictly along party lines. The room erupted into claps and hugs when it was all done, with staffers shaking hands and saying, “big bill.”
TRUE: Mocking Joe Biden’s infamous “Big ******* Deal” comment after the passage of Obama Care against the wishes of the American People.
True. A vote right down party lines. This baby has only one parent, this bastard belongs to the Democrats, lock stock and barrel. (The final vote is pending in the Senate and the 3 RINOs in the Senate could well vote in support of their fellow Democrats)
What’s in the Wall Street reform bill– The Media’s Slant
The final compromise that lawmakers struck will establish a consumer financial protection regulatory bureau inside the Federal Reserve, that will write new rules to protect consumers from unfair or abusive mortgages and credit cards. “unfair or abusive mortgages and credit cards.
False: The claim is false because the major premise is false. A large and costly consumer agency will be created at taxpayer expense, however, “the abusive mortgages, credit cards and ATM fees which it will address, will only result in “temporary” changes to how “business is done”. In a matter of months consumers will learn that we are “back to business” as usual. Example: Credit card rates and ATM fees are not being “rolled back” on a permanent basis. Rate increases and ATM fees will simply be delayed. This writer is willing to predict that Senator Chris Dodd will be back in January 2011, only when he returns he will be lobbying for credit card, ATM and mortgage fee increases on behalf of his “big bank buddies”.
Secondly, who will oversee the Consumer Protection Agency? The Federal Reserve? The Federal Reserve? Wasn’t the Federal Reserve the entity responsible for overseeing the banks and financial firms that “failed” in the first place?
The final deal will also create a 10-member council of regulators, headed by the Treasury Secretary.
Regulators will be tasked with ensuring banks beef up their capital cushions,
The bill would also establish new procedures for shutting down giant financial firms that are collapsing.
WAIT ONE MINUTE: The proposed regulation does not limit the Government’s power to “take over” or “bailout” but it does delegate the authority to do so. This should remind everyone of the “TARP PROGRAM”. We the people were told we had an emergency, an emergency that required the purchase of a trillion dollars of “Troubled Assets” by the “Troubled Asset Relief Program” or “TARP”. Some 18 months later we now know that not one penny of the fund actually went to buy a single “Troubled” or “toxic asset”. Congress changed the rules after the fact. The same Congress is back and the same Congress People are at it again.
The bill aims to shine a brighter light on some of the different kinds of complex financial products, called derivatives, that are blamed for the problems that forced a bailout of American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. It would force most derivatives on to clearinghouses and exchanges, to help pinpoint the value of the trades.
FALSE: At best the press claims the regulation “would force most derivatives” when it fact no one knows what percent of the “trades” will be routed into an exchange nor does the proposed “regulation” define how the “trades” will be valued.
Lawmakers agreed to push many derivatives onto clearinghouses and exchanges that can better pinpoint the value of the securities and create firewall’s between buyers and sellers.
FALSE: The most “risky” of those “agreements” were CDS or Credit Default Swaps, which are transactions that take place directly between “involved parties, parties that don’t require a “firewall”.
They also agreed to allow leeway for financial firms to avoid exchanges and avoid posting collateral on such contracts for so-called commercial end-users,
TRUE: A “back door” to avoid any of the “proposed” regulation in this area.
Additionally, lawmakers embraced a provision that prevents big banks from making risky bets on “nontraditional” derivatives and having access to emergency taxpayer-backed loans. Banks would have to spin off their swaps desk into affiliates, if they want to make such bets.
TRUE: That the banks can and will continue to make such deals through their “affiliates”.
FALSE: That banks won’t have access to “tax payer cash”? The Banks will be subject to “To Big to Fail” and “take-over” by the Feds as stated above. Those activites are accomplished using “taxpayer cash”.
Volcker: Just before midnight, lawmakers agreed on a new version of the so-called Volcker Rule, which was first proposed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. The measure prevents banks from owning hedge funds and trading for their own accounts.
Lawmakers agreed to gives regulators more specifics and less leeway when it comes to preventing banks from trading for themselves or owning hedge funds. But they also watered it down in several ways: It doesn’t impact insurers. And it allows some proprietary trading in areas, such as government debt, for hedging purposes and small business investments.
As for the ban on banks owning hedge funds, the provision allows Wall Street banks that take commercial deposits to sink as much as 3% of capital in hedge funds or private equity.
FALSE: The “Volker Rule” as originally proposed was gutted. The only resemblance between the originally suggested Volker Rule and that which remains is the name.
Creating a consumer agency: Establishes an independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau housed inside the Federal Reserve. Fees paid by banks fund the agency, which would set rules to curb unfair practices in consumer loans and credit cards. It would not have power over auto dealers.
False: The areas being “touted” as a “great benefit” to consumers are shams. Credit Card rates, mortgage terms and limitations on ATM fees are all “temporary” in nature. These items are the “eye candy” being offered to secure popular support for this totally inadequate legislation.
Credit scores: All consumers have been able to get one free credit report a year from the credit rating agencies. But the bill would also allow a consumer to get an actual credit score along with a report.
WHO CARES: A free credit report and a free credit score. Everyone in the Country has access to free credit reports and a free credit score …. Just check your email.
Interchange fees: Lawmakers want the Fed to crack down on debit card swipe fees, which retailers pay to banks to cover the operational cost of transferring money. The Fed could cap the fees and make them more reasonable and proportional.
False: Cap or temporarily limit? To establish a temporary limit. Again, this writer bets the requests for an increase in fees has already been prepared and Congress has already told their friends in the banking industry when to submit the requests. I’m sure the requests won’t be submitted until after the first week in November 2010.
Banning ‘liar loans’: Lenders would have to document a borrower’s income before originating a mortgage and verify a borrower’s ability to repay the loan.
FALSE – ABSOLUTELY FALSE: This lie, more than any of the other lies, upsets me the most. Liar loans have not been banned. The only limitation on Liar Loans is this; Liar Loans cannot be “bundled” and sold as securities. The banks are free to make and keep as many Liar Loans as they like. As the banks will be subject to “take over” and “bailout” if they are “to big to fail” there will be no “market pressure” to limit these loans. The Congress could eliminate “Liar Loans” tomorrow by instructing the Federal Reserve, yes the Federal Reserve charged with overseeing this “monster”, to rescind the “mortgage underwriting guidelines” that created “Liar Loans” in the first place, but Congress failed to do so. If Congress wished to end “Liar Loans” why didn’t they do so?
Mortgage help for unemployed: Unemployed homeowners with good credit would be eligible for low-interest loans to help them avoid foreclosures. The bill would spend $1 billion on such relief, using funds that had been directed for Troubled Asset Relief Fund bailing out the financial system.
FASLE: This is not a new program but an adaptation of Obama’s failed “mortgage rescue programs” that are already in place.
Fixed-equity annuities: Prohibits tougher federal rules on life insurance products, in which customers pay a lump sum upfront in exchange for monthly income over time, pegged to an index. The Securities and Exchange Commission had been gearing up to step in and start requiring more disclosure for these products, often sold to seniors, that are currently regulated by state insurance commissioners. Lawmakers decided to stop the SEC from tougher federal regulation.
TRUE: The Democrats moved to stop SEC regulation – the Democrats moved to de-regulate.
Too big to fail
New oversight power: Creates a new 10-member oversight council consisting of financial regulators to look out for major problems at financial firms and throughout the financial system. The Treasury Secretary gains a key role in enforcing tougher regulations on larger firms and watching for systemic risk. The council also has veto power over new rules proposed by new consumer regulator.
Unwinding powers: Gives the FDIC new powers to take down giant financial firms in the same way it takes down banks. Banks would be taxed to reimburse the federal government for the cost of resolving these firms after a failure occurs.
True: To Big to Fail, Government takeovers and taxpayer bailouts will continue. This proposed regulation “institutionalizes” the Government’s ability to “take over” or “seize” private companies and use “taxpayer money” to resolve the company’s financial difficulties. Congress, unlike the citizens they represent, believe “TRAP’ was a success and that “We the People” would like to see “TARP” perpetuated.
THE FATAL FLAW IN THE “NEW” FINANCIAL REFORM LAW
The fatal flaw involves the fact that he same Congress who proposed this law will be the one to enforce it. The Congress and the Executive Branch have proven themselves unwilling to enforce the laws of this land.
Fannie & Freddie, the firms who were primarily responsible for the “Financial Meltdown” are not even mentioned in this legislation. The “root cause” of the “meltdown”.
Remember the regulators warned Congress about the impending Fannie & Freddie Meltdown. Congress not only ignored the warnings, but accused the Regulators of “racism”. A “new tune, with the same old lyrics”.
One of the last motions Friday was to name the bill after the two chairmen, Sen. Chris Dodd(D –Conn) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who had shepherded the legislation through the House and Senate over the past year. At 5:07 a.m., they agreed unanimously that it would be known as the Dodd-Frank bill, and the sound of applause echoed down the empty hallways.
Lastly, the legislation does not impact CDS (Credit Default Swaps) issued to foreign nations or those who hold their debt. This legislation will do nothing to monitor or prevent AIG (a government owned entity) from trading in or issuing CDS on say, the National Debt of Greece.
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