OK, so there’s this Democratic president who’s really good on spending. Meaning, he does it a lot. Among the most ever, in fact.
For more than 18 months he spent like there was no midterm.
He authorized the government takeover of a car company. When in doubt — or not — get the government involved. Something about saving jobs, union jobs.
But now the government’s getting out by selling stock. And it looks to be making money. Which is an unknown thing in government but in private business usually involves getting back more money than was put it. It’s called a profit. He couldn’t bring himself to say the word. But that’s what it is, a profit for taxpayers.
So do you think that profit will be returned to taxpaying shareholders whose money saved the day?
Here’s how that president put it:
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. Today, one of the toughest tales of the recession took another big step towards becoming a success story.
General Motors relaunched itself as a public company, cutting the government’s stake in the company by nearly half. What’s more, American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM.
And that’s a very good thing. Last year, we told GM’s management and workers that if they made the tough decisions necessary to make themselves more competitive in the 21st century — decisions requiring real leadership, fresh thinking and also some shared sacrifice –- then we would stand by them.
And because they did, the American auto industry -– an industry that’s been the proud symbol of America’s manufacturing might for a century; an industry that helped to build our middle class -– is once again on the rise.
Our automakers are in the midst of their strongest period of job growth in more than a decade. Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the industry has created more than 75,000 new jobs. For the first time in six years, Ford, GM and Chrysler are all operating at a profit.
In fact, last week, GM announced its best quarter in over 11 years. And most importantly, American workers are back at the assembly line manufacturing the high-quality, fuel-efficient, American-made cars of tomorrow, capable of going toe to toe with any other manufacturer in the world.
Just two years ago, this seemed impossible. In fact, there were plenty of doubters and naysayers who said it couldn’t be done, who were prepared to throw in the towel and read the American auto industry last rites.
Independent estimates suggested, however, that had we taken that step, had we given up, we would have lost more than 1 million jobs across all 50 states. It would have also resulted in economic chaos, devastating communities across the country and costing governments tens of billions of dollars in additional social safety net benefits and lost revenue.
That wasn’t an acceptable option –- to throw up our hands and to quit. That’s not what we do. This is a country of optimistic and determined people who don’t give up when times are tough. We do what’s necessary to move forward.
So these last two years haven’t been easy on anybody. They haven’t been without pain or sacrifice, as the tough restructuring of GM reminds us.
And obviously we’ve still got a long road ahead and a lot of work to do -– to rebuild this economy, to put people back to work, to make America more competitive for the future and to secure the American Dream for our children and our grandchildren.
But we are finally beginning to see some of these tough decisions that we made in the midst of crisis pay off. And I’m absolutely confident that we’re going to keep on making progress. I believe we’re going to get through this tougher and stronger than we were before. Because just as I had faith in the ability of our autoworkers to persevere and succeed, I have faith in the American people’s ability to persevere and succeed. And I have faith that America’s best days and America’s — and American manufacturing’s best days are still ahead of us.
Finally, I just want to embarrass a couple of people. Ron Bloom and Brian Deese are key members of the team that helped to engineer this rescue of GM and Chrysler. So it had not been for these two gentlemen, a whole lot of people might be out of work right now. We are very proud of them and I figured that I’d go ahead — you can see they’re all looking sheepish — point them out to you. So thank you very much, everybody.
(Malcolm is the Top of the Ticket blogger at latimes.com/ticket )
Update (AP): Here’s the clip. The good news? We’ve only lost $4.5 billion on share sales thus far.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The next few years in the mobile industry are going to be interesting not only because Google and Apple are competing with each other at making the most advanced mobile operating system, or because Nokia, for the first time in their 145 year old corporate history, have a non-Finnish citizen running the ship, but because the fundamental way we interact with each other and the world around us is going to change thanks to near field communication.
Man used to carry cash until roughly 50 years ago when the first credit card with a magnetic stripe was released. It brought about a huge change in people’s spending habits, not only because they could actually borrow money and pay it back at a later point in time, but because the visual artifact of slips of paper and coins was removed from our understanding of how money really works and how much it’s actually worth. Now, with the recent announcement of Isis, a collaboration between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile aimed at making your mobile phone the only thing you need to take with you when leaving you home, the world is set to change yet again.
How does that make Visa, one of the ancestors of plastic cash, feel about their role in the future of the daily transactions that make our world economy go round and round? I’m not going to copy and paste the entire article, which I recommend you read, but here is the main argument:
“It might be easy to build an iPhone app that lets you enter in the phone number of a co-worker you want to pay back for lunch, a common promise in the new mobile-payments world. But then someone has to do the intricate behind-the-scenes data processing that makes sure the card isn’t stolen, the people involved aren’t scammers, the payer’s account has the necessary funds and the actual money transfer happens quickly and without a glitch.”
They’re on the defensive, citing their experience with handling mobile payments, but just like Visa killed cashed half a century ago, maybe the little NFC chip inside your next smartphone will the beginning of something new and exciting?
[Via: NFC World]
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Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Clarissa's Blog: Fox <b>News</b> in Canada
"It will aim to challenge conventional wisdom and offer Canadians a new choice and a new voice on TV," Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said as the conservative news channel faces stiff competition from existing cable news ...
<b>News</b> - Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler Flaunt Bikini Bods in <b>...</b>
The new BFFs show off their curves while celebrating Thanksgiving abroad.
bench craft company finishes
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Clarissa's Blog: Fox <b>News</b> in Canada
"It will aim to challenge conventional wisdom and offer Canadians a new choice and a new voice on TV," Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said as the conservative news channel faces stiff competition from existing cable news ...
<b>News</b> - Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler Flaunt Bikini Bods in <b>...</b>
The new BFFs show off their curves while celebrating Thanksgiving abroad.
bench craft company spread covers
OK, so there’s this Democratic president who’s really good on spending. Meaning, he does it a lot. Among the most ever, in fact.
For more than 18 months he spent like there was no midterm.
He authorized the government takeover of a car company. When in doubt — or not — get the government involved. Something about saving jobs, union jobs.
But now the government’s getting out by selling stock. And it looks to be making money. Which is an unknown thing in government but in private business usually involves getting back more money than was put it. It’s called a profit. He couldn’t bring himself to say the word. But that’s what it is, a profit for taxpayers.
So do you think that profit will be returned to taxpaying shareholders whose money saved the day?
Here’s how that president put it:
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. Today, one of the toughest tales of the recession took another big step towards becoming a success story.
General Motors relaunched itself as a public company, cutting the government’s stake in the company by nearly half. What’s more, American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM.
And that’s a very good thing. Last year, we told GM’s management and workers that if they made the tough decisions necessary to make themselves more competitive in the 21st century — decisions requiring real leadership, fresh thinking and also some shared sacrifice –- then we would stand by them.
And because they did, the American auto industry -– an industry that’s been the proud symbol of America’s manufacturing might for a century; an industry that helped to build our middle class -– is once again on the rise.
Our automakers are in the midst of their strongest period of job growth in more than a decade. Since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the industry has created more than 75,000 new jobs. For the first time in six years, Ford, GM and Chrysler are all operating at a profit.
In fact, last week, GM announced its best quarter in over 11 years. And most importantly, American workers are back at the assembly line manufacturing the high-quality, fuel-efficient, American-made cars of tomorrow, capable of going toe to toe with any other manufacturer in the world.
Just two years ago, this seemed impossible. In fact, there were plenty of doubters and naysayers who said it couldn’t be done, who were prepared to throw in the towel and read the American auto industry last rites.
Independent estimates suggested, however, that had we taken that step, had we given up, we would have lost more than 1 million jobs across all 50 states. It would have also resulted in economic chaos, devastating communities across the country and costing governments tens of billions of dollars in additional social safety net benefits and lost revenue.
That wasn’t an acceptable option –- to throw up our hands and to quit. That’s not what we do. This is a country of optimistic and determined people who don’t give up when times are tough. We do what’s necessary to move forward.
So these last two years haven’t been easy on anybody. They haven’t been without pain or sacrifice, as the tough restructuring of GM reminds us.
And obviously we’ve still got a long road ahead and a lot of work to do -– to rebuild this economy, to put people back to work, to make America more competitive for the future and to secure the American Dream for our children and our grandchildren.
But we are finally beginning to see some of these tough decisions that we made in the midst of crisis pay off. And I’m absolutely confident that we’re going to keep on making progress. I believe we’re going to get through this tougher and stronger than we were before. Because just as I had faith in the ability of our autoworkers to persevere and succeed, I have faith in the American people’s ability to persevere and succeed. And I have faith that America’s best days and America’s — and American manufacturing’s best days are still ahead of us.
Finally, I just want to embarrass a couple of people. Ron Bloom and Brian Deese are key members of the team that helped to engineer this rescue of GM and Chrysler. So it had not been for these two gentlemen, a whole lot of people might be out of work right now. We are very proud of them and I figured that I’d go ahead — you can see they’re all looking sheepish — point them out to you. So thank you very much, everybody.
(Malcolm is the Top of the Ticket blogger at latimes.com/ticket )
Update (AP): Here’s the clip. The good news? We’ve only lost $4.5 billion on share sales thus far.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The next few years in the mobile industry are going to be interesting not only because Google and Apple are competing with each other at making the most advanced mobile operating system, or because Nokia, for the first time in their 145 year old corporate history, have a non-Finnish citizen running the ship, but because the fundamental way we interact with each other and the world around us is going to change thanks to near field communication.
Man used to carry cash until roughly 50 years ago when the first credit card with a magnetic stripe was released. It brought about a huge change in people’s spending habits, not only because they could actually borrow money and pay it back at a later point in time, but because the visual artifact of slips of paper and coins was removed from our understanding of how money really works and how much it’s actually worth. Now, with the recent announcement of Isis, a collaboration between Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile aimed at making your mobile phone the only thing you need to take with you when leaving you home, the world is set to change yet again.
How does that make Visa, one of the ancestors of plastic cash, feel about their role in the future of the daily transactions that make our world economy go round and round? I’m not going to copy and paste the entire article, which I recommend you read, but here is the main argument:
“It might be easy to build an iPhone app that lets you enter in the phone number of a co-worker you want to pay back for lunch, a common promise in the new mobile-payments world. But then someone has to do the intricate behind-the-scenes data processing that makes sure the card isn’t stolen, the people involved aren’t scammers, the payer’s account has the necessary funds and the actual money transfer happens quickly and without a glitch.”
They’re on the defensive, citing their experience with handling mobile payments, but just like Visa killed cashed half a century ago, maybe the little NFC chip inside your next smartphone will the beginning of something new and exciting?
[Via: NFC World]
bench craft company spread covers
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Clarissa's Blog: Fox <b>News</b> in Canada
"It will aim to challenge conventional wisdom and offer Canadians a new choice and a new voice on TV," Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said as the conservative news channel faces stiff competition from existing cable news ...
<b>News</b> - Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler Flaunt Bikini Bods in <b>...</b>
The new BFFs show off their curves while celebrating Thanksgiving abroad.
bench craft company per hole sizing
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Clarissa's Blog: Fox <b>News</b> in Canada
"It will aim to challenge conventional wisdom and offer Canadians a new choice and a new voice on TV," Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said as the conservative news channel faces stiff competition from existing cable news ...
<b>News</b> - Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler Flaunt Bikini Bods in <b>...</b>
The new BFFs show off their curves while celebrating Thanksgiving abroad.
bench craft company team
Last Look: Style <b>News</b> You Might Have Missed (PHOTOS, POLL)
Welcome to Last Look, where we round up the Style scraps that didn't make it to our news page this week. Click through and catch up on what else happened since Monday!
Clarissa's Blog: Fox <b>News</b> in Canada
"It will aim to challenge conventional wisdom and offer Canadians a new choice and a new voice on TV," Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said as the conservative news channel faces stiff competition from existing cable news ...
<b>News</b> - Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler Flaunt Bikini Bods in <b>...</b>
The new BFFs show off their curves while celebrating Thanksgiving abroad.
bench craft company itliano
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