Nick Bunkley, N.Y. Times, 6/2/09, “For G.M. and Ford, May Was Best Month for Sales This Year”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/business/03sales.html?hp
New-vehicle sales in the United States climbed to their highest levels of the year in May, despite rising gasoline prices and the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. May was the best sales month of 2009 for General Motors, whose sales rose 11 percent from April but fell 30 percent from a year ago. Chrysler’s sales rose 3 percent from April but were down 47 percent from May 2008, largely because it sold almost no vehicles to car-rental companies and other businesses. …‘We were able to record our best monthly sales result of the year in May as we are seeing more positive signs in housing and consumer confidence in the market,’ Mark LaNeve, vice president for sales, service and marketing for G.M. North America, said in a statement. ‘Those signs, along with more clarity on the New G.M., are providing some additional consumer confidence.’
Ray Young, G.M. CFO, 6/2/09, CNN’s American Morning
http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/02/gm-cfo-we-admit-errors-in-the-past/
[I]f you take a look at the last 60 days after President Obama gave us the June 1st deadline, it’s an example of how fast the new General Motors could move. In the last 60 days, we negotiated a historic UAW labor contract. It gets the labor costs in the United States close to the transplant levels here in the United States. We did the same thing up in Canada with the Canadian autoworkers. We basically negotiated with the bondholders and worked with them on an arrangement that we could emerge from bankruptcy…with their support. We negotiated an arrangement over in Europe, an MOU with Magna, in order to restructure the European business. We were able to accomplish a lot in the last 60 days, which is indicative of what the new General Motor is all about. We’re going to move quickly, we’re going to fast, and we’re going to take a lot of risks.
Dean Baker, Politico, 6/2/09, “GM Bailout Makes the Most of a Bad Situation”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23198.html
In the current economic climate, sitting back and allowing GM to be liquidated was not a serious option. This would have wiped out a whole network of suppliers and ancillary businesses in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, devastating the economies of these three states. The federal government would have been forced to step in with large-scale aid, in this case, just to prevent mass destitution. The state and local governments would have lacked the resources just to maintain basic services[.] …Under the circumstances, it hardly seems unreasonable to offer a lifeline to keep GM and Chrysler afloat. Given recent events, Detroit offers us a much better future than Wall Street — or at least a more honest one.
Barack Obama, U.S. President, 6/1/09
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/us/politics/01obama.text.html?pagewanted=1
…G.M. and its stakeholders have produced a viable, achievable plan that will give this iconic American company a chance to rise again. It's a plan tailored to the realities of today's auto market; a plan that positions G.M. to move toward profitability, even if it takes longer than expected for our economy to fully recover; and it's a plan that builds on G.M.'s recent progress in making better cars. As this plan takes effect, G.M. will start building a larger share of its cars here at home, including fuel-efficient cars. In fact, if all goes according to plan, the share of GM cars sold in the United States that are made here will actually grow for the first time in three decades.
Brian Tumulty, USA Today, 6/1/09, “History Shows Corporations Can Survive Bankruptcy”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-29-gm-surviving-bankruptcy_N.htm
GM enters the process, according to bankruptcy experts, with the most important element needed for an eventual exit — an outside source of financing going forward. In GM's case, that source is named Uncle Sam. ‘What is distinctive about this situation is that the government is behind GM,’ said Randal Picker, a professor of commercial law at the University of Chicago Law School. ‘The government is ready to step up and do that.’
Fritz Henderson, CEO of G.M., 6/1/09, Letter to Employees
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124395666340377263.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Today marks a defining moment in the history of General Motors. This morning, we announced an agreement with U.S. Treasury and Canadian and Ontario governments – which along with the recent agreements with the UAW and CAW unions, and sacrifices by our salaried employees and – will allow us to form a leaner, more customer-focused, more cost-competitive company – a "New GM" built upon the strongest parts of our business, with far less debt, lower operating costs and the ability to generate sustained and winning bottom-line performance. |
