The lesson? Throw enough cash at something and you can keep it afloat!
You didn't have to go to Harvard to figure that one out though.
BUsh went to Yale.
Seems like those Harvard graduates are a lot
smarter than Yalies!
It’s official.
General Motors surpassed Toyota and Volkswagen to reclaim the crown of world’s largest automaker with global sales of 9.03 million vehicles in 2011.
That was 11% higher than Volkswagen, which last week reported 2011 global sales of 8.16 million. Toyota has not yet reported its final 2011 sales, but last month the Japanese automaker estimated it sold 7.9 million vehicles globally last year.
Toyota’s sales were constrained by production cuts caused my the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, and later in the year by flooding in Thailand.
GM’s 2011 sales rose 7.6% from 2011. Sales in the U.S. led the way for Chevrolet with total vehicle sales of 1,775,812, up more than 13%. China posted record sales of 595,068, up 9.5% from the previous year. Other markets that posted significant year-over-year increases include Vietnam (79%), Russia (49%), Turkey (30%) and Germany (21%).
Let's give King Obama credit for the drop in Michigan's
unemployment rate while we're at it!
But recovery clearly seems to be underway, most likely because the auto industry is growing again. Government statistics show that the big job gains were in manufacturing and business services. Anecdotally, all three of Detroit's carmakers seem to be doing well now, adding shifts, reopening plants, and adding jobs. (They're also making pretty good cars, although, as you may have heard, the Chevy Volt has some battery problems.) According to a new economic growth index that the Brookings Institution put together, Detroit last year ranked ninth among the nation's 57 largest metropolitan areas.
President Obama and his allies will claim credit for this resurgence. They should -- and not just for the obvious reasons.
The decision to rescue the Chrysler and General Motors in early 2009 was not particularly popular. The only way to save the industry was to put up federal dollars, something presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney now says he opposed. It was certainly not what the public, already tired of bailouts and (in some cases) unions, wanted to hear.
But even in Michigan, the plan provoked ambivalence. The Obama administration was serious about using the structured bankruptcy to reorganize the companies into leaner, more competitive firms. That meant layoffs and, over the long-term, significantly lower pay for unionized auto workers. Only recently has the upside started to become clear.
*Cue lilMike posting a link from the Bush years about how shitty GM is and blaming everything on Obama.
