GM files for bankruptcy

General Motors is filing for bankruptcy. GM's bankruptcy filing is the fourth-largest in U.S. history and the largest for an industrial company. The company said it has $172.81 billion in debt and $82.29 billion in assets. GM has filed chapter 11 bankruptcy, the same as chrysler. The people that own shares of GM are probally going to be wiped out of all of theis cash that they had invested in GM. Because of the shortage of vehicles selling, General Motors in going to close or idle 14 of its plants. This closing of plants will cause many people to lose their job. This is really sad because of all the people losing their job and all the families that will be affected by this major problem. GM will also be selling the rights to Hummer, Saturn and SAAB brands. The people who owned stock in GM are not doing so hot either, one year ago the stock was at 25 dollars per share, as of right now it is only 60 cents per share. I cant even imagine taking that hit to your portfolio. This is a terrible time for the auto industry, and i feel it will get better after the economy is out of this recession.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090601/ap_on_bi_ge/us_automakers

Chrysler plant closures

Chrysler (auto company) will be closing all 30 of it's plants for one month due to the most severe downturn in U.S. auto sales in more than two decades. Americans who are affiliated with these Chrysler plants will have no source of income for the next 30 day. The Chrysler companies are doing this to preserve cash and to prevent a surplus in Chrysler cars on the car lots. I believe in order for a car compay to shine in todays economy, they need to do someting out of the ordinary, like make and produce cars that can run on water, or cars that get one hundred miles to the gallon. I feel bad that all of those people lost their jobs, but I think times will get better and the economy will get back on track within the next 2 years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/17/chrysler-plant-closures-a_n_151874.html

Can the Conyers Bill Save Your Home From Foreclosure?

In todays economy, millions of americans are filing for foreclosure, and the housing is going to continue to go down hill according to this article. In an attempt to help struggling homeowners, the U.S. government enacted the 'Conyers Bill' in 2007. The Conyers Bill provides relief to select homeowners who want to keep the ownership of their home in the event of bankruptcy.

Im glad that the government finally did something to help the struggling people of America. My family has been very fortunate and has never had to go through a foreclosure, but there are millions of americans who are alot less fortunate. The government will kick you out of your house if you do not keep the payments up. I do not believe this is a total solution to the foreclosure problem, but it is a start.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Mortgage-Bankruptcy---Can-the-Conyers-Bill-Save-Your-Home-From-Foreclosure?&id=1923961

International Trade Blog Entry

I did the issue #1, and this is what i learned. Tariff's- Taxes on imports that increase the price of foreign made products. Trade agreements- most nations generally establish favorable rules of trade and typically reduce trade barriers. I strongly believe that the United States should have Tariffs on most of the imported goods. This would cause more products to be sold by the american companies/businesses. Than on the other side of the spectrum, Tariffs are a bad thing and should be lowered. This would help America export more goods because businesses could produce more goods if they had a larger market (world wide).



I believe free-trade-agreements are harmful and are ripping apart the american economy. Any smart entrepreneur would send their dirty work to a country like mexico because the work can be done for so damn cheap. They dont have any minimum wages, and the people are willing to wokr for a dollar an hour in Mexico, but in America the minimum wage is around 6 dollars. That means it is 6 times cheaper to send your work down to Mexico. The United States is also sending alot of manufacturing jobs overseas due to cheap labor.


Picture of John Locke could'nt be imported!!

Current event blog

This article was about the AIG bailout and the bailouts to other large companies around the United States. A few days after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, the government lent the insurer $85 billion. In all, A.I.G. received $150 billion of government help: a $60 billion loan, $40 billion in exchange for a 79.9 percent equity stake and about $50 billion to capitalize two vehicles holding A.I.G.’s bad assets, but AIG promised to pay off the 60 billion dollar loan.

If you ask me i dont think the government should be bailing out companies like they have been. I understand there are some circumstances in which the government has to take part in. When AIG spent all of the bailout money, they gave their employees large bonuses. These employees already have a salary that is outrageous if you ask me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/business/27views.html

Who's to blame?

I believe that unregulated lender's were the biggest factors in our recession. Lender's gave out loans on houses, that was their role. These lenders saw home value's on the rise and started lending money as fast as they could. The problem was that the loans were subprime and nobody was underwriting the loans. Anyone could get a mortgage even if they couldn't pay it back. When people could not afford to pay these loans back, lenders started to forclose and sell cheap decreasing the value of all homes. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/congress_mortgages.html

These lenders failed when they didn't recognize that home values couldn't continue to rise. They needed tougher underwriting to assure borowers could afford the loans. We can't put all the blame on the lender, we the consumer were also guilty trying to live beyond our means. I still think the lenders greed and fast paced lending was the main problem. Almost like they painted an unrealistic picture for main street America.

Jon Hennessy's current event blog

The title of the article was "House passes bill to limit executive compesation". It was about the vote that would give the Treasury Department the power to ban future "unreasonable and excessive" compensation at companies receiving federal bailout money. Democrats supported the bill, but the republicans were not in favor. This article stated Bonuses for people with incomes over $250,000 would be taxed at a 90 percent rate, but the measure has failed to clear the Senate.
I agree with that idea, I believe that the wealth in America should be distributed evenly. That way the poor people can benefit from tax cuts instead of just the wealthy. It seemed to me that president Bush just made tax cuts that benefited the wealthy, while the rest of americans did not see those benefits.