You Agree? Former AIG Chairman Says Obama Bailed Out The Unions Not The Automakers

Agent009 submitted on 9/13/2012 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 11:27:01 AM

20 user comments | Views : 4,730 | Category: Misc News | Source: | SOURCE: www.bloomberg.com

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Harvey Golub, the former chairman of American International Group Inc.

, said President Barack Obama “violated every bankruptcy principle known to man” in the rescue of General Motors Co. (GM) and Chrysler Group LLC.

“One of the major elements of a bankruptcy is that debtors similarly situated get treated the same,” Golub told Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu on the “In the Loop” program today. “They changed the rules and bailed out the unions, not the companies.”


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You Agree? Former AIG Chairman Says Obama Bailed Out The Unions Not The Automakers

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Agent009

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MercBasher

Ok, let's start by noting that Golub made millions from AIG a company that should have been completely decimated, and also note that he is actively promoting the campaign of Mitt Romney.

In my opinion the bailouts of GM and Chrysler were spectacular successes . . . and I was 100% AGAINST THEM at the time. I felt that senior management had mismanaged them into the ground and didn't deserve any breaks . . . but I changed my opinion. Thank heavens we had GM and Chrysler almost fully operational after the Japanese Tsunami, otherwise new car prices would have gone through the roof and most of the real beneficiaries would have been imports.

In my opinion folks like Golub and Romney need to spend more time saying what they would do differently now and stop the rewriting of history. I think the Iraq war was a mistake, but guess what it doesn't matter because I can't change it.

I'd love to hear more about how Romney can cut taxes for everyone, increase spending on defense and still balance the budget. I'd also like to hear more about how Golub can justify making money personally from the survival of AIG while criticising the auto bailout.

— MercBasher (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 1:46:40 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

MBCLS07

Your fallacious ad hominem attacks do nothing to refute the truth spoken by the AIG Chairman. His role at AIG doesn't change the fact that Obama's real purpose in bailing out GM was to bail out the the UAW in return for their political support. To argue otherwise, however feebly and illogically, is to ignore reality.

— MBCLS07 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 1:32:28 AM | | Votes: 5   

MorePower

somebody went to lawschool, dated a lawyer or has a family member that is one.

Romney support aside, the bailout was not about the union, but about the many thousands of people, and the many thousands of small businesses, that would have been left unemployed and closed if the automotive companies were not bailed out.

While I think GM should be dead by the side of road with financial vultures picking at its carcass, it is undeniable that if the government, lets not forget that Bush also gave them money, did not bail them out, the United States would have fallen into a deeper financial recession/depression.

— MorePower (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 3:39:19 AM | | Votes: -1   

MBCLS07

MorePower, I wish you were right. Unfortunately, the bailout was NOT about the "thousands of people" and small businesses involved in the domestic auto industry. Hence, non-UAW members and investors getting screwed while UAW members got a sweetheart deal (this, despite their key role in GM's demise). BTW, I don't hold a law degree, just a disgust for the type of lazy, nonsensical political arguments espoused frequently by Obama supporters.

— MBCLS07 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 4:53:11 PM | | Votes: 4   

MorePower

@ MBCLS07

While I appreciate your argument, I feel you both overestimate the power & influence of the UAW and underestimate the influence the auto industry's workforce(as a whole: from parts manufacturers to dealer receptionists)has on the United States' economy.

If GM and Chrysler were allowed to fail, the dealerships would fail. As the dealerships failed, so will the small business(liquor stores, deli's, etc.) that counted this group of consumers as a significant portion of their consumers and so forth as the ripples migrate outward.

— MorePower (View Profile)

Posted on 9/18/2012 11:23:13 PM | | Votes: -2   

USNA1999

Of course I agree, OBAMA and his croonies want to save all unions. He wants their vote.

— USNA1999 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 2:02:03 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 6   

800over

Obama wants everybody's vote.....as does every politician.

— 800over (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 3:23:16 PM | | Votes: 1   

Carzak

MercBasher is on the money literally about Golub who is an arrogant little fellow that likes to hear the sound of his own voice.

— Carzak (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 2:14:41 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

PLAY

Well guess what? This was a bankruptcy handled by the government, not the market. The government gets to decide who wins and who loses. It gets to weigh the decisions in accordance with national economic interests. You take government money, you play by their rules. End of story.

— PLAY (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 2:36:16 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

absent

Couple of the resident idiots here don't like to hear the truth (even when it's told by less then savory character it is still the truth).
How these idiots explain Delphi's employees getting guaranteed pensions after their company was liquidated,as long as they belong to UAW?
Half of the workers did not belong to that union of THUGS,hence no pension,per the messiah obama (I refuse to put a capital O for that impersonator)

— absent (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 8:26:56 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

MorePower

I guess you explain it the same way that the Bush administration used taxed payer dollars to fully cover the debt of AIG, Goldman Sacks and other defaulting financial institutions instead of having both parties negotiate a reduced evaluation of the bad assets' value and then discharge the debt through public backing; i.e. tax-payer funds.

— MorePower (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 3:43:41 AM | | Votes: 0   

Eyecarehawaii

As a reminder: "Less than two weeks after Uncle Sam gave American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan - staving off financial collapse - execs from one of its insurance subsidiaries, AIG American General, gathered for a conference at the uber-swank St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, billed as “California’s only Mobil Travel Guide Five-Star Resort,” where ocean-view rooms start at $565 a night and “world class luxury” is the rule.
AIG American General spent:
$147,302 for banquets
$139,375 on rooms
$23,380 for spa services
$6,939 for golf
$5,016 at the Stonehill Tavern
$3,065 for in-room dining and the lobby lounge
$2,949 for gratuities
$1,901 at the Monarch Bayclub
and $1,488 at the resort’s Vogue Salon"

Is this a case of the kettle calling the pot black?

— Eyecarehawaii (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 10:21:04 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Steve

When you're Da Prez, ya gotta pay for da votes ya bought. Dats da rule.

A free market dictates that a company that can't make a profit goes the way of the dinosaurs. The Government takes those enormous corporate losses, unloads them from the corporations, and saddles them on the citizens in the form of increased national debt, which was incurred when the Feds borrowed money to hand to GM and Chrysler in the form of bail-outs.

So now GM is set up to eventually go bankrupt a second time, and Chrylser a third, for the next round of bail-outs. Any questions?

— Steve (View Profile)

Posted on 9/13/2012 11:15:06 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

JustaCar

Anyone who knows anything about the AIG debacle would know better than to listen to Mr. Golub.

— JustaCar (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 12:21:04 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Codeus

Yes lets go political on a car forum!!! OBummer got the union vote and promised them the world as well as making them exempt from obamacare..hmmmm what a deal. If a company is being managed poorly and fails they should be alowed to fail like every other company run poorly since the conception of this country. I could go into many examples but i feel that would be redundant to the smart people reading this forum!

— Codeus (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 8:02:57 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Codeus

Oh, further to those people that say we would have dipper further in recession. We are now in a worse recession and the hole left by those failing companies would have easily been filled by the other car companies puting out good cars and taking car of the bottom line. Americas future is not hinged on 1 or 2 car companies LOL. Wow i cant believe i actually have to spell that out to folks rofl.

— Codeus (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 8:07:24 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

vogeygolf

All politics aside, GM still has the highest labor costs in the industry. Would not surprise me if they wind up filing bankruptcy anyway. Their legacy retirement costs and wage scales have to come closer to the market.

That's why this country is losing jobs...other countires have lower labor costs, and the differential is so wide companies have two options:
1. Export jobs to other countries so the company stays in business.
2. Keep jobs here, lose price competitiveness, and go out of business. Jobs get lost anyway.

What is happening the the UAW and the two-tiered system is allowing jobs to come back to the US slowly, and these folks are making $15 to $17 per hour. It's better than being unemployed, or going to work for Walmart at $8 an hour. We have to be realistic in wages.....how much is a production line job worth, what kind of education is needed, and what is the "real value" in that job. Once we as a country get our heads together on this, jobs will come back

— vogeygolf (View Profile)

Posted on 9/14/2012 12:18:17 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

skytop

Communist and lame brain obama NATIONALALIZED GM so he could take control of the company's assets and rob them. He then gave it to the communist unions pals. Once of the largest thefts in U.S. history. Yes, obama is a thief, a crook, a low life sleaze ball.

In 2008 you may have voted for obama to prove you were not a racist.

In 2012 vote for Romney to prove you are not an idiot!

— skytop (View Profile)

Posted on 9/15/2012 5:37:56 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

skytop

In 2008 you may have voted for obama to prove you were not a racist.

In 2012 vote for Romney to prove you are not an idiot!

— skytop (View Profile)

Posted on 9/18/2012 9:15:53 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

cyberlancer

why does he not go fuck himself....

— cyberlancer (View Profile)

Posted on 9/23/2012 3:34:11 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

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