American Auto Industry

CNN.com broke down the Auto Industry by state. The top 10 are in dark blue. It is an interesting map, and emphasizes that the Great Lakes Region is going to hurt from the Auto-Bailout dying in Senate. Yeah, USA, USA.

Note that Ohio is third in the nation, because our economy isn't already shaky enough. We follow Michigan and Cali.

Hey Congress, the Auto-Workers aren't your red-headed step children

I am seriously disturbed by the fact the auto-workers are having so much trouble getting a piece of the bailout.  The Dems and President Bush are working together, but it looks like it might not matter anyway because of the Republicans in the Senate who want to vote against it.  The bailout would be 15 billion dollars in emergency loans to Chrysler and General Motors, and President Bush would get to appoint a car czar to oversee everything.  They want to hold Chrysler's parent company liable for any losses and let the car czar impose a long-term viability plan for the auto companies.  The bill would also allow the car czar to force one of the companies into bankruptcy.

In the end, I'm still wondering why the auto workers are having such trouble.  This bailout is nothing compared to the bank one, and more people's jobs are at risk.  Where is the confusion?  I'd like to read the proposed bill, but this actually sounds alright to me...so far.  

Citigroup Bailout?

Ok, really I'm for the bailouts generally.  The workers shouldn't suffer because the guys on top are screwing them.  However, after the Auto Workers get shot down last week the Government is ready to bailout another bank?  Don't get me wrong, they should, but why are we just bailing out the banks?  What about the other guys?  Citigroup is getting $20 billion, and the Auto Workers nothing.  The $20 billion comes from the $700 billion dollar package.  

Apparently, there is some apprehension about bailing out Citigroup, "Critics worry the actions could put billions of taxpayers' dollars in jeopardy and encourage financial companies to take excessive risk on the belief that the government will bail them out of their messes." 

I can't see the logic here.  Really what am I missing?  Bailing out the banks who got us into this.  The Auto Workers aren't innocent, but by comparison.  

Everyone Paying Attention Yet?

Voters unite! People need to watch the VP debate tonight; I know this is a change. The Vice Presidential debates usually don’t matter at all, remember Quayle? However, I did a little research to see where our candidates stand; nothing too shocking out of fourteen issues I knew where Biden stood, and mostly where Palin does except well they only has stances on eight of the fourteen issues. I have to admit my interest in this is the same as my interest in crappy television. I just can’t look away. I am wary of having too low expectation, but I really would like Biden to just stare at Palin when she says something stupid like a little kid who absolutely, positively, one hundred percent sure, that there are monsters or nuclear missiles under the bed.
The Senate passed the bailout, but what happened to the predicted restrictions? I thought this was going to be for a smaller sum; I am for it regardless, but I think we need some serious supervision over this money. I am not going to pretend that I know a lot about this. I am bad with numbers and have only begun developing my distrust of financial institutions. I am aware of a few things: people made the conscience decision to create this mess with what amounts to a get rich quick scheme (bad loans), innocent people are suffering too (those tricked into bad loans and the rest of us who have nothing to do with it), and finally something needs to be done. I’m not so concerned about the “CEO bad guys” getting their hands on this money; my concern is why people haven’t started going after these people legally. I want to see frozen assets; I want these people who are essentially white collar criminals doing time.

Both articles are from the New York Times...