http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/07/news...=ib_topstories

Just an FYI, I do not know any market specifics between rivals or anything. Just an FYI for anyone interested.

 

Wow, the writer of that article completely forgot the fact that $30 billion of that loss was in payments to the new UAW retirement trust. They may have lost alot this time, but that payment alone will shore up about 80 billion a year in costs.

We should not be the slightest bit surprised or worried to see this happen.

 

There was a letter send to all dealers with the total facts that I can't post the contents yet. Top secret stuff I guess.

39B with a bunch of zero's loss is a bunch of money. I think GM still has over 30B in cash too.

I think GM will rid itself of all unions at some point. Never again will a striking union in any state shut down GM.............. At some point a strike will result in termination letters being sent to all employees. Thanks for your years of service we have eliminated your job, bye!

An old man and his dog!

 

It's definitely time for them to phase out the unions. We've all heard the argument a million times, but here goes: Unions had their place at one time. Today we have laws to support and safeguard the worker in the work place where we once did not. Unions are now about profit and the interests of the Union rather than the employee.

 

Yup. Thank god for those e-mails, dealerworld, etc etc.
I agree about the unions being disbanded and some point. GM gave to much power and money away. You can only bleed a company so much.

 

somehow i find it funny that GMs loss is about what the whole company of Chrysler was worth 10yrs ago when MB acquired them

 

yes,its all unions fault and not shitty mngt. for decades. give me a break.

 

+1. They were too complacent in the past. Unfortunately for Toyota and the import crowd, they've pulled an Adolf Hitler and woken up the bear....

 

Nothing to fear here... GM is getting their **** together.

I think that new Malibu is going to sell hot

 

it was an "on-paper" loss as i understood it. all in a prior long term of tax relief that they had to pay

 

I believe you are correct something with the Union and the health care, but can't remeber.

 

it has to do with GMAC performing poorly and tax credits.

 

I actually have to do an accounting paper on the 39bil "loss". its nothing you need to really worry about, theyre doing fine. it has to do with tax credits, its not an actual loss

 

As I understood it, they were given tax easment for a long time and last quarter, the bill was paid.

 

i hope gm goes back to #1

 

as long as it doesnt start affecting gm with the way they have/will start to crank out rwd lsx cars, the lsx engine is a major contributor to gm's recent success and exitement for the new lines of rwd cars to be released or recently released, g8,camaro, etc.
imo

 

GM will never die...

 

They are/have been.

 

The majority of the loss was due to writing down the value of future credits/deductions. The tax credits are from past losses, transactions,etc that allow GM to reduce the amount of taxes they pay on their future profits. Since GM has had major losses in recent years, they can carry forward those losses against future profits and pay less taxes.
Why did GM write down the value for those tax credits? Companies must reassess their deferred tax assets if they believe that they will not be able to use all of their benefit. GM's assessment showed that it was not likely that they would be able to use the majority of their tax credits due to a lack of future profits.They reduced the value on their balance sheet for the assets for several billion dollars. This has no cash effect for GM but it speaks a lot on the future success of them.

"Efraim Levy, equity analyst with Standard & Poor's, cut his recommendation on the stock Wednesday to a "sell" from a "hold."
"Looking at the near term outlook, there's more negatives than positives," said Levy. "The downgrade isn't because of the writedown. But I think it does signal a worsening outlook, that the level of profitability and the ability to use these tax benefits won't be there in the near term the way they would have liked. It bodes poorly on the outlook.""

But then GM says the following:
"The company's statement about the charge said that it "does not reflect a change in the company's view of its long-term automotive financial outlook." But it also cautioned "the company faces more challenging near-term automotive market conditions in the U.S. and Germany.""

It was GM and their accountants that made the decision to write down the value of their tax assets and they wrote them down because there is a high probability that they would not have been able to use most of them due to lack of profits. But they state that loosing billions of dollars in tax credits/deductions does not change its long term financial outlook? So, I guess GM has known for awhile that they would not be able to use those tax deduction.