Billion Dollar Blunder

Pending Doom

Ford is following closely behind in GM's footsteps. With a market value of $16 billion, they're burning cash to the extent that their bonds are now rated, at best, as borderline junk bonds. Their pension assets are $67 billion with pension debt of $111 billion. They're under-funding their pension to the tune of $45 billion and if the US Congress has its way, Ford will have to anti-up that money in 5 years. If the pension deal doesn't make them go belly-up, their health care costs will.

good.

kind of sad. I always liked Ford, and I still think with a little creative thinking they can fix it. Like Bently, Rolls-Royce, Ford will most likely be bought by VW, or BMW, or even GM or Toyota. Some cars are just too good to let die. If it ever plummets beyond a level, then BMW might just buy it and preserve it for the heck of its old traditional name.


It is sad thou, cuz Ford is no less a crappy car than acura, or honda. Speaking of which I am planing to file a law suit against Honda for falsifying their gas mileage in their honda civic hybrids. 48 MPG my ***! liars! My car is checked by the dealer and said to be functioning well and it is burning a pathetic 30 MPG. I could buy a VW Jetta and it would give me more than 30 MPG. Anyhow, Ford might be a crappy car but so is Honda. Did I also mention that my transmision started to make a crying noise two weeks after I bought the car?

Hi,

i agree with you and i like ford and mg. the cabrio´s from mg are so hot!

The average union worker should be socking away money as fast as they can, so they can upgrade their education and afford to move to a new town.

I bet they don't realise that.

why? some workers make much more money than some of these people who dedicate their life to education. Education is overrated. It is practically a waste of money beyond a limit. One has to really find out what matters in his or her life. Education alone is just a waste of money to be honest. only a few % of the world uses their educations to do something constructive like build a car, a house, or even design a rocket. The rest simply use their "hands on experience" and their books barely help them.

Because, if the plants close, they're going to lose their jobs. Then there will be a flood of workers with the same qualifications trying to scrap for any work in the area.

The trick, in that dog-eat-dog scenario, is to distinguish yourself (via additional accreditation) or moving to an area that isn't flooded with desperate people (or both). At that point, every single worker will have wished they had planned better.

I rarely use smilies, but I find it funny that you think getting an education does not give a competitive advantage to people.

To upgrade your education it is necessary to have the will in yourself. If you don´t want to learn more to become a better position in life or job you don´t have to.
In my experiences you must learn every day more and more to surviving in our world.

hello, all -

El Machinae - you're assuming a closed set. If you get more education (like I'm struggling to do) and start your own company (which I have), you now have an open set and are no longer relying on the dumb f&cks that are running the "Big 3" - soon to be the big 2.

HOWEVER............

Ford, GM, DC, American Airlines, United, et al. have all made the same blunderous error, thanks to Congress. Congress (through a loophole that lobbyists suggested when the bill was passed in the 80's) allowed for companies who have defined benefits plans (i.e. pensions, benefits for workers) to NOT CONTRIBUTE fully (as a percent of total revenue) to the pension plans. Secondly, the money managers assumed a ridiculous appreciation rate in their securities (stocks, bonds, market, etc.) which, the plan went, would generate enough income to cover the future bills.

wrooooooooooong!

Now, the taxpayer (i.e. - the poor working schmos - like us) is footing the bill through a provision (also created by the crooks and liars in Congress) called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). The PBGC just bailed out United airlines to the tune of over $9b and the PBGC is currently in the hole about $24b total.

So, we get stuck w/ the bill and the crooks and liars go merrily on their way - where is Grumpy when you need him????

Yeah, you're right. But, you'll admit that 99% of people operate as if there is a closed set. I wish you the best luck. (What type of company are you trying to start?)

I'm not suggesting anything too difficult, I'm just suggesting that union workers save more of their money than they are. When you can see the writing on the wall (the jobs are going to disappear), then it's the only logical option.

good

@ Silvia

Hi, i agree with you too and i love my mg. the cabrios from mg are the hottest!

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