December 30, 2008 • 1:46 am
Hopefully they will do as they say and turn around and indeed lend more money on better terms to consumers:
From the WSJ: The federal government Monday deepened its involvement in the U.S. automotive industry by committing $6 billion to stabilize GMAC LLC, a financing company vital to the future of struggling car maker General Motors Corp.
In response, GMAC said Tuesday that it will immediately resume auto financing for “a broader spectrum of U.S. customers.”
The company said it will modify its credit criteria to include retail financing for customers with a credit bureau score of 621 or above, compared with the 700 minimum score it put in place two months ago as its troubles deepened. The median US consumer credit score is 723.
“The actions of the federal government to support GMAC are having an immediate and meaningful effect on our ability to provide credit to automotive customers,” said GMAC President Bill Muir said in a prepared statement. Full article
Filed under: Automotive , Automotive, Bailout, GM
December 15, 2008 • 4:40 am
We got a lot of comments on the Fareed Zakaria story last week. We think this article deserves attention to, so here we go: Warren Brown at the Washington Post starts out:
Perception is everything, or almost everything.
If anything is to be learned from Detroit’s beg-fest on Capitol Hill, it’s at least that much.
Perception influences reality.
Thus we have the General Motors “confession,” its “commitment to the American people” published on the second page of the Dec. 8 edition of Automotive News, an industry trade journal. It presents an object lesson in perception versus reality.
Reality: The “confession” is a rehash of sins committed by a GM that existed 20 years ago, stupidities so enormous — pathetic product quality, dismal marketing techniques, all trumped by corporate arrogance — they opened the ports to foreign competition and paved the way for defections of generations of American consumers to Toyota, Nissan and Honda.
But you should really read the entire article – especially if you commented on the post about Fareed. Warren goes on with ten or so “Perceptions vs Reality.” Some of them might surprise you.
Full article
Filed under: Automotive, Information , Automotive, Bailout, GM
November 18, 2008 • 1:28 pm
In continuing to try to understand the root causes of the financial crisis, we find that the whole story just keeps getting more interesting. While lots of folks are trying to blame one single thing (free markets, regulations, greed, poor people, rich people, bankers, mortgage lenders, hedge funds, short sellers, the President, Congress, etc.), the truth is that almost all of those explanations aren’t just wrong, they’re highly misleading. The problems involve a whole bunch of different things that combined to create the incentives that resulted in this situation – and preventing it from happening again is hardly an easy proposition.
Earlier this year, in talking about a highly questionable investment firm that was investing in startups, we wrote about how the venture capital game has always been about finding the last sucker to invest.
Read rest on techdirt
Filed under: Information , Bailout, Crisis, Financial, VC
