"AIIIEEEEE, don't go into the basement alone! graphs"

Pathetic..we Canadians.

Germany long since shut down production in Mexico and brought their jobs home.

Those 'bright' interpreneurs on CBC Dragon's den, often mumble..' we're setting up assembly in China, of course'.

This auto-think is suicide for our economy.

And for heaven's sake, buy a GM vehicle. They ain't half bad. Careful of Ford though. They self ignite when you least expect it.

Enough guitar, already.

TG

I refuse to buy a GM as i think iti s important to show the govornment and GM that irrisponsible managment and bully unions are not an accptable buisness prectice if you want to succeed ...GM did it to them selves and i was forced to bail them out so no and i will buy a ford as they are much more reliable and well built than GM and they aren ot nearly as expensive .

Same with the dragons den they are the type of entrapenourse that care about money more then there own country so to me they are usless idiot's who would be happy selling there own country down the river in order for them selfish little selves to keep rich ...and no they don't stimulate our economy becasue everything they do is basically our ofthis country vacations ,land ownership ,bank accounts...all of it they are the bad type of capitalist's ...and by the way most of those loseres got lucky remeebr that ,be it the y2k .com,or some other gift horse ..none of them actualyl started a buisness on there own lived in a trailer of a small one berdroom appartment and starved ..they all had degree's and never really saw the hard side of life so they suck !!! lol...

Paul in calgary

All that off shore manufacturing etc has caused havoc with supplies due to the volcano. Might me time to bring those jobs back home.
Read where millions of flowers have been thrown away in Kenya due to no flights. How come we never see those fields of flowers when Kenya is in the news. Or any evidence of all those other businesses in Africa that are having problems due to the volcano.

Germany long since shut down production in Mexico and brought their jobs home.

I have no idea who you think "Germany" is, but VW is expanding its Puebla plant.

So where is the 24/7 'obsessive media recession watch' now that it really is happening? - on Obama's watch. Media cannot bring themselves to criticizing socialists, I guess.

Markets and economies are very forward looking - by months, half a year even. Now what was happening a few months before the Sept 08 slump? Obama was overtaking Clinton and McCain - could that be it? Just saying.

All that off shore manufacturing etc has caused havoc with supplies due to the volcano.

And your evidence for that ridiculous statement is flowers from Kenya? Do you even know what "manufacturing" is?

Hopefully unemployment is hitting hardest at the young and dumb, the weird and nutty, the uneducated and lame university graduates, and the rest of the lefty demographic. A natural karma, genuine social justice.

Hide the decline.

Any company that would run those lying skanky ads about "paying back the loans" can't be trusted to build a car I would pay for . . . owned by the government, beholden to the unions = crap products.

"Needless to say, Government Motors came up a little short despite their boasting:

Uncle Sam gave GM $49.5 billion last summer in aid to finance its bankruptcy. (If it hadn't, the company, which couldn't raise this kind of money from private lenders, would have been forced into liquidation, its assets sold for scrap.) So when Mr. Whitacre publishes a column with the headline, "The GM Bailout: Paid Back in Full," most ordinary mortals unfamiliar with bailout minutia would assume that he is alluding to the entire $49.5 billion. That, however, is far from the case.

Because a loan of such a huge amount would have been politically controversial, the Obama administration handed GM only $6.7 billion as a pure loan. (It asked for only a 7% interest rate--a very sweet deal considering that GM bonds at that time were trading below junk level.) The vast bulk of the bailout money was transferred to GM through the purchase of 60.8% equity stake in the company--arguably an even worse deal for taxpayers than the loan, given that the equity position requires them to bear the risk of the investment without any guaranteed return. (The Canadian government likewise gave GM $1.4 billion as a pure loan, and another $8.1 billion for an 11.7% equity stake. The U.S. and Canadian government together own 72.5% of the company.)

But when Mr. Whitacre says GM has paid back the bailout money in full, he means not the entire $49.5 billion--the loan and the equity. In fact, he avoids all mention of that figure in his column. He means only the $6.7 billion loan amount.

And that's only part of the story. The fact is, the money GM is bragging they paid back is from a government financed escrow account.

GM paid back taxpayers with taxpayer money."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/gm_we_still_own_it.html

Ahem

Post topic is a comparison of Obama's recession with previous recessions - not Ford VS Chevy. Thx.

Who said there will be recovery?

As long it doesn't improve before the November elections things should improve after that.

Remember, this lackey, Whitacre was appointed by the Anointed One, so he is just taking orders, of course, when he spouts his drivel, and, oh my gosh, fails to mention that the rest of the bailout hasn't been addresses. Silly Mr Whitacre.....

And, of course, the MSM is complicit, reading the press release verbatim, without mention that it is far from a 100% payback.

The fix is in

I don't believe there will be any type of recovery without employment gains. Companies can produce (pointing to a recovery) but people can't afford to buy goods without gainful employment.

Posted by: Orlin of Marquette>

"...people can't afford to buy goods without gainful employment."

And companies can't afford to hire like they used to with increased taxes - Like a carbon tax and increased health care premiums.

A sorry catch 22.

The probable wave of large layoffs by govts in the USA still hasn't hit the big fan yet either.

Some are already closing schools and cutting public services and laying off because of a lack of tax revenue.

And then you watch a$$holes like Jim Cramer (ex Goldman employee) laugh off the federal govt charges against Goldman Sachs on CNBC.
Oddly enough the guest on the show who referred to Cramer as 'the PR man for Goldman' was quickly kicked off the show.

Millions of people out of work and millions of vacant houses thanks to bright lites at Goldman and compatriots.
Obviously some people are having a tough time wrapping their heads around what has really happened to the US economy.

This great graph puts some of it in perspective.
Thanx Mama.

That Chevy Suburban in my driveway is the last GM car I will ever own.

Watched an excellent program last night called the Factory Town about Chinese manufacturing. Some 17k employees lived, worked and their children are growing up in this massive set of factories with apartments, schools, sports arenas and restaurants on site. They seem to have top quality control of their products for companies like Oster. A new iron rolled off the line every 15 seconds in one huge plant. Every part was built from raw materials on site.

They had an R&D section in house and competition with other companies and areas was high. Wages were between $90-320 a month with food and lodging taken from this.

Of course it is not all a bed of roses but if this is typical of what we are faced with in China, and having been there a couple of times it is an amazing place, we are in serious trouble.

May you live in interesting times, as they say.

I'm just old enough to collect early CPP and as a small business guy, have no pension plan other than what I've prudently invested over many years.

I'm old enough to have seen lots of market ups and dowsns and to have lost chunks of money now and again. But the current market is one that's really hard to evaluate unless one has faith in what might be called the law of 'economic physics'.

I moved primarily into cash when the market was at about 11,200 after it had fallen seven or eight hundred points. And of course my wife is mad at me because the market is sitting at about 12,200 currently. So yes, we're losing due to the 'cost ofopportunity' but on the other hand it would only be a paper profit unless we realized the profit by selling today.

I just can't see any foundation whatsoever for what appears to be a 'dodged a bullet' exuberance in the market place. Whether one looks at Greece, GM, government spending, demographics, consumer spending, employment,or the crushing burden to gov't or individuals due to rising interest rates, there seems to be no rational reason for the apparent strength in the markets.

Sometimes it hurts to sit on the sidelines, but I firmly believe the other shoe has yet to drop in this economy.

Orlin, Knight 99:

Agree with you both, and here's a little "value added" content. Jeremy Grantham (visit "zerohedge.com"), and Dave Rosenberg (at gluskinsheff.com) both contend there are more problems for both Canada and the US.

Rosenberg in particular mentions Canadian real estate, which I'd refer to as the "stealth bubble". Canadian real estate prices have not gone crazy like US prices did; mortgage applications have not been approved for people with pulses (or people who merely pant); I haven't heard of Canadians buying three or four income properties (in Canada) they intend to flip. However, Canadians have been, in their prudent fashion, taking advantage of the very low interest rates courtesy of the BoC, and the low dowpayments required by the CMHC, to pile in. Rosey thinks this will in a pullback, perhaps not quite so severe as the one in the US, but his projection seems reasonable if you agree that many Canadians, sensing that they were seeing decades-to-come low mortgage rates and CMHC leniency, took advantage of the situation to buy now. (And I mean, seriously, if you had $10k down and were waiting to buy a house, what in the last year made you think that waiting longer would get you a better deal?)

In his view, there's a lot of real estate activity that has been "pulled forward" by these policies, and when the BoC tightens this summer and the CMHC restores its standards, there will be a real estate slump. If there isn't any job growth to sustain the recovery, it's double dip time, and I'm not talkin' about Baskin-Robbins.

@Dave

I saw that program also ...where the street vendors had to have a licence in the little factory towns ..lol..they had "playtime" and "quiet time" i hear ya but it is the western world that they are working for and if we as a collective (witch probly wouldn't happen due to greedy capitalist's) were to pull everything or at least scale it back by 75% no matter what technology china has we can alway's out perform them even though canada is a small population same with america we are far more superior at production per capita than china ...and india ..those countries only have us beat simply by numbers ...so it is possible to do it but then china would probly getm ad and start a war so anyway i am getting ready for the worst ...i am becoming a prepper for those who don't knwo what that is ...bing it.

Paul in calgary

Yes China is a growing problem, all Apple stuff is made really well there, western workers are rather lax for now, when this collapse really starts to hit then we will get a work ethic and can start making good stuff. The housing market is overblown in Canada but the tax and rate hike will stop that, being the only non socialist government in the G20 really helps when money is tight!
For sure we have to stop buying chinese and indian goods, just a small drop in sales, on top of their recession caused sales drop should be enough to de rail their economic surge.

All comments from 1:06 down get the China / India / Mexico squeeze.

Add to that, all the 5$ basics you buy at EFADs.. The everything for a dollar Store. Those sales remove the basics that local small stores need to cover their rent with.

It's called undercutting.

You buy a $5 wallet at EFADS and wonder how the cost plus shipping from China is covered in the one dollar price. Fair trade my a..keester.

No Guff at April 25, 2010 8:49 PM... said..
====================
Sometimes it hurts to sit on the sidelines, but I firmly believe the other shoe has yet to drop in this economy. [/Quote]

Bigtime! Forget miracles.

Paul in Calgary,

" i will buy a ford as they are much more reliable and well built than GM and they aren ot nearly as expensive ."

I hope you are correct Paul. I know the Escape and the hybrid Escape Taxi fleet in NYC have done very well.

A while back I posted a link to dozens of Ford fire testimonials. No point in knocking Ford if they have shaped up.

All comments from 1:06 down get the China / India / Mexico squeeze.

Tell us again about "Germany" quitting Mexico.

Is it time to cut immigration yet?

Or do hiring quotas and fining companies for hiring too many white males really help the economy.

Simple question - when are the mainstream media and the white house going to admit this is a depression?

By the by, I nominate the title of 'Great Obama Depression', since he thinks he is GOD it is only fitting to name it after him.

Waterhouse, you are correct. I got that wrong.

'Chinese carmaker FAW leaving Mexico market'

autonews.gasgoo.com/auto-news/1012579/Chinese-carmaker-FAW-leaving-Mexico-market.html

This is an odd line in the FAW story..

" Banco Azteca of Salinas was to facilitate financing to non-credit-worthy customers. "

Howzat again?