GM posts $39 Billion Loss in Third Quarter

[CBnL]

:whiteflag:

GM posts $39 Billion Loss in Third Quarter

GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said he knew the charge would be difficult for some to comprehend.

"I think you'd have to have a Ph.D. in accounting to understand it," Wagoner said during an interview on "The Paul W. Smith Show" on WJR-AM.

"It doesn't have any impact at all," he said. "I would encourage people not to overreact in a negative way to it."

RIGHT!!!
I know my household could suffer a $39 BILLION loss and it have no impact!

[Dash Riprock]

I would think loss is based on what they want to make and consider anything less a loss. When they pay pennies on the dollar for parts made in Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, etc. and make a $3000 dollar car and sell it for $20,000 they expect to make X amount for that quarter or that year. When they don't they consider it a loss, but they probably didn't actually lose anything.

But I don't have a Ph.D in accounting so I may be completely wrong. :lol:

[capnswervon]

Dash,
The loss is an actual loss i.e. "in the red" loss. It is due to the fact that they are producing too many cars, not selling enough at a normal price, hence having to give massive incentives throughout the year in order to sell cars. This coupled with a retired population that is living longer, hence a massivly increased pension base to pay for, and a union that demands that GM build more and more cars every year to support their members.....even though they can not sell them, and you can reach a $39B loss this year. I wrote a Sinatra-esqu rant on this on BF concerning a similar subject.....I am sure that someone can find it and copy and paste it here.


The Capn'

[ksuchewie]

GM = proof that unions shouldn't exist. Decades ago they were important. Nowadays their just a way to exploit your company for sitting on your butt.

...just my opinion.

[KPierce]

In the way I see it, greed is the actual problem. And it's not's just affecting the car industry, it's effecting everything. Just look around. Everything costs more, because everyone wants to make more money. If people and business' would learn to accept a fair price for they they are offering, then more people could afford it. If more people can afford things then they will sell more, and hence make more money.

However people and business' continue to increase(inflate) their prices in order to put more money in their own pockets, and therefore sell less product. Because they sell less product, they increase prices even more to maintain the profit margin they once had. This is how inflation got started, and until people learn that their own greed is chocking them, nothing will change. Sad thing is that inflation leads to economic collapse, but everyone thinks otherwise.

Until everyone realizes that as long as they increase their prices, they are decreasing thier own bottom line; which will eventually lead to the collapse of the business. Then nothing will change. Everything will get more expensive, workers(union and non-union) will demand more money in order to be able to just survive. Then everyone will raise their prices even more in order to create more profit that they lost when they started raising their prices to begin with.

So the real problem in this country is greed. No one want's to accept a fair price for their goods or services because they have the mentality that people will continue to buy luxury items and will definitely have to buy necessities. So we find ourselves in a never ending rate of increased inflation with no end in sight, all over making an extra buck. Kinda sad when you think about it.

[CBnL]

KP hit the nail on the head!
As oil jumps to $100/bbl, really all that is saying is that our American Dollar is becoming worthless. The future traders trying to get rich are bringing down our economy (not just them, it is far beyond them).

Who else noticed in the news, shortly after we took over Iraq, they showed all the ~free~ people going to the movie theaters over there... they had massive stacks of currency... reporters asked how much it cost to go see a movie, I remember one person replied (something like) 14,000 dinar or in other words, their currency was really only good for wipe'n their ass.

Well, thank goodness ours is made from cotton, at lest it will be soft when we are using it as toilet paper.