Sayonara Saturn

Fox News.com is reporting that General Motors will phase out the Saturn Division after a deal to sell it fell through.

Fox reported:

General Motors Co. said Wednesday it would shut down its Saturn brand after an agreement with Penske Automotive Group Inc. to acquire it fell apart.

Penske, citing concerns of whether it could continue to supply vehicles after a manufacturing contract with GM ran out, ended talks with GM Wednesday to acquire the brand.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in statement that Saturn and its dealership network will be phased out.

Let's see, the government under King Barack I took over GM in exchange for bailout money. GM tried to sell Saturn to Penske, but that fizzled. So, the government-owned GM has to close down their Saturn division. The closure of Saturn will cause about 15,000 workers to lose their jobs.

Is this the "hope and change" you expected? Didn't think so.

Oil Is Trending Upward Again

Oil prices are trending higher. Right now, the price per barrel is around $67/barrel. Last year, as you recall, the price per barrel was around $130+. This caused the price of gasoline to go to over $4.00 per gallon. Right now, the average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.65/gallon.

This was one big ingredient that caused this current recession. People seem to forget that. This was also a primary cause for the downturn in the automotive industry.

Of course, the liberals in congress and President Obama won't allow us to drill offshore, allow any new drilling in Alaska, build new refineries or build nuclear power plants. This will continue to put us at the mercy of OPEC.

Don't be surprised if gasoline skyrockets to over $3.00/gallon by the end of summer.

Hold on to your wallets!

GM: Now Government Motors

General Motors, once the dominant automobile manufacturing company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early this morning. This was a move that they should have done a year or two ago, and it wouldn't have required a bailout of over $26 billion of taxpayer money. They stand to receive another $30 billion of taxpayer money on top of that. Welcome to Government Motors!

According to the Wall Street Journal.com:

In bankruptcy, the auto maker will split apart into two companies: a leaner new GM and a so-called old GM, which will include the pieces that will be wound down. GM intends to accomplish the split through a Section 363 sale, which would transfer the new GM assets to an entity owned by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the United Auto Workers union and the company's unsecured creditors.

14 GM assembly plants will close by 2011. Those are jobs lost, not jobs saved!

Basically, the government now owns over 60% of GM. Welcome to Government Motors.

Obama Turning GM Into Yugo Motors

Above, Obama's vision of the future, a Yugo (only made in the USA).

Barack Obama says he has no intention of having the government run GM or Chrysler, but he forced GM CEO Rick Wagoner to immediately resign. This led to a big drop in the Dow Jones Industrials.

"We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish," President Obama said.

"What we are asking is difficult," he said. "It will require hard choices by companies. It will require unions and workers who have already made painful concessions to make even more. It will require creditors to recognize that they cannot hold out for the prospect of endless government bailouts."

This comes from a man whose remedy for gasoline conservation is to properly inflate tires! He and his fellow government hacks know nothing about running the auto industry or any industry, for that matter. We might as well rename GM "Government Motors" or "Yugo Motors." (The former Yugoslavia, while under communist rule, produced a poorly-made car called the Yugo. It was a colossal flop.)

Obama claims that the government has no interest in running the auto industry, but what he's doing is nothing less than the beginnings of a government takeover of the industry. He has crossed the line of how much and how far the government will go in taking over private industries and making them government entities. Capitalism, as we've known it, is over!

Looks like that the U.S. auto industry will resemble the Yugo before it's all over.