A dreadful outcome for Detroit

[sufrommich]

ful outcome for Detroit(from this mornings Detroit Free Press)



“I dread looking at Wall Street,” U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said late Thursday night as he announced that the Senate could not reach agreement on a rescue plan for the auto industry.
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That may be nothing compared to the dread with which everyone in Michigan will be looking at each other today.

Do General Motors and Chrysler have a Plan B? Can Ford really hang on, particularly if one or both of the others go into bankruptcy?

Michigan knows the pain of hard times in the auto industry: the related businesses that go under, the stores and restaurants that die, the crushing load on the state budget, the families who abandon their homes and leave the state. It is incredible that anyone, even senators from Southern states that are home to the assembly lines of foreign car producers, could want to watch these hard times turn so much harder for so many people because of a domestic auto industry implosion.

The final sticking point apparently was when — not whether — UAW workers would have the same wages for as the foreign automakers pay. That will seem like an incredibly minor dispute in the face of an industry collapse, and — in many people's eyes — an anchor to hang around organized labor for the rest of recorded history.

Perhaps it won't come to that. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson could still devise a plan to extract short-term auto industry loans from the $700 billion bailout bill designed for the financial businesses. There may be other options that have not yet been proposed to tide the industry over until a new administration arrives. The Detroit companies may be able to limp along.

But none of that will temper the fear rising today in Detroit, throughout Michigan and in the many other areas where the domestic auto industry is the economic mainstay.

The Senate rejection appears rooted in the extraordinary assumptions that Congress can by legislation act as a bankruptcy judge or design the perfect car — so sexy, emission-free and cheap that every American will want one. Yet the final bill negotiated by the White House was, in fact, very much a form of bankruptcy lite. It would have caused plenty of pain here, if that was what Detroit's opponents were really seeking.

Job loss numbers have grown substantially since the automakers first went to Washington looking for help. But far worse apparently is to come.

“Don't 2.5 million people … deserve three months?” Michigan's Sen. Debbie Stabenow asked Thursday night in a last-minute plea for a vote.

Tragically, the answer was no.
In your voice

[TomClash]

1. Maybe some of the government benefits . . .

. . . that flow to the South should stop flowing.

[trof]

2. Shelby & Sessions want to build air force tankers in Mobile.

Mucho gov't. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
But none for Big 3.
No hyprocacy there.
:sarcasm:

[sufrommich]

3. I'm so sure that has nothing to do with their union busting

activities.:sarcasm:

[TomClash]

5. Maybe those air force tankers should be built in Detroit nt

[HereSince1628]

4. At this point, Michigan should remember its freshwater access

and take a long term view of things. Rebuilding an infrastructure with an eye to the future is where Michigan needs to go.

They have in abundance the thing that the other states will literally be dying for by 2030. The recently passed compact with Canada and the other GL states is determined to keep that water inside the GL basin.

Look at a map and you'll notice a huge correlation between the geography of the republican majority and the absence of water resources. The republican party is almost literally doomed to dry-up.

It is only a matter of time until Michigan, almost completely inside the great lakes basin and at liberty to use great lakes water in a manner unlike other GL states or provinces, will have a commanding position for its economy due to this essential resource.

I foresee the R's comeuppence being served in a big tumbler of clear cool water. Climate change and population growth in the US dictate that the geography of WATER will guide the not very distant future of the US economy.

The tough issue for Michigan and the Rustbelt is to figure out how to get through the years of punishment that those republican states are choosing to inflict on it. Building for the future must be a priority for them.

[sufrommich]

6. Unfortunately,Michiganders don't have the luxury of waiting for

better times,but your point is a good one and most likely a realistic scenario.

[HereSince1628]

8. As I said, survival is the immediate issue, and building infrastructure is a big part of the answer

Anticipating the impact that the water seeking shift in population and industry will have is a must for ALL the GL states, but especially Michigan.
Building the infrastructure that will protect that resource and allow its sustainable use is the immediate future.

The great projects of FDR, the TVA, the water projects of the west, rural electrification, all set the course for the growth of regional economies. When we look aroung and ask "What is there left to develop on the scale of FDR's programs?" One of the answers is sustainable water resources. Michigan has that like no other place in North America.

[malaise]

7. Harry Reid must go

He is compromised by his own dealings.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8KMJ8I00&show_article=1
<snip>
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.

The Nevada Democrat's deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He's never been charged with wrongdoing—except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.

Land deeds obtained by The Associated Press during a review of Reid's business dealings show:

_The deal began in 1998 when Reid bought undeveloped residential property on Las Vegas' booming outskirts for about $400,000. Reid bought one lot outright, and a second parcel jointly with Brown. One of the sellers was a developer who was benefiting from a government land swap that Reid supported. The seller never talked to Reid.

_In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to a limited liability corporation created by Brown. The senator didn't disclose the sale on his annual public ethics report or tell Congress he had any stake in Brown's company. He continued to report to Congress that he personally owned the land.

_After getting local officials to rezone the property for a shopping center, Brown's company sold the land in 2004 to other developers and Reid took $1.1 million of the proceeds, nearly tripling the senator's investment. Reid reported it to Congress as a personal land sale.