Just a note before I start with today’s entry, I’m aware that thewoodedglen.com is down.  I should be able to get it fixed tomorrow. 

 So when I opened my Yahoo! email last night, I saw that the Fed (namely Paulson) is against a bailout for the automakers.  Honestly, this makes me crabby.  It was so imperative that we bail out Wall Street, for the “trickle down” effects.  The banks needed the bail out so that they could keep lending… uhh yea, they’re tightening the lending standards so much that if you don’t have perfect credit, you cannot borrow anything!

 Which leads to the problem that the “Big 3” automakers are having.  They can’t get the credit they need to advance money to their suppliers, so they are close to declaring bankruptcy.  Ultimately, this will mean more than 3 million people out of work.  That’s the people who work directly for the automakers, their suppliers and the various support companies.  A friend of mine in MI is looking at the possibility of losing her job because the company she works for deals with GM. 

Yet, Paulson doesn’t want to bail out the automakers.  Anyone who is against unions is saying that it’s the fault of the UAW.  Uhh yea, ok, the unions are the reason that the automakers have been focusing on the SUV’s and Hummers.  When reading a different article today, I saw an interesting opinion article on the bailout.  I agree with the author of the article, in the long run, it will be cheaper to bail out the automakers.  Otherwise, when they declare bankruptcy, we’ll have to pay unemployment benefits to these 3+ million employees who will be affected by the bankruptcies.

http://suicidegirls.com/news/politics/23423/ (suicidegirls.com is an adult themed website, but they have some interesting articles at times, additionally, you will find that the language could stand to be improved)

Some of the comments in the article point out a few other things that should be considered.  If GM declares bankruptcy, then a Chinese based company could “inherit” the technology they’ve developed, including the plug in technology for an electric car.  Then we’d have to apply to this Chinese company to be able to use the technology in our cars.