The Obama Hubris-o-meter is moving to full tilt... - Granite Grok

The Obama Hubris-o-meter is moving to full tilt…

Bumped and updated (from 3/2009):  Well, 2011 is over, and how did Obama’s car, the Chevy Volt, do?  After all, he declared that NOW, Americans would finally get the cars that they wanted and that 1,000,000 would be sold by 2015. Eh, what was that, how many?  Er, this many:

…GM sold just 603 Volts – above its sales in January 2011, but far below GM’s best-ever sales month in December, when GM sold 1,529 Volts.
...GM sold about 7,700 in 2011, below GM’s target of 10,000. GM abandoned its sales target of 45,000 for 2012 last month, saying it would match “supply to demand.”

…GM was outsold by Nissan Motor Co.’s all-electric Leaf in 2011, as the Japanese automaker sold nearly 9,700 last year. Nissan said it sold 676 Leafs in January, down from 954 in December.

Um, 9,700 + 7,700 = 17,400      Only about another 960,000 to go, sport…

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This pretty sums it up (emphasis mine):

Industrial Conceits

The Obama administration has it figured out.

What the country really needs, apparently, is an automobile industry that is rolling out highly fuel-efficient cars, from the cleanest, safest, unionized factories in the world, made by highly paid workers with excellent health and retirement benefits. Of course, the production process needs to be inexpensive and efficient, too, so that the cars are competitively priced and can attract consumers who might otherwise gravitate toward bigger and heavier vehicles.

Is anyone beside me thinking “Utopia!” Problem is, has anyone ever seen one?  No, I didn’t think so, but it certainly hasn’t been for lack of trying…many, many, many, many times.

You know why one has never worked?  Let me clue you in……it’s because we’re all

human.

Gee, why didn’t Rick Wagoner think of that?

The president and his team are suffering from the same conceit which has afflicted many other activist governments in many other settings. They believe a central government can find a way to induce reluctant consumers to buy products they don’t want from inefficient suppliers without asking anyone, anywhere — save for corporate hot-shots — to make an economic sacrifice. Certainly, the unions aren’t to blame. Therefore, the problem must be poor “leadership.” And if the companies can’t manage themselves well, then by golly, the government will help them do it.

Oy vay!   Of course Wagoner wanted the first paragraph goals – he would have made LOTS of money.  But it is hubris for Obama and crew (or “minions”, as Doug is wont to say) to believe that they are the first to have thought of it.  It will be further out on the plank to believe his crew of professional politicians and bureacrats can undo the faults and improve on the auto marketplace with their very limited experience in the PRIVATE marketplace.  So far:

  • AIG – nationalized
  • Banks – a form of fascism (def: government controlling private industries; think Mussolini) where the Government IS getting into the details of how the businesses are to be run.
  • GM – Ditto, where the Feds have effectively accomplished a hostile takeover of the Board of Directors and kicked out CEO without any say so by the stockholders.
  • Chrysler – “merge or die” is the Feds’ message.

Side bar: speaking of the banks – while CEOs have had Golden Parachutes, Obama has basically put the Golden Shackles around the banks….and is not letting those who can return TARP money do so:

NEW YORK (CNN) — There’s a growing sense among some bankers that Troubled Asset Relief Program known as “TARP” has become toxic. As a result, they want to bail out of the bank bailout program.

“It should be called ‘TRAP,’ not TARP,” said Brian Garrett, chief executive of Bank of the Bay in San Francisco, who is trying to return bailout funding. “Giving it back is harder than getting it.”…

…”What these bank managers are saying is – listen, I want the Government out of my backyard, and I just want to give back the TARP, and I want to run my company by myself,” said Paul Miller, Financial Services Analyst at FBR Capital.

…”We want to return the TARP money as soon as possible. We feel more bullish about economic prospects broadly, but we recognize we can’t repay the money without the approval of the regulators,” said Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas Van Praag.

Cynical question: And can you figure out WHY?

Short time – summarized opinion…


this will end badly.  If not for the high price of gas, the trucks and SUVs that people WANTED to buy, were.  Consumers were not buying the Priuses et al UNLESS they were of the environmental religion (or just wanting to be political correct).

Frankly, the nonsense that Obama is peddling (“they aren’t making the efficient cars that the consumers want to buy”) it is ALL going to backfire.  In fact, it will backfire much worse as once the retooling is done, it will be doubtful that it can be undone.

Oh, cars will be sold.  The question will NOT be how much the sticker price will be; rather, what will the cost be to we taxpayers that will have to subsidize the whole operation so as to yield a decently priced car (categorize as a bribe in order to make Obama look good).

Of course, given the high taxes that Obama is placing on the oil and gas companies, the shutting off of our domestic sources of energy for drilling, and the outright statement of wishing to bankrupt the coal companies, it is easy to see that Obama, using the force of Government, wants to set his own marketplace.

Well, one more time back to that silly statement by Obama – his Gold Standard:

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

-President Barack Obama, 1/20/09

I blog, you decide. From the report just released by Obama’s “Auto Task Force”:

GM earns a disproportionate share of its profits from high-margin trucks and SUVs and is thus vulnerable to energy cost-driven shifts in consumer demand. For example, of its top 20 profit contributors in 2008, only nine were cars.

GM is at least one generation behind Toyota on advanced, “green” powertrain development. In an  attempt to leapfrog Toyota, GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt. While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable

Absent the successful introduction of a number of new-generation nameplates, as described in the Company’s plan, GM’s product portfolio is more vulnerable to CAFE standard increases than the portfolios of many of its competitors (although GM is in compliance today with current standards). Many of its products fail to meet the minimum threshold on fuel economy and rank in the bottom quartile of fuel economy achievement.

Tell me, did any of you detect that positive feedback loop (and it ain’t good)?  Ask yourself – and who sets that CAFE standard?

So, who could make things a little better if the domestic car manufacturers are supposed a national priority?

Or not?

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