GM Stuffs Dealers With Cars Pre-IPO
Earlier today, I stumbled upon a fantastic article by Vinny, posted earlier today, and entitled GM Stuffs Dealers With Cars Pre-IPO that I urge you all to read. Below are some excerpts in order to pique your interest!
Also unsurprising is that no one really caught this (especially our “watchdog” media). Also unsurprising is that now that this is out there, no one will talk about it. Incidentally, GM’s market cap is still around $52bn. The US invested $50bn in a 60% share. Just a reminder.
Reading this post started me off thinking so I did a google search for more articles on the subject and found some more gems. i.e. Spin slips off oil production numbers ? World Energy Outlook 2010 … posted back in November, by aleklett, over on Aleklett’s Energy Mix:
Two thirds of this will come from China and India. The IEA notes that, since 1980, we have consumed oil faster than we discover it. We now consume 30 billion barrels per year which is more than double what we find. Amazingly, the IEA asserts we will need to find an extra 900 billion barrels of oil over the next 25 years to meet demand.
Finally, another fine post on the subject came from Angie Moreschi over on The Consumer Warning Network posted yesterday and entitled The Monster Tells How Predatory Lending Fleeced America | The … which is also definitely worth a look.
With big investors willing to pay top dollar for assets backed by this new breed of mortgages, the push to make more and more loans reached a frenzy among the county’s subprime loan shops. “The atmosphere was like this giant cocaine party you see on TV,” said Sylvia Vega-Sutfin, who worked as an account executive at BNC Mortgage, a fast-growing operation headquartered in Orange County just down the Costa Mesa Freeway from Ameriquest’s headquarters. “It was like this giant rush of urgency.” One manager told Vega-Sutfin and her coworkers that there was no turning back; he had no choice but to push for mind-blowing production numbers. “I have to close thirty loans a month,” he said, “because that’s what my family’s lifestyle demands.
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Many people who knew him saw him as a visionary, a humanitarian, a friend to the needy. “Roland was one of the most generous people I have ever met,” a former business partner said.He also left behind, as another former associate put it, “a trail of bodies”—a succession of employees, friends, relatives, and business partners who said he had betrayed them. In summing up his own split with Arnall, his best friend and longtime business partner said, “I was screwed.”Another former colleague, a man who helped Arnall give birth to the modern subprime mortgage industry, said: “Deep down inside he was a good man. But he had an evil side. When he pulled that out, it was bad.
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” Roland Arnall built a company that became a household name, but shunned the limelight for himself. The business partner who said Arnall had “screwed” him recalled that Arnall fancied himself a puppet master who manipulated great wealth and controlled a network of confederates to perform his bidding. Another former business associate, an underling who admired him, explained that Arnall worked to ingratiate himself to fair-lending activists for a simple reason: “You can take that straight out of The Godfather: ‘Keep your enemies close.’ ” Excerpted from The Monster by Michael W. HudsonCopyright 2010 by Michael W.