Automakers: The 'Big 3' bailout

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Congressional Democrats and the White House reach a tentative agreement that could keep automakers out of bankruptcy.

It's 15 billion of our dollars, as you know, it is taxpayers’ dollars we are talking about using here. And it looks like there will be a meeting is as early at 3:00 pm this afternoon in the Senate really start getting this goal in talking about it in detail, both Obama and Congress leaning closer to putting together some sort of bailout loan if you will to the auto industry. And originally we've been talking about 34 billion now it downsize to 15 billion.

However, Congress wants to put some strains on this money. For example, they may have a car czar, someone inside the Department of Commerce who will be responsible for making sure that all of their ideas are being put in place and acted on, rather than allowing the auto industry just take the money and run.

Also possibly new corporate leadership, both the President-elect and the Senator Christ Dodd saying today and over the weekend that possibly there needs to be change in the CEO's office of some of these companies. UAW concessions, maybe more union concessions, plus some restructuring of these companies would have to happen.

So the money would have some strains attached to it, and of course, the reason we are talking about this to begin with is because Friday's jobless number which really put fire under Congress to start talking about this. Big shock, 534,000 jobs lost in November. Now the jobless rate is 6.7%, very tough for folks out there who are in the jobs market. Let's talk a little bit with Reggie for just a second about what this would mean to the economy. If the auto industry was not bailed out, if all three of the big automakers were allowed to go out of business, it could cost as many as three million jobs. Now, let me explain it a little bit, this isn't just jobs in Detroit, this is jobs all over the country from California to the east coast, of course including Michigan, are really affecting almost every state. And we've already had 1.9 million layoffs in this country that's what the recession has done to employment in this country, this was nearly more than that, it’s double it.

And just to mention here we said, a couple of actual layoffs announces, this morning Dow Chemical's announcing they're gonna lay off 5000, a 11% of their global workforce. 3M is gonna lay off some 1800 folks. So the numbers keep getting worse on the score. I wanted to tell you though Reggie you might be interested, Paul Krugman who is the Nobel economics laureate, somebody who knows a thing or two about economics says that, in the end these companies, these auto companies will probably disappear, (Really?) even with the money they are getting. So he doesn't have a lot of confidence that these companies have what it takes to survive in this very competitive global environment. As I've said, this is very controversial giving money even with strains attached to the auto industry, because of the perception out there that the businesses just haven't been run as well as they could have been. So we have to wait and see what Congress does this afternoon if they go ahead and flip this watchful money to the auto industry. Reggie.

Yeah, Gerri, and I mean these are companies that haven't been making money, and there's no promise they are going to be making money even if they get the infusion of cash.

That's absolutely right, you know, we keep waiting for some kind of, you know, magic formula for this, for this industry to resurrect itself, of course it got hit hard by this recession we are experiencing in this country, that was just, you know, yet one more knock on their business, and the fact that, You know, it seems like a distant memory, now gas prices went through the roof. That really helped hurt their industry as well. So this is an industry that really got kicked in the teeth by the current recession trying to find its way back, fight its way back. Of course you watched last week as, you know, the executives went in front of Congress head in hand and asking for money. And it looks like it's gonna happen despite what you're hearing now from some of these smartest economists in the country about the long term viability of the industry.

文本参考中文翻译

国会民主党和白宫暂时达成一致，帮助汽车行业走出破产阴影。

大约是150亿美元的资金，你知道，我们现在用的都是纳税人的钱。最早今天下午三点会在参议员召开会议探讨相关细节，奥巴马和国会都倾向于给汽车行业提供救助贷款。最初我们说的是340亿美元，现在下降到了340亿美元。

然而，国会希望给这笔钱加上一些限制。例如，他们可以在商务部设立一个汽车行业主管，负责确保所有想法落实到位，准确实施，而不是让汽车行业拿了钱就跑。

同时，新的领导集团，当选总统奥巴马和参议员Christ Dodd表示，今天和周末期间，一些活动的总裁办公室需要进行一下改变。UAW必须让步，或许更多的联合让步，另外，一些公司必须进行重组。

所以，这些资金也是带有附件条件的。当然，我们今天谈论这一点的原因是，周五的失业人员数字给国会产生了巨大的压力，不得不谈论这一点。11月份有534，000人失业，这是令人震惊的。现在失业率是6.7%，对就业市场的人来说非常艰难。让我们跟Reggie稍微聊一下这对经济意味着什么。如果我们不对汽车行业加以救援，如果我们让汽车三巨头破产，会有300万人失业。现在，让我们稍微做一下解释，并不仅仅牵涉到底特律的工作，是从加利福尼亚到东部海岸的全国范围，当然包括密歇根，几乎每个州都会受到影响。今年，我国已经裁员190万，而汽车行业如果倒闭，则远远超过这个数字，是这个数字的两倍。

顺便提一下今天早上两个主要的公司宣布裁员，Dow Chemical宣布裁员5000，全球总劳动力的11%。3M将裁掉1800名员工。所以形势越来越糟。我必须告诉你们，懂得一点经济学知识的诺贝尔经济学奖获得者Paul Krugman说，最终，所有的汽车公司都将消失，（真的？）即使他们能拿到救援资金。所以他并对汽车公司在这个充满竞争的全球环境下重整旗鼓信心不足。就像我说的，即使带有附加条件的给汽车行业救助贷款，这也是充满争议的，因为那些公司理念的运营并没有像本应做到的那样好。所以，国会今天下午将怎样做，会不会将贷款交给汽车行业，我们将拭目以待。是的，Gerri，我的意思是，这些是没有赚钱的公司。而且即使这些公司得到贷款，他们也没有承诺一定会赚钱。

这绝对正确，你知道，我们一直期待汽车行业能够找到神奇的方案来复活，当然他们受到了经济衰退的沉重打击。这也对他的生意产生了一定的影响。你知道，这就像一个遥远的记忆，汽油价格一路飙升到顶峰。这也对汽车行业造成了严重的伤害。所以，经济衰退对于一个正在谋求出路的公司来说确实是沉重打击。当然，你看到了，上周，汽车行业领导们手牵手地来到国会要求贷款。虽然有一些精明的经济学家对汽车行业长期的生存能力表示怀疑，似乎最终该发生的总会发生。