FICRY

“The party is over,” says Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capita, who warned publicly in 2006 of the sub-prime housing crisis. “We bought too many cars, and now we’re broke.” Writing for Reuters journalist Nick Carey argues that the consequences of the automakers failures are likely to last for years. Already, the crisis has [...]

According to representatives at the National Association of Manufacturers, “…the recession in manufacturing is both longer and deeper than any downturn since the Great Depression.”  Manufacturing output has collapsed 12% this year, the fastest rate of shrinkage since 1946. Roughly 1 out of every 8 blue collar workers, a staggering  1.7 million Americans, have [...]

Reuters reports that an Indiana-based, pension fund firms and several consumer groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday to stop the sale of bankrupt automaker Chrysler LLC to Fiat, arguing that “the U.S. government, which kept Chrysler afloat with loans and financed its Chapter 11 filing, overstepped its legal authority by using bailout funds [...]

The Lemonhead’s lead singer, Evan Dando, is suing GM for the unlawful use of his song “It’s a Shame About Ray,” in their 2008 Memorial Sales Event commercials.  It’s a shame, Dando, GM is broke. 
For the full article, click here.

The government is pumping your tax-dollars into GM, they’re clearly interested in investing in the auto maker’s future, are you?
Michael Levine, reporting for the New York Times, argues that the White House laid too heavy a hand in planing the bankruptcy, disrupting the market’s assessment of the brand’s economic viability. He maintains that the bankruptcy [...]

By Christine Dugas, USA TODAY — Consumer and commercial bankruptcy filings are on pace to reach a stunning 1.5 million this year, according to a report from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records. While well below the record 2 million filings in 2005, the number of filings is up sharply from last year’s 1.1 million, [...]

The New York Times reported that, General Motors revealed yesterday that it has reached a preliminary agreement with a Chinese company to buy the Hummer brand.
The company, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, has interest it branching out into the consumer automotive market. All the Hummer plants in America will remain in tact- as the buyout [...]

The Wall Street Journal reports that an “obscure” Chinese construction-equipment maker has set its sites on the Hummer brand.
The monstrous Hummer, from General Motors Corp, a vestige of the military Humvee, was once a symbol of American, G.I. chic. The brand’s most recent iteration, however, the mammoth H2,  a physical embodiment of California’s gas-guzzling, Governatior [...]

Here is an interesting economic indicator; take a look at what appears to be hundreds of container ships docked and unused off the Singapore coast. If this isn’t a blaring example of putting the breaks on global trade, I don’t know what is. Since March 2009, 11.3 percent of the world’s shipping capacity has been [...]