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Impressive to fall from such a low level.
1st?
Does that mean Chysler is the best investment then? We want to buy when it's low right?
...and we have a winner!
Can we have positive news? What about bicycle sales? Monta's moped sale?
Can we have positive news?
Aren't you watching the market? This is positive news.
guns were doing well a couple of weeks ago
And the market rallies continue!
At least they are consolidating dealerships... a lining that is more like tin rather than silver.
Nonsense, it is only 47%.
"and the market rally continues!"
Is that a joke?
Have you been in a hole for the past 6 months? Or even yesterday?
Dodgey statistics.
But, gas prices are down. Americans should be flush with cash again and should buying cars. What is going on?
can you drop 47% from 10?
how do you sell 5.3 vehicles?
TREK = Biking is the answer. Or Japan-style mass transportation. It is a cultural issue though.
Here's your pony.
Why does my pony have three heads?
Bring back the Lada!
How do you bail out an industry that is under water? You can't get there from here!
Aren't they still guaranteeing gas at $2.99 gallon? They ought to be flush with gas money.
ANSFA --
Don't be ridiculous. Mass transportation is for illegal immigrants. Real Americans will never give up their cars.
Bicycles are salvation.
but the high gas prices put many people through a near bankrupt experience, and now, if not thrown out of job, know somebody that is. so a lot of this is psychological for the whiners that still have a job.
Why does my pony have three heads?
Holy crap that's pretty funny.
Why does my pony have three heads?
LMAO. +1.
Cerebus changes name to "Share-a-bus"
Behold, the Pony was named Trigon...
Timmy's rocket launch a little premature today?
i love this line from the leade nytimes article
regarding ford:
The company said it expected to break even or earn a profit in 2011, the first time it has given such financial guidance since abandoning its goal of making money in 2009.
i love companies that don't try to make money
Will ride the 3 headed pony to the bus stop.
Hahahaha - that bit about Ford is great! Someday, they may make money, which is the first time they have made such a promise since the last time they promised to make money, and failed!
"the first time it has given such financial guidance since abandoning its goal of making money in 2009."
That seems to be a lot of people's goal these days.
Why does my pony have three heads?
LMAO. +1.
I'd have to second that.
Nude(Unrated) writes:
At least they are consolidating dealerships... a lining that is more like tin rather than silver.
Nude | 12.02.08 - 3:47 pm | #
I think in most automobiles today they use 'metalized plastic'... but it is shiny for at least a few weeks after purchase.
Entertaining Video;
$25B Is 'Chump Change': Ford Lifts Spirits But 'Big 3' Need $100B Bailout
Discussion with Nariman Behravesh, chief economist of IHS Global Insight
Unfortunately, bicycles kill GDP. They don't require much material, don't generate revenue like buses and trains, don't consume fossil fuel, and I'm riding one built in 1977.
Also, they hurt the health care sector, although orthopedists get a boon.
"the first time it has given such financial guidance since abandoning its goal of making money in 2009."
Please tell me this is from The Onion.
I wouldnt buy a car from a 3 headed dog so it doesnt surprise me.
If anyone really thinks bicycles are realistic for Americans...you're crazy. The majority of American cities are spread out over ridiculous square mileage. I'm certainly not going to ride my bike 3+ hours a day just to go to work and get groceries.
The company said it expected to break even or earn a profit in 2011, the first time it has given such financial guidance since abandoning its goal of making money in 2009.
i love companies that don't try to make money
A long time ago (in a galaxy far far away), I was working for small, privately held CAD company).
We were at the shareholders meeting, and the wife of the co-founder was asking the newly appointed CEO why results were so poor.
He started his bullshit condescending response with "You just don't understand business. We're not in business to make money", and it was all downhill after that.
4tehlulz writes: Why does my pony have three heads?
Fun to ride, until you try to get off.
It's different this time. I swear. Pleeassseee !!!
Rise.... rise......
on life support:
PURSUING U.S. AID, G.M. ACCEPTS NEED FOR DRASTIC CUTS - NY Times
we are all the onion now
Who are the idiot 53%?
I'm guessing the government...
The company said it expected to break even or earn a profit in 2011, the first time it has given such financial guidance since abandoning its goal of not gushing money from every orifice in 2009.
emphasis added
I played with my "fun money" account today with some Ultras. Watching the account balance go up and down is crazy. I dont even need booze to feel drunk!
Fannie/Freddie expect to be cashflow positive in 2075..
Could be worse. Porsche is off 48%.
Porsche U.S. November sales drop 48.2% - MarketWatch
What's realistic for Americans has changed, pal.
ANSFA writes:
TREK = Biking is the answer. Or Japan-style mass transportation. It is a cultural issue though.
ANSFA | 12.02.08 - 3:48 pm | #
Try biking from Bismarck to Pierre. In winter. Not all issues are cultural.
Do I hear 49%?
What Happened to the NASDAQ.. it flat lined there for a bit?
Even the PR boost from a CR post won't save Chrysler.
Bikes will never be a realistic option for Americans until we tear down all the suburban sprawl and rebuild the cities to be much, much more space efficient.....no more 50,000 sq ft parking lots in front of wal-mart
LOL. Commendable pumping skills being displayed today.
" I'm certainly not going to ride my bike 3+ hours a day just to go to work and get groceries. "
OK. Drive and sit in the 3 hour traffic jams then.
UAW: GM May Need Bankruptcy Without Government Aid - Auto Industry Tracker - WSJ
america's taste for more expensive equities assuaged as DJIA closes up over 250 points!
Comrade Anonymous writes:
What Happened to the NASDAQ.. it flat lined there for a bit?
Someone hit the reset button instead of the buy button. Doh!
Hazard: There aren't traffic jams. I can drive to work and back in 25 minutes. It would take much, much longer on a bike because most of the main roads are extremely dangerous for bikers, considering the way people drive here...
Try biking from Bismarck to Pierre. In winter. Not all issues are cultural.
JohnR(VA) | 12.02.08 - 4:00 pm | #
Okay okay - ride a horse instead.
I bought my kid and me basic bikes for Christmas. Going to fix the wifes. Basic = no speed, fat seat, brake by pedaling in reverse. Basket on front. Not as much because I am thrifty as I never figured out all them gears.
"commendable pumping skills being displayed today"
By who? The "PPT"?
Bigfoot? Loch Ness Monster?
Where were they yesterday?
Shorts need to cover to make money - remember?
Please folks for the sake of sanity lets refrain from calling these Gains...we are right back from where we left off lol....
Jeebus. SRS got clobbered today.
" I'm certainly not going to ride my bike 3+ hours a day just to go to work and get groceries. "
If you don't own a house, transportation is a lot simpler. I sold my house in 2004 and my driving cost has declined almost every year as I took apartments within 1-2 miles of jobs.
mykillk writes:
If anyone really thinks bicycles are realistic for Americans...you're crazy. The majority of American cities are spread out over ridiculous square mileage. I'm certainly not going to ride my bike 3+ hours a day just to go to work and get groceries.
mykillk | Homepage | 12.02.08 - 3:56 pm | #
I recently changed jobs to something a mere 5 miles away and have been biking almost every day since (including through snowstorms). My old job was a 16 mile ride (which replaced a 20 mile drive) and I did it roughly two out of every three days.
It's not that biking to work is impractical, it's that most people are too lazy.
If you don't own a house, transportation is a lot simpler. I sold my house in 2004 and my driving cost has declined almost every year as I took apartments within 1-2 miles of jobs.
Broward Horne | Homepage | 12.02.08 - 4:08 pm | #
Even cheaper & easier if you don't have a job.
Cars/Trucks are sold to certain segments of the population. Models are marketed to specific demographic groups.
This is not good news. I have noticed since summer that the only people to have money is the white 40-60 group in my area.
i lived in europe (luxembourg) and loved how compact the cities were, i used to walk or ride to work. it was 1 mile and half was thru a nice park system. and the city itself was nice and green with many parks and bike paths. i miss living in luxembourg city.
we just didn't build cities like that for the past few hundered years and it's too late to start from scratch to do it that way. oh well.
Bean: Americans already work longer than most of the industrialized world. I feel like a slave enough, as is, without adding hours every day just to ride a bike to work because we're too stupid to design our cities in a realistic fashio
Rev. Elmer Gantry writes:
Cerebus changes name to "Share-a-bus"
~hilarious
Got on the Rhombus once.
Three-headed horse for the non-believers!
http://yurisalzman.com/images/3-HEADED_HORSE-1-385x480.jpg
.
..."It's not that biking to work is impractical, it's that most people are too lazy...."
Lets see.....Son, I know you have baseball practice, get on back....
....all I gotta do is run in and get milk, eggs and bread......dear, don't forget the dry cleaning on your way home.....hmmmmmm
Try biking from Bismarck to Pierre. In winter. Not all issues are cultural.
JohnR(VA) | 12.02.08 - 4:00 pm | #
98% of Americans don't live in Boonies #1 and commute to Boonies #2.
Trading desks are churning the markets to hammer the hedge funds and skin the small specs who are loss sensitive and unsophisticated in their use of leverage and hedging. Easy when you have free money and inside info.
Most Americans look funny sitting on a bike seat with their ass hanging off each side. Jiggling as they pump the pedals in their specially purchased bike wear.
Cycling as a commuting method is less than ideal here in the Portland-Salem OR area. In spite of the hype that you may have heard. When it is pouring rain and dark, which is not uncommon at commuting time here at least 6 months of the year, riding a bicycle in traffic is less than inviting. There is a network of trails, but there are significant gaps.
I have ridden century bike rides, ridden bikes in the streets of Tokyo for 18 months, and have done plenty of mountain and road biking. Would I like to bike to work? Sure.
What would be necessary to make cycling a realistic commuting alternative?
At least, clean-up facilities/lockers and bike racks at employers' facilities. This is one of the biggest obstacles. In most of the US, there are going to be significant lengths of time where you are going to be a bit of a mess upon arrival. Snow, rain, road dirt, sweat, bird crap, stuff that people throw at you; all these things need to be on something you can change out of or clean off to be presentable. And you need a place to change/clean that is not your office.
Try biking from Bismarck to Pierre. In winter. Not all issues are cultural.
JohnR(VA) | 12.02.08 - 4:00 pm |
Or Arizona in the summer.
......geeze, can you imagine answering your cell AND applying makeup while riding a bike?....
"Lets see.....Son, I know you have baseball practice, get on back....
....all I gotta do is run in and get milk, eggs and bread......dear, don't forget the dry cleaning on your way home.....hmmmmmm"
If you want to make it work, you can and will. Clearly you'd rather just complain. Groceries or large packages are not at all an issue if you get used to it. It certainly helps maintain a reasonable wasitline as well.
Trading desks are churning the markets to hammer the hedge funds and skin the small specs who are loss sensitive and unsophisticated in their use of leverage and hedging. Easy when you have free money and inside info.
Ironically it's the small specs that can profit the most from this if they're on the right side of this (big "if" obviously).
They're what I call "mobility trades" that the big guys can't really do much with because it takes them too long to move in and out of positions.
Where can I buy some crack? Just one more hit. Please. I swear I can quit whenever I want to. Just one more. Please!!!
4tehlulz writes:
Why does my pony have three heads?
because its not a pony...look out its a cerberus!
and we are entering the gates of hell
Just wait until you guys see their next flagship model:
the 2010 Chrysler Rickshaw "Z".
You'll see they've quickly adapted their product line to better align with current consumer preferences.
Breaking News on WSJ:
"GM presented a plan to Congress that suggests it is in a more dire situation than previously thought. The company requested $18 billion and said it needs $4 billion immediately to stay afloat until the end of the year."
Bwahahaha
I bought our 2 bikes from Walmart. Reading the reviews were fun. As in:
"My hubby bought this bike. He had problems putting it together as he had never put a bike together before. Some parts were backwards. He weighs 256lbs so the wide seat was nice. But the seat broke."
I'm not arguing that bicycles are for every American, just that mileage could go up by 20% tomorrow, representing significant improvement in our standard of living, if not GDP.
Well, odds are better the average American will buy a bike before they buy a Chrysler.
Bailout....Mississippi WILL GIVE Cooper Tire 30MILLION if they will not close their Tupelo Plant...1200 jobs involved....1. Not Union 2. Just built hugh new plant in China...3. No cars no tires.
Even cheaper & easier if you don't have a job.
Yes, that's certainly true now.
I had an offer for a simple coding job in 2007 which was about five miles down the road here in Boise.
But on the same day I had a second offer in Miami for what seemed like a much better career path. In retrospect it was a mistake to trust the Miami people but I'm kind of glad I toured the area for six months.
Won't do it again, though.
The bikes are from China now and they suck. Bring back the gringo bike, now!
Maybe we should subsidize a new Schwinn or sumpin.
wow--who ever thought Ford sales could decline by 31% but end up gaining marketshare on Honda, Toyota, GM and Chrysler?
....you're right bean....it could be made to work well in the right environment....just rememberin' the "old days"...
9B for Ford
18B for GM
I thought they wanted only 25B in total...
I just took a new job and part of the reason is that I'll now be able to bike to work in the warm SoCal winter. This is not a feasible option for many people in an economy where lots of Americans are just looking for any job anywhere, of course.
the 3s didin't listen to CAFE requests then... whey should we listen to them now???
I thought they wanted only 25B in total...
REBear | 12.02.08 - 4:21 pm |
No, no REBear. That was just an estimate. Now they have a plan.
Not all jobs require work that can't be done when "a little bit messy".
I would think most most forward thinking Portland area suburban employers would have showers/lockers, and that the urban ones can't be that far from a gym or Y.
Weather Helm(Unrated) writes:
Try biking from Bismarck to Pierre. In winter. Not all issues are cultural.
JohnR(VA) | 12.02.08 - 4:00 pm | #
98% of Americans don't live in Boonies #1 and commute to Boonies #2.
Weather Helm | 12.02.08 - 4:12 pm | #
And the few that do commute from boonies into a city or from a city out to the boonies benefit from having everyone else off the roads.
I can never seem to get my autocentric buddies to understand that last bit... 'everyone' knows not everyone can benefit from mass trans, bike & foot commutes - but the more that do go that route opens congested roads for those who absolutely can't go that route - they are our best allies in the war against road congestion. Hug them - don't argue with them.
I'm not arguing that bicycles are for every American, just that mileage could go up by 20% tomorrow, representing significant improvement in our standard of living, if not GDP.
1 currency soon [yogi] | 12.02.08 - 4:17 pm | #
If we want to increase America's overall "mileage" as quickly as possible a gas tax would probably work best.
Trying to force people out of their cars and onto bikes isn't practical, particularly in the short term. We have decades of infrastructure and lifestyle built up around the automobile. Yes, it's inefficient, unhealthy, polluting, etc. You sure as hell can't change that overnight.
The bicycle as primary mode of transit works when you're single, childless an in college. Not so much for most other people.
Bob Nardelli did a real good job of trashing Home Depot to make the bean counters happy. When he left he took $212 million and the stock lost over 40% over night. Dodge makes a great truck and a few good cars like the Chrysler 300. Once again it's the rube at the wheel that's the rub.
Gavshire, that sounds more like an accounting or an assessment than a business plan.
Did they answer the wrong question?
I dumped the car after the engine died and the cost of fixing it was simply too high. I bike every day of the work week; about 10 miles per day, irrespective of the cold, wet weather. More than 15 miles/day seems to tire me out too much, so there is a limit. Saves me money and I'm in great shape...I'm in the 'flab-free' zone.
In other news, AIG to change name to better reflect its current situation...
Congrats Koan.
Cycling as a commuting method is less than ideal here in the Portland-Salem OR area
Portland has the MAX. I rode for almost a year, it was awesome and I put very little mileage on my car.
Plus I could a drink a lot.
One night I was on the last nightly train and missed my Beaverton stop. I got off two stops down and walked two miles up the train tracks after falling into the bramble bushes twice while climbing over the safety fences.
Ouch.
Unreal. I just got notice that my divorce, on-going for 2 years, 11 months, 3 lawyers, two State venues, several motions, slander, lies, one reversed judgement... has now disappeared from the docket this week.
What the hell.
ew post
GM needs 4 billion right now. Looks like they are out of money. Wow!
I love the people who cite Japan as a great transit model for the entire US. Have you been to Japan, esp. Tokyo? Mass transit works because you have so many people crammed together in very small spaces.
Of course being crammed together is your experience when you ride mass transit there as well. Nothing better than being in Tokyo, on a train, on a humid July day, with you literally having bodies pressed up against you on all sides. Memories of Shinjuku station now flood my memory.
People there also ride bikes, but usually one mile or less to get to the bus/train station (at least the people I knew did this).
They are very adept, however, at texting and surfing the net while riding bikes on conjested sidewalks.
The model does not work for those who don't live in US city centers.
arigato gozaimas,
jb
Unreal. I just got notice that my divorce, on-going for 2 years, 11 months, 3 lawyers, two State venues, several motions, slander, lies, one reversed judgement... has now disappeared from the docket this week.
What the hell.
Broward Horne
Maybe she thinks you ran out of money?
"a few good cars like the Chrysler 300."
You're joking, right? I just rented that tank over the weekend...at 55 mph, the engine wheezes and rumbles like a tank. Seriously lousy engine design.
autoblog has a nice chart with all the car makers' sales.
Hummer down 64% (can anyone believe 1400 were sold in november?)
saab down 57.5%
mini cooper up 43%
chrysler the brand was down 56% (excluding dodge and jeep)
mbz down almost 40%. I guess Realtors(tm) aren't buying any new cars.
By the Numbers - November 2008: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime Edition — Autoblog
re: bikes
i've been building up a small fleet of very good quality 70's vintage road bikes. most of these were made in europe or japan of very high quality components. i find them at yard sales and estate sales. i don't do a lot of biking but have been refurbishing them and squirreling them away for the next gas price crisis.
i also bought a motorcycle this year. best thing i ever did.
don't need a stinkin' car (but have two, anyways...)