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Bankruptcy is now a clear and present danger because already ailing Detroit is caught in the backdraft of the inferno engulfing Wall Street (http://www.newsweek.com/id/163342)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/empty.jpgKeith Naughton - Newsweek – Oct. 10, 2008

No gas, no sales, no money, no time, no hope? -- Ed.

Detroit is running out of money and it's running out of time. Throughout this dark decade for Motown (http://www.newsweek.com/id/159536), bankruptcy talk has picked up speed. Now Detroit is gripped with a full-throttle panic: a blaring black headline in today's Detroit News that reads: "Auto Fears Grow. (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/AUTO01/810100386)" And for good reason. Wall Street, which has driven down GM and Ford stock to nearly nothing, now says both money-losing automakers are running out of cash and might not have enough in the till to make it to 2010, when new fuel-efficient models are supposed to save the day. In fact, Standard & Poor's says GM, America's largest automaker, might not have enough money to make it through next year. "The odds are increasingly stacked against these companies getting through 2009 unscathed," says veteran auto-analyst John Casesa.
… http://www.newsweek.com/id/163342

Just two years ago, Detroit acted as if they had a clean bill of health, with plenty of SUV ads or pickups lustily going offroad.

I don't want Detroit to go bankrupt, but I want the hell shamed out of them...why didn't they have a contingency plan for high gas prices? Why did they think they could simply run more SUV/pickup commercials in hard times?

Detroit should be nominated for the all-time Darwin awards.

Yeah, GM & Ford deserve to suffer big time for laughing at Toyota for hybrids, the Big 3 for wasting 90's Gov incentives for making a hybrid. They always said a hybrid was too costly to make but Toyota and Honda came out with affordable enough ones.

And I kinda hate it that GM and Ford never hired me as an engineer!

.....

And I kinda hate it that GM and Ford never hired me as an engineer!

These days that's more like something to be glad about.:p

Just this morning I noticed that the local Ford dealer price for base F150's is less than for base Rangers. Hard times to be selling big trucks indeed.

I think a good plan would be to simply suspend the pay of the top ten highest paid executives of each of the Big 3 until the company turns a profit. Then Bob Lutz (et al) would actually be motivated to make their companies function better. As it is now, these dolts are getting paid billions for doing a lousy job!

Another idea would be to make the executives *pay* for their mistakes. The top ten highest paid execs should have to surrender back to their company's treasury the full value of any bonus they've received in the past five years.

Between these two items, it would generate multi-billions of dollars for the Big 3 to use for R&D and retooling.

Yeah, but the board of directors at Ford and GM will never make their CEO's and higher exec's pay back or take a cut in pay. Too many buddies scratching each other's backs! As for not investing in more efficient cars and hybrids...the SUV boom was like crack cocaine to the auto makers. They got an immediate high but did not want to admit there was gonna be any withdrawl symptoms...not to mention the fact they were all in denial that gas prices could get to a point where SUV's and trucks were no longer in demand.