Impressed by the Trump administration part II

Trump can only assist with the economic environment we operate in.  He cannot order people to buy a product (like a failing Chevy Cruze) to prop up demand; only obama can do that.

posted by kizer permanente

GM Lordstown plant closing. I don't know how much more winning the Mahoning Valley can take Quaker?


https://jalopnik.com/gm-may-also-close-its-lordstown-ohio-plant-amid-global-1830654246

 

So GM makes a shitty car and that is Trumps fault?

posted by QuakerOats

 

 

Trump can only assist with the economic environment we operate in.  He cannot order people to buy a product (like a failing Chevy Cruze) to prop up demand; only obama can do that.

Ah so he’s responsible for every company that hires and builds new plants and everytime the Dow goes up but he can only assist the economy when corporations have mass layoffs and the Dow tanks. Got it. 

posted by QuakerOats

 

 

Trump can only assist with the economic environment we operate in.  He cannot order people to buy a product (like a failing Chevy Cruze) to prop up demand; only obama can do that.

Every time a new widget plant is announced, he steps up to take credit.  Why shouldn't the opposite apply?

posted by Dr Winston O'Boogie

Every time a new widget plant is announced, he steps up to take credit.  Why shouldn't the opposite apply?

Seems ro be alot of widget plants lately....lots more widget jobs also.

Correlation to policy?  Yea.

posted by Spock

So GM makes a shitty car and that is Trumps fault?

Whether or not GM makes a shitty car, it hasn't been a problem up until now.  Why would that fact suddenly matter?

posted by Spock

Seems ro be alot of widget plants lately....lots more widget jobs also.

Correlation to policy?  Yea.

 

Of course no correlation to policy when GM points out that Trump's tariffs have cost GM $1 Billion and that is part of the reason they are closing the plants. 

GM warned this would happen back in the summer with the additional $1B in tariffs. Now QO and Spock divert blame like good puppets. 

This seriously sucked for Youngstown. I feel for those workers and the news a few days after Thanksgiving is harsh. 

That said, the writing was on the wall. Ford and Chrysler have done similar moves recently, shifting facilities, focusing more on trucks/ vans/ hybrids/ electric and dropping lines of cars. The others just aren't closing massive plants, just downsizing them. 

This isn't on Trump per say. It is more the way the market is moving. But, it is on Trump as he yelled from 2016 to now that the jobs are coming back. When you make that claim, you have to own it. When you cite the economy so far as a victory, you have to take the bad with it as well. 

posted by ptown_trojans_1

This seriously sucked for Youngstown. I feel for those workers and the news a few days after Thanksgiving is harsh. 

That said, the writing was on the wall. Ford and Chrysler have done similar moves recently, shifting facilities, focusing more on trucks/ vans/ hybrids/ electric and dropping lines of cars. The others just aren't closing massive plants, just downsizing them. 

This isn't on Trump per say. It is more the way the market is moving. But, it is on Trump as he yelled from 2016 to now that the jobs are coming back. When you make that claim, you have to own it. When you cite the economy so far as a victory, you have to take the bad with it as well. 

Except Ford isn't shutting down plants. They're moving light trucks into those lines. GM is closing 5 plants, not moving trucks into them. It's done as a cost cutting measure. Don't think for 1 second the $1B isn't affecting the cost cutting measure. 

posted by kizer permanente

Except Ford isn't shutting down plants. They're moving light trucks into those lines. GM is closing 5 plants, not moving trucks into them. It's done as a cost cutting measure. Don't think for 1 second the $1B isn't affecting the cost cutting measure. 

The entire second paragraph of the post you responded to says exactly this.  They're cutting some lines to focus on others, which results in a downsized plant, but not a closed one.

posted by kizer permanente

Except Ford isn't shutting down plants. They're moving light trucks into those lines. GM is closing 5 plants, not moving trucks into them. It's done as a cost cutting measure. Don't think for 1 second the $1B isn't affecting the cost cutting measure. 

Everyone is cutting costs. Blaming this on Trump is laughable. I assumed it was a joke at QO, but then you took it seriously. I'm not going to blame it on Obama either (I'd have let them go bankrupt correctly though). The Cruze sucked, was made cheaper in Mexico, and they have been cutting lines at Lordstown prior to Trump. Anyone from the area knew it was inevitable if they didn't get a different vehicle. GM was betting on small cars and high gas prices and lost. Same reason why Ford is no longer making smaller cars in America. The Volt failed too, not because of Trump, but because it sucked. 

Regardless, Warren has already been trending downwards, and this will only hurt it worse.

I get that QO is a jackass and gives Trump all the credit, but you would be the first to argue it wasn't him. He can't not get any credit and all the blame or all of the credit and none of the blame.

Ah, the end result of QQ being a gigantic nutcase whose entire sense of self-worth is tied into how a political party is doing: A world where every single thing a company does gets immediately brought back to the president, so that anything good is directly because of him and his policies and everything bad gets the same treatment.

So, I guess I have to cheer Trump now. After all, GameStop did have the deal I wanted on a video game system and it was available on Thanksgiving, so that has to be due to him, right?!?

posted by iclfan2

Everyone is cutting costs. Blaming this on Trump is laughable. I assumed it was a joke at QO, but then you took it seriously. I'm not going to blame it on Obama either (I'd have let them go bankrupt correctly though). The Cruze sucked, was made cheaper in Mexico, and they have been cutting lines at Lordstown prior to Trump. Anyone from the area knew it was inevitable if they didn't get a different vehicle. GM was betting on small cars and high gas prices and lost. Same reason why Ford is no longer making smaller cars in America. The Volt failed too, not because of Trump, but because it sucked. 

Regardless, Warren has already been trending downwards, and this will only hurt it worse.

I get that QO is a jackass and gives Trump all the credit, but you would be the first to argue it wasn't him. He can't not get any credit and all the blame or all of the credit and none of the blame.

Everyone cutting costs has nothing to do with who's facing additional burdens due to tariffs though which is why it's Trumps fault. No ones saying there aren't other factors. Of course there are. But to say an extra $1B isn't Trumps fault or a reason is asinine. Which QO would deny up and down. 

posted by Heretic

Ah, the end result of QQ being a gigantic nutcase whose entire sense of self-worth is tied into how a political party is doing: A world where every single thing a company does gets immediately brought back to the president, so that anything good is directly because of him and his policies and everything bad gets the same treatment.

So, I guess I have to cheer Trump now. After all, GameStop did have the deal I wanted on a video game system and it was available on Thanksgiving, so that has to be due to him, right?!?

posted by kizer permanente

Everyone cutting costs has nothing to do with who's facing additional burdens due to tariffs though which is why it's Trumps fault. No ones saying there aren't other factors. Of course there are. But to say an extra $1B isn't Trumps fault or a reason is asinine. Which QO would deny up and down. 

Both Mary Barra and auto industry analysts say that the tariffs actually had little if any effect on this decision. Not really sure why you're humping this so hard, unless you just have a hardon for All Things Trump. 

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2018/11/26/gm-tariffs-cutting-jobs-plants/2115829002/

“This is a correction,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of Industry, Labor & Economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. “GM plants are building more cars that people just don’t want to buy. This has very little to do with tariffs, though I’m sure that’s a part. But this is about the fundamentals of the business.”

The temporary tariff has nothing to do with the Lordstown decision.  Declining sales of the Cruze are the main reason. 

Now if you want to discuss overall major cost components, let’s look at 8 years of skyrocketing employee insurance premiums because of obamaKare.  Now there is a real problem, and continued cause for serious concern.

Employee insurance premiums are a drop in the bucket. Between $6-9000 of the price of every new car goes to pay the lifetime pension of some guy who spent 20 years screwing cigarette lighters into dashboards for $45/hr. 

 posted by fish82

Both Mary Barra and auto industry analysts say that the tariffs actually had little if any effect on this decision. Not really sure why you're humping this so hard, unless you just have a hardon for All Things Trump. 

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2018/11/26/gm-tariffs-cutting-jobs-plants/2115829002/

“This is a correction,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of Industry, Labor & Economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. “GM plants are building more cars that people just don’t want to buy. This has very little to do with tariffs, though I’m sure that’s a part. But this is about the fundamentals of the business.”

And Forbes thinks GM is just playing nice. Quick question for you though.... if your business faced an extra $1B in unexpected and uncontrolled cost, do you think it would factor into your cost cutting measure? And furthermore, one doesn’t have to have a hardon for Trump to blame him for terribly policy, but I would question why you can’t blame him? 

posted by kizer permanente

And Forbes thinks GM is just playing nice. Quick question for you though.... if your business faced an extra $1B in unexpected and uncontrolled cost, do you think it would factor into your cost cutting measure? And furthermore, one doesn’t have to have a hardon for Trump to blame him for terribly policy, but I would question why you can’t blame him? 

I guess Forbes is entitled to that opinion. I'll take the word of the CEO and actual industry analysts over theirs...and yours, for that matter. 

And while we're at it, the tariffs being 'terribly policy" is also a matter of opinion, and fully depends on who one asks.