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General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program

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notesdev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:28 PM
Original message
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
By Russ Dallen
Latin American Herald Tribune staff

SAO PAULO -- General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.

According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to "complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012."

"It wouldn't be logical to withdraw the investment from where we're growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets," he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.

Meanwhile, he cut the company's revenue forecast for this year by 14% to $9.5 billion from $11 billion, as the economic crisis began to cause rapid slowdowns in sales.

GM already announced three programs of paid leave, and Ardila added that GM Brazil "is going to wait and see how the market behaves in order to know what decision to take" with regard to possible layoffs.

For Ardila, the injection in Brazil's automobile sector of 8 billion reais ($3.51 billion) recently announced by the federal and state governments of Sao Paulo "has already begun to revive sales," which fell by 12% in October.

The executive said that the company will operate a "conservative" scenario in 2009 with an estimated production of 2.6 million units, and another more "optimistic" that contemplates sales of 2.9 million.

This year sales will reach 2.85 million vehicles, which represents a growth of 15% over last year.


http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=12396&ArticleId=320909
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notesdev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. This WTF moment
brought to you by TARP and GM.
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DCKit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 06:31 AM
Response to Reply #1
18. Economic terrorism.. n/t
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Mnemosyne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 06:20 PM
Response to Reply #18
25. Economic treason comes to mind also. n/t
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geckosfeet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:37 PM
Response to Original message
2. Are there NO requirements about where and on what TARP $$$ can be spent?
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progressoid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:50 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Congress let the execs give themselves bonuses with the money,
why should this be any different.
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navarth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:41 PM
Response to Original message
3. good grief
this staggers the imagination.
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annabanana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:42 PM
Response to Original message
4. rec this onto "Greatest" for visibility. . . n/t
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Auggie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:45 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Done. Another "outrageous" moment.
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Kittycat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Done. Would love a kick over at kos as well
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DJ13 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 08:59 PM
Response to Original message
8. US corporations really dont get it, do they?
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stillcool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:04 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. They're not "U.S. Corporations"..
these days I'm often reminded of this...

http://www.colorado.edu/AmStudies/lewis/2010/decline.htm
n the 1970s and 1980s, many of the industrial giants in the United States, Europe, and Japan became global companies; they no longer wanted to claim allegiance to any country in the world. By becoming global companies they could force nations to compete with each other to attract their companies to build factories in their countries. By the 1980s, these global companies, now often called Transnational corporations (TNCs) were aggressively using this strategy of globalization to blackmail countries into reducing their costs and increasing their profits. I believe that President Reagan's economic program, which Phillips and others have called Reaganomics, reflect the increasing reality of the global industrial economy and the power of TNCs to blackmail even the biggest and strongest countries and force them to create economic, political, and social conditions that will reduce their companies' costs and increase their profits. Let's now look at some of the major demands these TNCs imposed on industrial countries in the 1980s and 1990s:

Demands Made by Transnational Corporations to do Business in a
Country under the Global Economy

1. Greatly reduce Corporate taxes and taxes on the rich.

2. Greatly reduce government spending in order to cut taxes.

3. Increase taxes on the middle-class and poor to pay for the necessary government services, such as support for TNCs.

4. Reduce environmental, work-safety, and product-safety regulations.

5. Provide millions and millions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies to TNCs in order to convince them to locate in your country.

6. Build and support modern industrial factories for TNCs to use rent-free.

7. Create tax-free export processing zones so that TNCs can produce products without paying any taxes at all.

8. Reduce and lower worker's wages by keeping the minimum wage low or eliminating the minimum wage altogether.

9. Reduce the costs of hiring workers by reducing or eliminating workers' compensation taxes, social security taxes,and health insurance taxes.

10. Allow child-labor at almost any age and under any conditions.

11. Do not enforce maximum work-day hours, such as the eight hour day or the 40 hour week.

12. Use government power to crush and weaken labor unions. Allow companies to hire security firms to harass and intimidate workers and unions.

13. Allow TNCs to freely take their money and profits out of your country.

14. Reduce government support for health-care, education, and anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs, forcing workers to work for any wage just to take care of and feed their families.

15. Support global free trade and work to prevent countries from denying companies the right to sell their products despite the brutal conditions, environmental destruction, and exploitation of their workers.

16. Don't restrict or limit immigration and encourage high levels of unemployment in order to force workers to compete by working for lower and lower wages.

17. Limit and restrict local and national government control over their economies. Encourage global bodies to set economic standards that will benefit TNCs.

18. Limit the ability of workers and citizens to challenge the TNCs and their own government's economic programs which help the TNCs at their expense.

19. Create massive national debts in order to bankrupt governments and force them to be even more at the mercy of the TNCs. Governments can thus say they have no choice but to accept these conditions.

20. Force your citizens to accept lower standards of living and quality of life in order to guarantee higher profits for TNCs.
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 01:36 PM
Response to Reply #9
20. the above is a laundry list of what has been accomplished....
we are so screwn.
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fedsron2us Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 06:14 PM
Response to Reply #9
24. Never in the field of human history has so much money been robbed from so many by so few
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LakeSamish706 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 07:27 PM
Response to Reply #24
26. And worse, so far the robbers are getting away with it! n/t
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stillcool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #24
28. What I don't understand..
is how our military/government fits into this puzzle. At whose beck and call do the soldiers dance?
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Caretha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #24
30. If you don't mind
I'd like to use that as my new tagline.
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Kablooie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:06 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. They DO get it. They get that they can do anything they want and no one can do anything about it.
Another fine legacy from the Bush years.
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valerief Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:54 PM
Response to Reply #8
14. Yeah, they get it. We're the ones who don't get it, not a penny of it. nt
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AllyCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 09:07 PM
Response to Reply #8
33. Oh, they get it. They get it that they can make money off of us again
and really don't care on the ethics of the whole thing.
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texanwitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:04 PM
Response to Original message
10. Do they plan to sell the cars here.
Who will be able to buy them.

Out of work Americans.

This is beyond stupid.
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StercusAccidit Donating Member (42 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #10
27. GM in Latin America
I believe GM does do pretty well in Latin America actually, in 2007 Latin America was one of the few bright spots for GM sales-wise IIRC.
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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 09:08 PM
Response to Reply #27
34. I read a while back that thye just opened a new plant in St. Petersburgh.
RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!
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knitter4democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:08 PM
Response to Original message
12. Hubba-wha?
Holy crap. That is one of the dumbest things I've seen in awhile.
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slipslidingaway Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:13 PM
Response to Original message
13. It is only 1 Billion...New bank bailout could cost another $2 trillion?
Edited on Fri Jan-30-09 09:13 PM by slipslidingaway
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williesgirl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 09:54 PM
Response to Original message
15. So our tax $s end in in other countries? WTF - this has to be stopped. how does this help
american jobs or give business to suppliers of US GM mfg?
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nebenaube Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-30-09 11:31 PM
Response to Original message
16. well.. Transnational corporations are foriegn powers and...
well.. Transnational corporations are foreign powers by definition and... any thing legislated on their behalf is an act of treason. No?
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Hawkowl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 12:16 AM
Response to Original message
17. Replace the CEO and the entire Board
This is absolutely incredible. It is absolutely no wonder that our economy is in a Bush Depression. The only stunning thing is that this is getting brought to the light of day along with the Wall Street bonuses.
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MountainLaurel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 12:44 PM
Response to Original message
19. Um, WHAT?!
I wonder how those guy walk with stones that fucking huge.
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 01:38 PM
Response to Original message
21. You wanna complain here on the board, ????or ...here.....
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annabanana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 03:36 PM
Response to Reply #21
23. done!. . .n/t
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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 09:12 PM
Response to Reply #21
35. Done again.
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MadMaddie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 03:28 PM
Response to Original message
22. Simply if this is the GM business model then maybe it's time
for Americans to stop buying the autos. It will hurt for awhile but the time has come to hold these companies accountable for their business decisions.
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jeff30997 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 08:26 PM
Response to Original message
29. Let's boycott GM.
Don't buy anything made by General Motors.Even toothpicks if they start making them.

If we don't buy their crap because of job shortage then maybe one of those stupid CEOs will

finally understand that if you cut jobs over here (Canada included,they did the same thing here

a couple of years ago)then who is gonna buy their cars ?The underpaid Brazilians ?

They take the money and run like the thieves they are.:grr:

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Left Coast2020 Donating Member (597 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 09:01 PM
Response to Reply #29
32. I remember hearing a discussion about globalization a few days ago.
From what I remember in this discussion, much of policies out of "reganoninics" don't apply in todays standards--or may not apply in these standards. I assumed from what I heard that some of these policies from Regan could go by the wayside--as far as trade and other related policies (NAFTA?). If this is the case, I would like to see many reversals of 80's policies.
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Dr.Phool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-31-09 08:52 PM
Response to Original message
31. Tell me again, why I should buy "American"?
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