As IF Times

link UPDATE 1-GM to acquire AmeriCredit for $3.5 bln | Reuters.

Unless you happen to be paying attention, this news item would be just another of those boring finance stories.  If you whittle the story down to the basic elements, then an amusing scenario becomes more obvious. 

As some may recall, not too long ago, General Motors wound up in a bit of a financial pickle.  The short story is, they were not selling enough cars at  prices that people were willing  to pay for their products.  Not that they didn’t make good products, it was just that for a similar amount of  money, many other manufacturers offered arguably better products.  General Motors was saddled with a legacy of costs that eventually overwhelmed the company.  Principally, the main culprits were the very generous pay and benefits packages given to working and retired employees.   You would often hear the joke that GM was more of an extended care and benefits company than an automobile company.

So along with large debt payments to bondholders, GM was unable to pay it’s bills with the income from car sales.  Luckily, the federal government  decided that the fate of GM was tied to the fate of many workers and therefore America.  They would be bailed out of their financial woes.  The amount of money involved was so big that only governments had the might to write the big cheque.  Ultimately with all of the restructuring, the government OWNS GM.  So now, GM is now Government Motors, or the people’s car company.  This solved a short term debt problem, but the company still had to sell cars. 

Since the economy overall is still not as robust as the administration would have you believe with unemployment still ratcheting upwards, people didn’t have the capacity to finance car purchases.  Ironically, many of the unemployed became that way because GM and Chrysler were forced to close down hundreds of car dealers throwing those people out of work.  Todays’ news is that GM will spend $3.5 billion dollars to buy a company involved in the financing of cars.   Not just anybody, but particularly people with ‘subprime’ credit.  Hmm, this sounds oddly familiar.  In case anyone noticed, the money used to purchase AmeriCredit is actually government money, or public money.  So in essence, the public is subsidizing other people to buy cars that they otherwise couldn’t afford with their own money.  I think in real life, that’s called a circle jerk.  Nevertheless, the UAW union at GM, also a major stakeholder post restructuring, have managed to keep their members employed albeit at the expense of everyone else.  Bernie Madoff in his ponzi schemes at least bilked the rich.  In this latest government scheme, the people who can least afford to pay are getting roped in.

This is but the first of these types of ingenious rescue schemes to see the light of day.  In scenarios throughout the country, the same dilemna will surface again as public pensions for teachers,postal workers, firemen, police etc have to be funded.  An agency will have to be established in order to offer financing to people who cannot otherwise afford teachers, fire or police protection: some means of allowing people to pay money regularly in order to recieve these services…hmm how to do that…if only there was a way…

link NAACP passes resolution blasting Tea Party ‘racism’ – CNN.com.

Really?  And this motion is meant to impress or influence whom? For those who are members of the NAACP, the motion has significance because it reaffirms the views of those who are members.  Sort of like frat boys affirming their interest in large breasts.  Outside of their membership, it’s doubtful that this motion will have any kind of impact at all on America.  Why is that?  Because the group has proved itself to be an irrelevant organization.  National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  It even sounds like a relic of the 1800’s.  Any organization which dismisses the improvements to society in the area of race relations over the past hundred years is one that deserves to be ignored by the mainstream.  From noble beginnings, the NAACP has morphed into a group solely interested in making racial mountains out of molehills. 

If they have not noticed, many of the most influential top paid entertainers in America are black including of course Oprah.  Most of the top paid atheletes are black.  Also, in case no one noticed, the holder of the highest office in the land including many in his cabinet are people of color or black.  The struggle for equality ended long ago.  The only impediments to ‘colored’ people advancing in their lives are themselves.  If anything, the deck is stacked in favour of many minorities in the guise of affirmative action programs at school admissions and job postings.  The struggle to survive and get ahead is the same for everyone.

So if the playing surface is equal for all Americans, where is the need to push one race over another?  What many fail to grasp is that in a free society, one is free to fail as well as to succeed.  Not every failure is a product of overt racial bias.  To hear the racism slander hurled at the Tea Party probably induces eye rolling for most people rather than elicit any feelings of sympathy.  The Tea Party, in a knee jerk defensive response, denies the racism label and so the media jumps on the ‘conflict’.  The fact of the matter is, black people make egregious mistakes as well as non black people.  Incompetence is an equal opportunity characteristic. If Terrell Owens is criticized for dropping an easy pass, it’s not racism, it’s because he’s a dufus.  If the president enforces policies that are ill advised, he also is guilty of dufusness. There is no free pass when you screw up a country just because one happens to be of color. 

There’s a classic Seinfeld episode in which a dentist converts to Judaism and begins to tell self depricating Jewish Jokes.  Jerry Seinfeld tells him the dentist’s jokes are offensive.  The dentist replies that it’s ok, he’s Jewish.  Seinfeld responds the jokes are offensive to him as a comedian.  The NAACP may wish to change their mandate to the National Association for the Advancement of Competent People.  Boy do we need that.