ShareI have been reading press accounts of the GM decision to back out of the Opel/Vauxhall sale to the Magna/Sberbank consortium from various countries. There are a lot of different perspectives on this event in the U.S., Belgium, Spain, Germany, Russia, the U.K and elsewhere, because a lot of players are involved.
The conclusion I [...]

ShareThe sale to Canadian auto parts maker Magna International and its partner, Russian lender Sberbank is off. With bankruptcy now behind it, General Motors now feels confident it can proceed with Opel under the GM umbrella.
From the GM press release:
Given an improving business environment for GM over the past few months, and the importance of [...]

ShareChina has sent yet another public signal that it is unhappy with the U.S. and its trade policy by prepping an investigation into alleged illegal auto subsidies by the U.S. government.  The timing of this announcement puts a spotlight on the bailout of GMAC, the auto financial company which effectively has been nationalized the firm. [...]

ShareAnd you thought the bailouts were over and market discipline might be restored.  Not a chance – the bailouts will continue, come hell or high water. The latest demonstration of this is GMAC, where the government will now be majority owner. GMAC has officially been nationalized. Now the government is running auto financing in addition [...]

ShareToyota, now the world’s largest automaker, has said it would halt production at a plant in Aichi prefecture in Japan, reducing total output by a massive 220,000 cars.  This should be seen as a recognition of the over-capacity tat exists in the auto sector despite other recent upbeat news.
Toyota raised its parent-only production target for [...]

ShareYou may have heard the reports that US auto dealers were swamped on Monday night as the car scrappage scheme dubbed “Cash for Clunkers” expired. American taxpayers were eligible for a tax rebate of up to $4500 for trading in an older gas guzzler for a new vehicle.  And all evidence shows that they took [...]

ShareNow that it has emerged from bankruptcy and received free money from the Federal Government, General Motors is seriously thinking about keeping Opel by raising capital.  The German government has been urging GM to make a decision about the bids it received for GM Europe from Magna, the Germans’ preferred bidder. But, the company has [...]

ShareDick Berner, Chief North American Economist at Morgan Stanley, thinks we are in for a sizable uptick in GDP for Q3.  I must be honest; I am sceptical about this, but Berner is a well-regarded economist  whose views can’t be dismissed out of hand.  He says:
Incoming data… confirm that the deepest and longest post-war recession [...]

ShareRoland Koch, the leader of the German state of Hesse, has dismissed the possibility of Chinese auto manufacturer BAIC acquiring German carmaker Opel.  Below is my translation of today’s Spiegel article explaining this.
Clear rejection of the Chinese: Hesse Prime Minister Koch has rejected the takeover offer for Opel by the car manufacturer BAIC. If someone [...]

ShareJudge Robert Gerber has given General Motors approval to sell its assets under section 363 of the bankruptcy code.  Last month I indicated that this 363 sale was more questionable than Chrysler’s and could meet more resistance in court.  That has not happened and the GM bankruptcy looks likely to proceed according to the Obama [...]