[quote=blarmston]who cares if they were junk or AAA rated. To have 70% of a foundations account in one issue is retarded. The guy deserves to see those ACAT requests come Monday morning... Green backs- what kind of coin you looking at there? What are your reco's gonna be? You know, just for $hits and giggles..[/quote]

I will go in with a third party money manager! Possibly using Gannet Welsh & Kohler Core bond strategy. I will let the money managers handle bonds they are much better at then me! On the equity side it would be DFA.

First account would be about $800,000 second one about $8 million.

well get after it then and let us know when the acats are signed.

Oh yea!!, …love that union mentality…I wonder if they realize, that…if GM goes BK, and ultimately fails,…They will all be out of jobs!!! and 70% of those folks, will not come close to replacing there current pay and benefits. I may be opening a can of worms here, but I have to say it…Unions suck the life out of progress, and are the downfall for many organizations and communities.  FACT!!! A bunch of entitled, lazy mofo’s…But that’s just my opinion.

If you replaced union in your post with corporation you would sound
just like a left wing kook. I agree that the autoworkers have got some
big problems in the way they been doing business but… Your gonna tell
me the Communication workers aren’t a force for improvement in their
industry?



I think until lefties stop throwin’ stones at companies and righties
stop doing the same at unions it might be less of a bullsh*t tug of war
and more like to companies contracting to provide services for another,
don’t you think? We need to put the days of the Robber Baron and The
Teamsta Boss behind us and realize that both need to respond rationally
to market forces.

[quote=sethllanford]Your gonna tell me the Communication workers aren't a force for improvement in their industry?

[/quote]

Force for improvement for their member's income and benefits? (Not that there's anything wrong with that) Sure. A force for improvement in the industry? Nah...

There was a time when unions were needed to protect the workers from exploitation around the turn of the last century. People and small children worked and died under the most apalling conditions. Then, they realized that if they banded together they could force major reforms on the industry owners.  That was a good thing......then.

Now, the unions are destructive forces that are sucking the life out of the industries where they work.  Without thinking about the long term consequences of their actions they are cannibalizing and gutting the companies that provide them with jobs.  The union leadership doesn't care. They are pandering to the union base and making a damn good living out of being a professional lobbyist and activist at the expense of the rank and file.  Member of most unions are literally forced to pay dues and have no say so over how those dues are spent.  Unions are mostly responsible for the corruption of the elected officials who disregard the wishes of their constituants and allow themselves to be influenced by the paid union lobbyists.   The unreasonable demands by self serving unions are the reason that the automotive industry in this country is dying, the reason that the airlines are going out of business, the reason that our schools graduate students who are barely literate, the reason this country is going to hell in a handbasket.

Do you think the teacher's union gives a rip about the students, or is more concerned about getting an even better and more expensive medical plan for the tenured teachers?  Why is it that charter schools, that are not unionized, turn out much better educated students?   Even home schooled students outperform the unionized public school system.  The stranglehold the unions have on our economy is a disaster.

Now they are trying to take the destructive and economic growth killing policies forced on the big corporations to the small business arena. Forced medical coverage, forced pension plans and the so called "living wage" will do nothing less than force small business owners to lay off employees or even go out of business.  

Don't even get me started on the ridiculous costly Americans with Disabilities act and how negativley this is affecting small businesses!!

Ok, I guess I did open the can of worms.....good for me!!

I agree, there was a reason and time for unionization, but as BL mentioned they have turned into a destructive force. I live in a 3rd tier city, that has wonderful potential. Unions are 50% of the roadblock to progress.

I owned a company for seven years. On some job sites, we had union workers picketing my customers, because they did not hire union workers. The customers got competitive bids, that allowed for maybe $15 - $18 per man hour. The unions would have wanted $25 - $35 per man hour. Union members, in there small, dillusional, little pea brains actually think that the companies should employ them.....because they are union. Do you think the quality of work is better with a union.??......absolutely not....it's worse. And, oh, by the way......IT'S THE CUSTOMER'S FRK'N CHOICE, WHAT CONTRACTORS THEY EMPLOY. Unions are the comlpete opposite of a free competitve market. And, you cannot fire union workers, for lack of job performance........there "contracts" won't allow it. What a frk'n joke. I've said it before......How are we going to be competitive, globally, when we have organizations, that operate at the lowest level of productivity, and have such high costs?

Seth - I also hate what's going on with CEO pay. Let's downsize the work force by 5,000, cut costs, not pay a dividend to shareholders....and in a lot of instances have sub par performance otherwise,......but pay the CEO, and senior management disgusting salaries and bonuses.

BL -

Schools, are a bottomless pit for money. You could give them billions....the bottom line is, the kids either want to be there or they don't.

Communications workers have been pretty much a partner in many coms
firms and phone companies expansion. A buddy of mine owns a startup and
had great things to say about them on the other hand the Electrical
workers, different story. Both sides propaganda is enough to drown in
though I’ll give you that. The discussions always get a bit too heated
and nobody hears each other out.



One persons union is anothers strategic alliance no? If they blow it it will eventually shake out.

I'm not scared of GMAC at all, until I hear GM spend their Billions of Cash and cut their common stock dividend.

iconsult100:

I'm not scared of GMAC at all, until I hear GM spend their Billions of Cash and cut their common stock dividend.

-----------------------------------------

Your wish is going to come true. GM is obligated to Delphi for about half of the cash they have on hand (a condition of their separation). In addition, counting their underfunded pension fund ($10 billion in the red), as per the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC), you won't have to wait long for that dividend cut! 

Also, the PBGC has made it known that they will require a cash infusion from GMAC into the benefits side of GM, before any sale or separation.

Couldnt let this talk about unions go without comment. Unions are like lawyers, you dont like them until you need em, may not have happened yet but wait till corp america screws you and your family. IF your a regular stiff working hourly wages, (unlike most of the people who post here, I know what kind of money you all make or will make eventually) and your company screws you, who you gonna call?   It was that way 50 years ago and still is today. Corporate america wants to squeez blood out of a turnip, so obviously they squeeze their employees till they squeal.   Unions do alot of good, they stand up for the little folks and helped advocate and start up 401k and profit sharing plans that are now rollovers for all you fine advisors to manage.   When I hear of GM laying off 30,000 people, I know some are happy because it makes the company stock look better, I see 30,000 families being uprooted.   Call me a liberal, but my only wish is we had a finanical advisor union we could all join to fight the compliance Jihad and other crap that has made our business so much less fun!      

Unions = Legalized Extortion. Wake up and smell the coffee. Jeeeeez

[quote=Deaniac] When I hear of GM laying off 30,000 people, I know some are happy because it makes the company stock look better, I see 30,000 families being uprooted.   Call me a liberal, ..  [/quote]

Two things. First, EVERYONE thinks of the families, not just you. However without lay-offs, bad as they are, EVERYONE working at GM would lose their job when the company goes out of business (which it might do anyway). You can’t simply wish away GM’s (or any other company for that matter) fiscal troubles. Michael Moore never understood that when he went after Roger. There are plenty of other liberals just as economically illiterate as he is.

Second, as was mentioned at the press conference, hopefully most jobs of the 30k will go away by way of not replacing retired or otherwise voluntarily leaving employees. IOW, attrition.

Unions provide balance between employers and their employees. So long as membership in the union is voluntary, the union bosses aren’t screwing the members and the union itself isn’t making demands that bankrupt the business in the long run, I have no problem with them. The bad thing is often unions fail one or more of the three tests I mentioned.

30,000 employees that have like 35,000 employees who have their full time in to retire, but can't afford to.  Thats right their pension + SS isn't anywhere near the six figure incomes most of them bring home with overtime.  Since the auto sector has been tough personal bankruptcies in detroit area have soared and the detroit news has done several articles showing most of these are autoworkers used to making 100K+ now they're making 60K and can't make all those payments boat, motorcycle, snowmobiles, cottage, two 35K vehicles, big house, cc, home equity, etc etc etc.

Sure this will cause some problems for the avg UAW worker, but they dug their own hole.  I have two degrees and my CFP I will never have all the toys the avg. UAW worker has, but it's cool to have friends to borrow them from.... :)