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Trump is flat wrong - bankruptcy would be the final nail in the coffin for the car companies. No one will buy a car from a company that may not last the life (or even the warranty) of the car. Unlike with the airlines, when you buy a car, you are making a long-term commitment.

This coming from the guy that goes into receivership or defaults on payments about every 60 days. If I'm not mistaken, Donald is in the soup again-now. I saw something 7-10 days ago about dear old Donald couldn't meet a mortgage payment, and he has the gall to comment on anybody else.
It is the law of the jungle...eat or be eaten, and hang onto your butt when the lions start taking chunks out of you. The large companies should go under and the CEO's, COO's, CFO's, and all the other persons at the top should forfeit everything they have made and salted away while mismanaging everybody's money but their personal fortunes. When I declared bankruptcy, I didn't get to keep anything, they stripped me right down to one set of clothes and $25.

I'm no fan of Donald Trump and his ego, but he does make several good points....

I am very much against the bail out of the Auto-makers. Instead I was wondering if anyone has proposed that the oil companies should bail out the Automakers. It is well known that they have made billions of profit during the past few years. In addition it would be to their benefit that the automakers survive. If we go ahead with the bail out plan, the oil companies will even make more profit and raise the price of oil again, which would be bad for our economy. It is my conclusion that the Auto companies should help the Automakers, since they benefit from the car industry.

Victor Zakkay Retired Vincent Astor Professor (New York University)

I can,t believe Trump, what is going with his great investments.He has more silk suits with no underpants , then anyone I know. His ship is going to be fun to watch" I have never seen an ego so wild, it probably has a medical name: just can,t think of it right now. Actually, it,s really sad' Bill Warmington HMFIC

I thought Donald was smarter. The differnce between the air lines and the auto companys. The air lines (air plane company would still be in business) going bankrupt. The passengers would still have airplanes to ride. The auto bankrupt there would be no cars to ride or no warranty replacements.

I agree with Trump. People need to realize that the Big Three have hundreds of billions of dollars in liabilities and bad debt, including more than $100 billion in monies that will be held accountable by the UAW for salaries and benefits in the next few years. GM alone has in excess of $440 billion in the red.Entering into bankruptcy would be immensly beneficial to the big three. With the courts eliminating a high percentage of this debt and allowing for a "clean slate" to begin the recovery process. And return the big three to greatness once again. Asking for and receiving a mere 5% or so of the total debt obligation will buy time for no one and help no one. A clean slate is the only way. And when asking for TAXPAYER assistance we should be the ones informing them of the of what is acceptable...

Why would his opinion matter to anyone???....many of the his own investments are in trouble over and over again. Her can't run his own business profitably, but he can tell the auto industry how.
People with empty pckets cannot buy or lease new cars and it really is that simple. Sales are down 30% at the imports also.

I am a GM retiree. Letting GM and the other 2 go into bankruptsy may sound like a good idea to many americans. I hope all of you people who are for this tactic will remeber that for every Auto job lost another 10 will be lost in indirect labor. So GM has 266,000 employees, that means that another 2 million 6 hundred 66 thousand more job losses in addition to the 550 thousand anounced last wednesday. I get sick of people wanting GM to fail. In a way I hope they do because then a bunch of people who think their jobs are safe will find themselves on the street scratching their heads and wondering why they lost their jobs.

The Labor Cost for everyone at GM from the CEO down is only 10% of the vehicle price tag. There is no other industry in the entire nation that has a labor cost that amounts to just 10% of the product cost.
Try calling a plumber and having him install that new $300 sink for just 10% of the cost of the sink or just $30.00
Try calling an electrician and asking him to install your new $400 ceiling fan for just 10% of the cost of the fan or $40.00
Try calling a contractor and get him to build you a new home for just 10% of the materials costs.
90% of GM costs are materials, heat, electricity, phone, state, federal taxes and local real estate taxes, advertising costs and warranty repair costs and the costs of defending themselves in court from law suits.

I agree with "the Donald." I have never heard the remedy so well articulated by anyone. I guess, this is why he is a multibillionaire and he has been bankrupt. But who will listen to intelligent men? Certainly not the knuckle heads in the UAW; not the arrogant and pompous CEOs, who would lose their golden parachuttes; not the politicians, who need to repay a political debt.

Labor is just 10% of the price of a new vehicle. The states charge between 6% and 8% for sales tax for doing nothing to help produce the vehicles. If the government wants to help the auto companies they should cut the sales tax out instead of asking the people who build them to accept a pay cut.

If the salaries make no difference to the automakers problems, how about all the benefits including health care for life for retirees? Even though the wages are such a 'small' percentage of the purchase price of a car, do you think that the large sticker price of a car distorts that fact quite a large amount. And if you think this is not valid, how come other workers at successful car companies in the south of the USA are working for so many less dollars per hour? The benefit of bankrupcy is that the car czar will have infinite more power to get the parties to come together and solve the problems. Given the alternatives, who is going to make the unions or the executives of the companies create a product that will sell and that is good for the country? Right now the companies are funding big ticket per hour lawyers to prevent states like California and maybe 10 other states from mandating more fuel efficient cars. What do the car companies say? No, we want to build cars that have poor gas mileage and then come to us for a bail out because noone wants to buy their cars. Get real you folks who are so squirley squeemish to get down and solve the problems. You know, noone was getting all psyched to buy these cars before the economic crisis. And yes, Jack Welch says that the bankrupcy idea would work. He doesn't prefer it, BUT who else has an idea of how the make the tough changes required? Congress? Your Mom? Who?

Nice comments from a guy whose casino company (Trump Entertainment) is currently trading at 23 cents, has a market cap of $7.32 million and is only 1 penny off of its 52 week low.

Trump and anyone who agree with him couldn't more wrong. A comparison with the airline industryis evidence alone of how little this man knows. Firstly and airline ticket costs what a few hundred dollars? I'd be willing to buy the discounted airfare knowing that I'm probably going to get to my destination. A car on the other hand costs in the thousands and I would never risk 5 years donw the line with no warranty, no parts, no service support. Not everyone is a rich as the "Don" and can change cars on a whim, a lot of Americans keep their cars for 10 years plus and require service and parts over that period.

Next if the car companies stop paying their suppliers they will put those companies out of business causing the snowball effect we are trying to avoid.

Brankruptcy will probably cost more than a bailout, how many of those retirees will need to be taken care of by the state as opposed to the car companies? How much will states have to fork out in unemployment benefits?

It's way cheaper on us tax payers to just give the car companies a cheap line of credit and demand that they start making cars that mirror the economics and environment that we live in today.

It's a very interesting topic even if the Donald gave his 2 cents to the conversation. I'm no fan.

However, back to the subject.

Jack Welch commented recently that the terms of our union contracts were largely created when there was no international economy. The terms did not originate at a time that anticipated the competitive forces that exist today. Just think that if 5000+ workers are not working and collecting 95% of their wages because of their success in collective bargaining, just what else is in that contract that we do not know about.
Another Question?
What's so wrong with calling a bankrupt company bankrupt? Supplier contracts and other contracts that are deemed 'critical' elements of a healthy country and manufacturing base can be honored by a car czar. That's why they call him/her a czar. Intelligent, creative problem solving from a person who can 'force' interested parties to solve the problem rather than just look out for their own narrow interests.

I agree, the big oil companies that profited billions from screwing the public on inflated oil prices should pay heavily towards this bailout. I wonder how profits would be for them if the Big 3 did go under? Seems like they should have a vested interest in this. I know I wouldn't personally buy a car from an automaker that was in bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is not the answer. If it were, then why doesn't the federal government go into bankruptcy since we have so much debt and we can restructure our government. Do you realize that if a congressman retires, they get 100% of their salary as pension even if they serve only one term. The auto companies quit their pension programs in 2000 to save the company, but anyone before that still receives a small portion, not even 30% after serving 35 years. The big three already reduced the hourly wage to $14 equal to that of Toyota, Mercedes, Honda..they have restructured the health care costs and passed it on to the employees..I say, the government needs an overhaul themselves..and they need to start with getting rid of Dodd, Barney and Pelosi...they are the ones that got us all into the housing market crisis, which now impacts the Big 3. If it weren't for the wall street crisis, the Big 3 would have been fine

Mr. Trump should concentrate on his hair and leave running a business to the people that know how. He's been very lucky in the past and is an expert on bankruptcy. How many times has he filed?
As for Jack Welch. Who screwed up the once proud GE Corp? Jack Welch. What the hell is GE doing in the TV buisness? Why were they forced to sell their appliance division to a South Korean company? Because Jack Welch turned once proud GE into a finance & insurance company. He did to GE what the unions and previous excutives did to the Big Three. They have to be saved. America without a major auto manufacturer? That
can't happen.

do not help the BIG 3 Automakers,they made their money,gave the unions what they wanted and the FAT ASSES KEEP ASKING FOR MORE...built terrible cars that can not KEEP UP WITH THE COMPETITION..ONCE YOU BUY A Toyota,lexus ,honda,infinitive,BMW,
OR mercedes, you do not want to go back to an American car................