I used to work in the auto industry - the death of GM, Ford, Chrysler, and its spun-off suppliers (like Delphi and Visteon) is no surprise.

GM is pretty bad when it comes to protecting their ecosystem. When their supplier base got spun off it gave GM a reason to start a race to the bottom. Instead of paying a premium for American-made parts (which ARE actually much better than anything made in Asia), they forced their suppliers to compete with Chinese and Korean companies who were crushing them in pricing. For all the talk GM gives about building better cars, they sure don't mean it - my experience with them has been that they care only about the pricing. Corners cut? As long as you give them a discount and come in at the same price as the Chinese company.

So now most of their supplier-base is now bankrupt, and years of GM's slash-and-burn business tactics has also meant that they have woefully substandard parts in their cars. It's a lose-lose for everyone.

This might have been true up until now.
However, I would wager that buying all eight in their currently dire, and I do mean dire straits, will beat the market over the next twelve months.

You gotta' love a zombie !!!!! In ythe past five trading days crappy C realized an 80% return !!!!!!!!

I LOVE THAT KIND OF ZOMBIE.

just be a day trader and make money

I think your column basically shrieks that you are short the mentioned stocks and want to drive them lower. The NATIONALIZE THE ZOMBIES call was last weeks news. You will have to come up with a new scheme.

Please state your position on these stocks, if you are stating to avoid all of these stocks then you are assuming all of these companies will go bankrupt. Purchasing Citigroup or Ford is very low risk for the possible high return you may receive in 5-10 years. I very much disagree with you!

This is old news the new news is your getting your head handed to you being short this companies. Its time to stop you guys in the media help the hedge funds make money driving companies down. I hope you lose your butt.

Would you call HSBC a Zombie bank?

DONT LISTEN TO THESE ASSHOLE. I MADE 50K ON BOA THE LAST MONTH. LISTEN TO YOURSELF. THE MEDIA IS TOXIC

Don't listen to the fool that wrote this article. he picked 1, maybe 2 that might not come back long term. This asshole is either 1) a dumbshit that is only looking at the downturn of stocks in the recent past, or 2) someone that has a whole pisspot of shorts he needs to cover and he's trying to do some fear mongering because he sees the market is turning against his shorts and he's scared. My advise to the reader: Don't make any decisions based on what this jackass wrote. My advise to the writer: Find a tall building with easy access to the roof. If you need further instructions, email me and I will provide them.

Why Ford? They didn't take any bailout money.

potato said...I used to work in the auto industry - the death of GM, Ford, Chrysler, and its spun-off suppliers (like Delphi and Visteon) is no surprise.

How much of the downfall was the fault of the companies and how much of it was the fault of the workers and the unions causing the companies not to be able to compete.With all the concessions the unions of taken from these companies there is no wayy in hell they could compete unless they cut corners somewhere.It is a lose lose situation for them,when workers are getting 75-85 dollars an hour from the company how can labor costs not be out the roof,how could anyone survive that and stil sell a car for a price that could compete against a company paying a couple of dollars an hour in china? Why couldn't the unions not tried to strong arm them so much? Is $35-50 an hour not enough? You sicken me.Unions are just another $$ drag on companies.They are not for the worker and only about making money and spending as little as they can.It is called compromise buddy.Look at how much money the top dogs of the unions make and how many illegal things they have done in the last 10 let alone 30+ years. Companies are not perfect by a long shot but most unions are even worse,where the power is(unions) is where the corruption is.

I think all the bank stocks (except maybe Citigroup) are poised to make a huge rally. The author is probably short these stocks and is trying to talk them down. I think GM is going down. I just dumped my shares of GM at around $2 a couple of weeks ago and I used the money to buy Bank of America at an average price of $5. AIG, Fannie and Freddie are OLD news.

This question is for Mr. Cramer:
Do you think JPMORGAN CHASE will buy CITI GROUP? Chase seems to be very strong.
Thank you.
Andy