Breaking News

From CNN.com:

GM, racing against a restructuring deadline, says major bondholders have accepted a revised deal to swap debt for equity.

Looks like they finally came to their senses. Or maybe it was the threat of owing me personally for my losses.

GM Bondholders and Bankruptcy

I am a GM bond holder. And I am pissed. I bought my GM bonds a few years ago when it looked like the company was going to turn itself around. I didn't buy for steady interest payments or stability. I bought because of the 9% yield and the low price so I take responsibility for my losses. It was risky and I bet on the wrong side.

Apparerently not enough bondholders approved GM's debt for equity offer to keep the company out of bankruptcy. The idiots who turned down this offer are the ones I am pissed at.

Let's look at our options:

• Take the offer, accept 225 shares of stock, currently worth $268, but worth over $450 as of Friday.
• Turn down the offer and get whatever bankruptcy court decides to give, most likely under $100.

I can understand that people aren't happy with GMs offer, you want more, that isn't a fair offer. The government gets 70% of the company and the bondholders would get 10%. The time for negotation is gone. Thanks to your being offended at the low offer all of us bondholders will now get maybe 10% of our investment, the company goes bankrupt and everyone loses.

So I am going to hold all of the greedy people who turned down the tender offer responsible for my losses, as well as for anyone fallout from the bankruptcy. You can send me a check for the money.

Truck & SUV Sales Are Back Up

In a remarkable turn of American stupidity it appears that sales of SUVs and trucks are back up again, based on this article from CNN. I guess people don't learn from the past.

I am starting to think that the conspiracy talk I have heard about how the oil companies and OPEC manipulate gas prices might be true. The theory says that gas prices go up, people start buying and making fuel efficient cars, then OPEC reduces gas prices to drive the fuel efficient cars out of business, and then prices go back up.

This happened in the 70s, with the oil crisis then. After having to wait on line to get their gas rations people started buying smaller, more efficient cars. Then gas prices came down and everyone started buying big SUVs and trucks, and then rinse and repeat.

I find it remarkably stupid that people are going to fall for this again. You must be incredibly short sighted to think that gas prices are going to stay down. I guess Americans are blinded by the "great deals" the automakers are offering. Apparently these incentives are enough to make people forgot about the imminent bankruptcy.

I am reminded of someone I once knew who would buy anything if it seemed she was getting a good deal. She would go to Walmart for a tube of toothpaste and come out with $200 worth of junk, but all of the junk was "on sale," so she thought that by not buying it she would be "losing money." (I say "on sale" because for all I know the stores are just making up "full prices" and putting them next to things to make it seem like the sticker price is a discount.) It's kind of a twisted way to look at things, but it's perfectly in line with being a good little consumer and credit card user, as we are instructed to be by corporate america.