Ford Motor Post 4TH Quarter Loss

From the AP

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford Motor Co. lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, pushing the fabled automaker's deficit for the year to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history.

The fourth-quarter loss was the worst final-quarter loss in Ford's history and its second-worst quarterly performance. Ford lost $6.7 billion in the first quarter of 1992, due mainly to accounting rule changes on health care liabilities.

   It looks as if Bush's booming economy isn't so booming for the auto industry.

   Somewhat along the same lines, The New York Times reports:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 — A federal jury in Denver agreed Tuesday with a former top auditor for the Interior Department that the Kerr-McGee Corporation had cheated the government out of millions of dollars in royalties on oil it produced in publicly owned coastal waters.  

Under the False Claims Act, a law that was intended to encourage whistle-blowers, Kerr-McGee could be forced to pay more than $30 million — double or triple the original amount it owed, as well as penalties of up to $11,000 for each of 1,200 false statements that the company is accused of making in its royalty reports to the government.  Article

    Original Article

Bush Oil Reserve May Support Prices as Asia Also Buys
By Christian Schmollinger and Winnie Zhu
Bloomberg     Wednesday 24 January 2007

George W. Bush's decision to double the emergency oil stockpile in the U.S. may help to stem a six- month slide in prices as China, India and South Korea also add to demand by bolstering their defenses against shortages.

Oil gained the most since September 2005 yesterday after the U.S. Energy Department said it will boost the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1.5 billion barrels over 20 years. China, where imports rose 15 percent last year, began to fill its reserve in October. India also plans to double its inventories.

The U.S. plan "helps puts a floor in the market," said Antoine Halff, head of energy research at Fimat USA Inc. in New York. "It creates competition for the same barrels. It tightens the market on top of the strategic reserve builds elsewhere such as China."

Oil consumers are increasing stockpiles on concern that political instability in the Middle East, terrorism and hurricanes may cause supply disruptions. Governments may buy during dips in prices, supplementing demand growth that's forecast to slow this year by the International Energy Agency.

The U.S. move "will also alert China to be more aggressive in building up their strategic petroleum reserve," Gordon Kwan, Hong Kong-based China oil and gas research director at CLSA Ltd., said in an e-mailed strategy update. "Oil prices will likely extend their rebound heading into the summer driving season. $50 oil appears to be a solid floor."

   While more supply in the stockpile is a good thing, I have to wonder if Bush is doing this for the country or for the oil companies? He hasn't done much for the country so may bet is for the latter.

 

Technorati tags: Ford Motor, Loss

 

Neocons and the Middle East,Minimum Wage Shot Down & Bush Still an Idiot!

   It's Thursday morning and here is some of the stories making the rounds for today!

   First off, we have Nellebracht over at DailyKos with a few thoughts on what the Bush Crime Family is really up to in Iraq and the rest of the middle east. As I've stated before on more than one occasion,it's all about the oil.

If this theory is correct, it allows us to make a few predictions.  The first is that the result of the surge will be to increase violence and division and not decrease it.  The second is that the US will continue its rhetoric against Iran, but will prefer to use its proxies in Israel and Saudi Arabia to instigate violence.  The final prediction I will make is that President Bush will withdraw most if not all American troops from Iraq before the end of his term.       The Article

       Of course, you may already know that GOP Senators blocked the federal minimum wage increase. The GOP wants tax cuts for small business included in the wage raise bill.

On a vote of 54-43, Democrats fell six short of the 60 needed to end debate and go to passage of a House-approved bill, to raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade -- boosting it over two years to $7.25 per hour from $5.15.  Yahoo News

Congressional Budget Office says that the budget deficit will shrink this year, 3 years in a row, and that we could have a surplus by 2012 if Bush's tax cuts expire in 2010.              NYTimes Article

“Two years ago, the president laid out an ambitious goal to cut the deficit in half by 2009, and we met that goal three years early,” said Rob Portman, the White House budget director. “We are now on a solid path toward the president’s new goal to achieve a balanced budget by 2012.”                  But Congressional budget officials cautioned that the projections were not as sunny as they looked, in part because they assume that Congress will let President Bush’s tax cuts expire in 2010, along with many corporate tax breaks, and will not try to shield millions of families from a big increase in their tax bills because of the alternative minimum tax.

   Here's a nice little story  for your reading pleasure today.

   It looks as if our Idiot in Chief tried to get congressional approval to pretty much attack anyone in the middle east that he wanted to!

    From Think Progress

HAGEL: [F]inally, begrudgingly, [the White House] sent over a resolution for Congress to approve. Well, it was astounding. It said they could go anywhere in the region.

GQ: It wasn’t specific to Iraq?

HAGEL: Oh no. It said the whole region! They could go into Greece or anywhere. Is central Asia in the region? I suppose! Sure as hell it was clear they meant the whole Middle East. It was anything. It was literally anything. No boundaries. No restrictions.

GQ: They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere in the Middle East?

HAGEL: Yes. Yes. Wide open. We had to rewrite it. Joe Biden, Dick Lugar, and I stripped the language that the White House had set up and put our language in it.

        Knowing the Bush history the way that many of us have for years, this is no surprise.

    Time to start your day!

    Remember! The only good Bush is a prosecuted Bush!

 

Technorati tags: Neocons, Wage, Bush