GM says it will not seek bankruptcy protection, despite stock price crash

• Carmaker admits it faces 'unprecedented challenges'
• Credit rating likely to sink further into junk status

General Motors insisted yesterday that bankruptcy was not an option, despite facing what it described as "unprecedented challenges".

Fears have been growing that the biggest US carmakers, GM and Ford, are close to calamity as the crisis in the financial markets has bled into the real economy.

Shares in the pair were back under pressure in early trading on Wall Street yesterday after going over the precipice on Thursday on fresh evidence of slowing car sales and a warning that the credit ratings of both companies could be cut deeper into "junk" territory, making it even harder for them to borrow money. GM shares crashed 31% on Thursday to close at $4.76, their lowest in almost 60 years. Ford's stock fell 21% the same day.

The big three carmakers in the US, including Chrysler, have been losing market share for years, but a collapse of one would shatter American self-confidence.

GM, worth $52.4bn (£30bn) at its peak in 2000, has dropped below $2.7bn in market value - less than it was worth at the beginning of the Great Depression. Ford is valued at about $4.7bn.

In a statement before the market opened, GM said: "Clearly we face unprecedented challenges related to uncertainty in financial markets globally, and weakening economic fundamentals in many key markets. But bankruptcy protection is not an option GM is considering."

Barclays Capital added to the pressure on GM yesterday when their analyst Brian Johnson cut his target on the shares to $4. GM has $21bn in the bank but is burning through $1bn a month and Johnson said the company's need for cash was increasing. Last year, GM lost $38bn.

GM sales have fallen 17.8% in the US this year and are down 1.9% in Europe. But JD Power warned on Thursday that the picture was likely to worsen along with the broader economy. "The global market in 2009 may experience an outright collapse," the firm said.

GM is working to cut $10bn in costs and raise $5bn from the sale of assets such as the Hummer brand.

Critics have suggested the companies have been authors of their own downfall. The sclerotic US motor industry was still producing gas-guzzling four-wheel drives while Asian carmakers were producing smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles in tune with the market.

The US government has promised $25bn in loans to help the industry develop more fuel-efficient cars.

In Britain, GM employs almost 5,000 workers at two plants - Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, which produced 128,000 vehicles last year, and Luton, which last year made 66,000. Ellesmere Port has been scaling back - in 2005 it made 189,000.

Ford employs about 12,500 people at sites in Dagenham, Bridgend, Southampton and Dunton in Essex.

Workers have been put on a four-day week until the end of the year. A Ford spokesman said the four-day week seemed likely to be extended into 2009.

"We have to assess the market situation but the outlook isn't looking good," the spokesman said.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/11/generalmotors-ford/print

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝新聞剪貼：　有關冰島是世界上最快樂的國家＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Q:
So you’ve concluded that Icelanders actually are happier?

A:
Yes. Statistically, you have a good combination of capitalistic opportunities and a social safety net. You’re halfway between the U.S. and Europe, geographically, of course, but also in other ways. Culturally. You have the American can-do attitude and entrepreneurial spirit, which a lot of European countries lack, and you have the social safety net.

Not to say that those things cancel each other out, but we certainly don’t have the same amount of social safety we used to. The extremes are growing. Someone will take a chance and succeed, and that will move them further away from the general population…

Next thing you know they’re flying in Elton John to perform at their birthday! That’s a good point, that’s why I think happiness is a fluid thing and there is such a thing as geography of happiness, it’s geography and points in time. And Iceland, maybe you’re enjoying the success of five or ten years ago. People and nations tend to be their happiest when about to achieve something great, not when they’ve already achieved it. Afterwards, you feel a bit lost; you don’t know what to do next. Right before, that’s a good place to be, and maybe you’ve already passed that curve.



http://www.grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/The-Joy-of-Failing-Miserably-or-Why-Icelanders-Really-Are-Happy

這段話也很有意思。是另一位作者寫的。

Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/18/iceland

這是另一個Ranking，冰島排快樂第四。

On top of the world

* 1 Denmark
* 2 Switzerland
* 3 Austria
* 4 Iceland
* 5 Bahamas
* 6 Finland
* 7 Sweden
* 8 Bhutan
* 9 Brunei
* 10 Canada

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-is-the-worlds-happiest-country--official-410075.html

===============新聞剪貼：　蘇俄財援冰島，動機令西方國家懷疑＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝