General Motors’ sales drop 11 percent
Toyota is the new King of Cars after overtaking GM as the world's top auto seller.
Too bad a payday loan can’t help GM, who was the world’s highest-selling automaker for 80 years. Yes, I said was. GM’s sales dropped nearly 11 percent in 2008, and it sold 610,00 fewer automobiles than the new King of Cars: Toyota.
While the headlines are making a big deal about the shift in “title,” the auto makers themselves appear pretty nonchalant about it. In this article from CNNMoney the heads of both companies say that being the top auto seller in the world is not a priority.
A floundering industry
This shift in the industry comes at the same time American automakers GM and Chrysler are haggling with the government over the $17.4 billion bailout loan they received. The loan was made on the condition that the automakers would make strategic plans to cut costs and remain viable companies.
The automakers have four weeks to present their plans. The plans are due Feb. 17 and must include strategies for debt reduction and saving on labor costs. Sounds to me like more layoffs in the future. Auto workers might want to take out a payday loan and start looking for a new job.
Wage wars
The United Auto Workers union doesn’t think the Feb. 17 deadline is realistic. The union has not agreed to any wage cuts and says if any adjustments are to be made it will take lengthy negotiations.
Some representatives from the companies say that they don’t need the UAW to agree to wage cuts in order to meet the government’s requests. Some say they have already done enough to save on labor.
eBay runs into trouble
GM isn’t the only big-name company that suffered big sales losses last year. In the fourth quarter of 2008, online auctioneer eBay posted a whopping 31 percent drop in income. This has caused the company’s shares to plummet as well.
The story of eBay matches that of many other American companies. People are spending less and buying less, so in the case of eBay, not only are people making fewer purchases, they are spending less per purchase.
More bad news
Intel is also facing big problems. The company is shutting down three facilities in Asia and slowing down production at two facilities in the U.S. The cuts will affect 5,000 to 6,000 workers.
Intel is a computer chip manufacturing company, and they say the production cuts are due to decreased demand.
Playing chicken
One industry that is seeing a demand that actually exceeds its supply is the poultry industry. Since a large Texas poultry ranch went bankrupt, the supply of chicken wings has decreased. Meanwhile, the demand for chicken wings, commonly used as buffalo wings or hot wings in casual dining establishments, has gone up.
Much of this increase in demand can actually be tied to the pizza industry. As pizza places across the country have started to offer more dishes to attract more customers, many have started offering chicken wings as a side dish. The spicy wings have commonly been an inexpensive dish, drawing many customers. However, as poultry farmers raise prices for their product, restaurants are faced with the decision to raise prices, which will cause fewer sales.
Your payday loan source keeps you updated on the economy.
It’s hard to feel sorry for the automakers, but with that said I definately don’t want to see any of the 3 big american auto makers disappear.
It seems whatever industry you turn to look at the effect of the down turn of the economy has effected them to, I mean more than likely that chicken factory went bankrupt because of something with the recession. These are hard times for everyone hopefully soon it will be over and GMC will be on top again like they have been for so many years. This will all take time and soon people will start purchases items again, it just takes time.
First of all, these auto making companies should already have a plan sketched out. How do they expect to receive government investment without providing clarification on how they intend to use the money in a professional, proficient way to boost the economy? Second of all, there were probably problems in the beginning that many of their corporate executives failed to acknowledge in the first place. Therefore, with the help of the current economic crisis, the areas in which they failed to repair are finally erupting towards the surface.
Whoa, who next!