Kerkorian propping up GOP/Bush by doubling his GM shares?

Many of us believe that GM is in bad trouble, ala Enron accounting, and that part of the reason that Bush is so insistent on SS privatization is to keep these Brand name businesses propped up with SS dollars and from being outed for their accounting crimes against their pensioners and investors.

The real question this brings to my mind is: Kerkorian is 87 years old, is he doing this move to help BushInc and its fascist goal? The repeal of the estate tax sure made money expendable for alot of the uber-rich. Is this another way to pretend there is a glow to the Bush economy? Are the Republicans circling the wagons for 2006 to prevent a Dem takeover?

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=8390181

UPDATE 4-Billionaire Kerkorian bids for bigger GM stake
Wed May 4, 2005 03:11 PM ET
(Adds analyst comments, stock and bond prices, details throughout, background)

DETROIT, May 4 (Reuters) - Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian swooped on General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday, offering to more than double his stake to 8.8 percent in a move that raised investor confidence in America's industrial backbone and drove U.S. stocks broadly higher.

The unexpected announcement by Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp., which could pressure GM's management into speeding up a restructuring, sent the automaker's shares soaring almost 16 percent from their lowest levels in more than a decade. Shares in rival Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and U.S. auto parts companies also climbed.

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"Kerkorian is saying the world is not coming to an end at General Motors -- a stroke like this gives investors and the market a lot of confidence," said Craig Hodges, fund manager at Hodges Capital Management.

GM posted a $1.1 billion loss last month, its worst result since it skirted bankruptcy in 1992. The loss sent its shares into a tailspin to the lowest levels since that same year, after adjusting for the 2000 spinoff of Delphi Corp. (DPH.N: Quote, Profile, Research) .

GM continues to lose vital U.S. market share to foreign rivals and has been hit by spiraling costs for employee health care and raw materials to build vehicles, causing ratings agencies to warn they could downgrade the automaker's debt to "junk" status at any time.
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http://www.pww.org/archives97/97-11-22-2.html

How the GOP bought the 1996 elections

by Tim Wheeler

This article was reprinted from the November 22, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.


WASHINGTON - Republican Senator Fred Thompson staged months of hearings before his Government Operations Committee with sensational charges that White House officials, "Washington labor bosses," and Asian businessmen "bought" the 1996 elections. Then Thompson terminated the hearings.

But now a flood of documented evidence proves the opposite: That faced with a likely loss of majority Republican control of the House and Senate, the Republican National Committee (RNC) launched a frenzied last-ditch effort to preserve their control of Congress last fall. They secretly funneled millions of dollars through a network of right- wing outfits to "buy" a House and Senate friendly to Big Business, the ultra-right and the rich.

Much of the proof was unveiled in a remarkable Nov. 9 floor speech by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the Senate committee. He buttressed his charges with a thick file of confidential RNC documents which his office sent to the World. His disclosures were virtually ignored by the corporate media.
Most of the groups which served as conduits for the RNC blitz are tax exempt and therefore barred from electioneering activities. It includes the American Defense Institute (ADI), the National Right to Life Committee, the Christian Coalition, the California Civil Rights Initiative, and a shadowy outfit called Triad Management.

Levin released a memorandum marked "confidential" from RNC Finance Director, JoAnne Coe which exposes an operation awash in so-called "soft" corporate cash. The Oct. 17, 1996 memo is addressed to top Republican Party officials including RNC Chairman Haley Barbour. The subject is RNC money funneled to ADI, a tax exempt outfit whose president is retired U.S. Navy Captain Eugene B. "Red" McDaniel, a former POW. McDaniel's son, Michael, is now a top leader of "Promise Keepers" based in Denver, Colorado. In her memo, Coe wrote, "Today I have also sent $100,000 to National Right to Life and $100,000 to Americans for Tax Reform-- both from Carl Lindner." Lindner is the President of American Financial Corporation, Chief Executive of United Brands, and Chairman of the Penn Central Corporation. Her memo also refers to $500,000 "Haley obtained from Philip Morris," the Richmond-based tobacco conglomerate.

Also listed are checks in the amount of $100,000 from Enterprise Rent-a-Car mogul, Jack Taylor, longtime GOP donor, Max Fisher, $50,000 from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and $30,000 from Houston oil executive Patrick R. Rutherford.
She reports that a $100,000 check to ADI from billionaire corporate raider, Kirk Kerkorian, has been mislaid. Kerkorian is the owner of 52 million shares of Chrysler and the owner of MGM. She asks whether she should stop payment on his check and send a replacement so the "grand total to ADI is only $950,000."
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The most likely reason is not only to prop up his existing 22 million shares, but to increase his clout over current management, which is helping to run the company (and his investment) into the ground. It is rumored that he is in favor of closing some of the North American plant capacity to cut costs, which the GM board is resisting.

In the end, even this "bid of confidence" will not affect the price of GM shares over the longer haul. They must address the health care and pension problems as well as the tremendous lack of vision in their product line. The Hydrogen car idea is a fiasco. Plus they allowed Toyota and Honda to get a significant 7 year head start on hybrid power trains as did Ford and Chrysler for that matter. (Oh, and thanks George for the enlightened leadership on CAFE standards.)

I suspect that before all is said and done, GM will come out for nationalized health care as well as offloading the pension plan in some form on the US Gvt. Eventually large corporations are going to go into a battle royal over health care, with many large industrial companies favoring it and the big pharma and HMO lobbies coming out against it.

GM should be split up. It is getting its ass kicked.

when it looked like they were in trouble.

It's hard for me to believe he's moved more by responsible business practice than by emotion and personal cause at age 87. He IS an activist Republican, after all.

We all have theories.

I've been trading the market for 25 years. I'm not buying that this had anything to do with the GOP. It doesn't have the earmarks.

If that was true, he would get far more bang for his buck buying S&P contracts, a far more utilitarian device for a prop job. That is how the PPT works.

Let's see where GM is 6 months from now.

Thanks for the post blm.

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Probably plans a hostile takeover, raid the pensions funds and fuck all the employees.

The only thing he cares about is his bank account

Typical Republicans.

just like Enron did, and that is why BushInc is so adamant about getting the SS funds into so-called "solid" American companies like GM.

Fascist fockers.