Auto Execs Fly Corporate Jets to D.C., Tin Cups in Hand

[AGDee]

You're right, Pika. It should have happened in the late 70's. I'm actually quite impressed with the efforts that Granholm is making here. She has been working very hard to recruit some new industries, especially on the "green" front. There is a company that makes wind turbines that is starting up here and one that makes the batteries for hybrids, and another that makes solar panels. That's the big push here right now, along with the Life Sciences Corridor. On the the plus side, my department is benefiting much from the sitmulus package as there are lots of funds for research and great opportunities for our primary investigators.

[UGAalum94]

I saw a Michigan tourism ad last night. I don't remember ever seeing one before.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I saw a Michigan tourism ad last night. I don't remember ever seeing one before.

All we get here are the California tourism ads, which have gotten slightly annoying.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I saw a Michigan tourism ad last night. I don't remember ever seeing one before.

I see them pretty often but I'm closer to Michigan. We also see Wyoming, Iowa, Wisconsin, Aruba, and California pretty regularly.

I will give Michigan this - I loved the Four Winds Casino. Maybe Dee or PM_Mama can answer this question - is that on a reservation?

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I saw a Michigan tourism ad last night. I don't remember ever seeing one before.

I was watching the Travel Channel this weekend (Man vs Food marathon), and saw many Michigan tourism spots. Nice ads! We get California, of course, plus Alaska, Montana and Texas.

[AGDee]

The Michigan tourism ads you're seeing are part of the Governor's plan to generate some business here. After all, if none of us are working, we can't eat in the restaurants, etc. But, y'all can come here and enjoy it!

agzg: I know it's run by the Native Americans and I'm pretty sure all of their casinos are actually on the reservations land.

[AGDee]

So, Chrysler filed Chapter 11 today. Their plants shut down tonight because parts suppliers are refusing to deliver parts. The employees were told earlier in the day that the plants would all close on Monday but were then sent home at 9 pm today. My co-worker, whose husband is a white collar worker, talked to him during the work day but he didn't want to tell her what was going on with them over the phone. A very strange day in Motown. Many are just waiting to see "What now?" because it's all so unclear. I guess in June it will be GM.

[AGDee]

Chrysler has filed, has been purchased by Fiat and some plants will start to re-open by the end of the month.

GM has filed. It looks like they've sold Saab. It looks like Saturn is being purchased by Roger Penske. I'm waiting to hear who's honoring my warranty.. GM or Saturn. No word on Pontiac or Hummer yet.

Michigan's unemployment rate has hit 14.1% with estimates that it will reach 20% before we've hit bottom.

My ex-husband is a financial analyst in the steel industry. They have not sold any steel in two months because of Chrysler and GM plant shutdowns so they have implemented rolling layoffs. He will be laid off for one week each month until things get better. Therefore, he just took a 25% pay cut but he doesn't know for how long. I don't know if he'll qualify for unemployment for those weeks. It's better than losing your job completely, but I don't think those people will show up in the unemployment figures. Essentially, they are underemployed, not unemployed.

Visteon, a major Ford supplier has filed Chapter 11. They've been laying off people for months and have struggled since Ford spun them off years ago.

Foreclosures continue to rise at astronomical rates.

The irony? My own department is having a hard time hiring and retaining people. We've had 4 epidemiologists give their notice over the past two months. Why? Their husbands/fiancees have had to relocate to get jobs because they worked in the auto industry. Recruiting people to move to Michigan when their spouse/fiancee can't get a job here is nearly impossible. We had no external applicants for our department chair position. We have been trying to hire a biostatistician for a year and can't find one. New grads are leaving the state in droves.

Everybody around here is just trying to figure out where the bottom is. It appears that it won't hit until mid 2010 when all of the Chrysler/GM plants that are closing and the new buyers for these companies/parts of the companies have taken over and made their changes. We're all still holding our breath to see just how bad it's going to be and what happens next.

On the plus side, my home value has dropped so much that my property taxes are getting lower and lower. My ARM dropped another 2% for the next year. These changes in my mortgage payment will pay for one grad school class and eases my budget quite a bit. My personal financial situation is better than it's ever been. That is actually leaving me with a sense of guilt as I watch people all around me struggling to remain in their homes and keep their electricity on. I guess it's like survivor's guilt.

[UGAalum94]

Dee, if I worked in the health care field, I'm not sure I'd be super sanguine about the future although health care reform may be dropping in its relative priority for the administration.

I'm not trying to say, "just wait, you'll get yours," even if it's coming across that way. I'm just saying that there's no reason to feel guilt about your relative prosperity right now. Use what you can right now to set yourself up for better opportunities should new federal regulations come into play with potentially negative repercussions for your pay.

[AGDee]

Oh, I'm not! I'm not going around spending frivolously right now. However, I'm not exactly in health care, I'm in health care research. The stimulus package just dumped huge amounts of money into health research and we have grants coming in like crazy right now. Our overall health system is not doing as well, but research is thriving. We've had pay freezes, increased costs of benefits, loss of vacation days, etc. So those effects are felt, but my particular job is quite secure. I am still acutely aware too that my property values have dropped so much that my mortgage is upside down now. I can only hope that I can reverse that again by the time I need to sell it, which is several years away still.

[UGAalum94]

I'm glad to learn that your professional stuff is solid. I didn't think you'd spend frivolously by any means; I just didn't think you needed to feel as much guilt as you seemed to be feeling. But survivors' guilt is never rational anyway.

I almost asked about the mortgage in my previous message. ARM are great right now since they're going down, but it would be nice to have the option of refinancing to a fixed if rates start going up. Maybe the values will come up enough that you'll be able to do it when you need to.

I think being upside down might be almost normal for anyone who bought or refinanced in the last five years. And at least they've addressed the property value dropped for taxes quickly. That's an area where things are lagging a little in some parts of the Atlanta area. Most of our taxes are pretty low to start with compared to other areas of the country.

I hope medical research isn't affected by health care reform, but it's kind of hard to imagine that eventually at least the private research won't be. It just depends on the what the reform ends up being. If the government regulates what can be charged, it would seem to me that eventually that will affect the money available for research.

[AGDee]

My ARM is a reasonable, more standard one than some. It has caps on how much it can go up or down each year with a max. as well. So far, it's mostly gone down since I bought the house in 2001 and it will take quite a while for it to go too far up. Hopefully things will be a little better by then and I'll be relocating to Atlanta

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

My ARM is a reasonable, more standard one than some. It has caps on how much it can go up or down each year with a max. as well. So far, it's mostly gone down since I bought the house in 2001 and it will take quite a while for it to go too far up. Hopefully things will be a little better by then and I'll be relocating to Atlanta :)

Woo hoo! We'll roll out the red, buff and green carpet.