General Motors signals improving financial situation with bigger investments

Tuesday's announcement by General Motors of more than a billion dollars in increased investment in its European operations could be a signal that the worst is over for U.S. automakers in the global economic slowdown. GM said it would pump the additional money into its ailing Opel operation in Germany and its Vauxhall subsidiary in Great Britain, according to the New York Times. The added investment more than triples the automaker's previously announced investment in the European brands, and appears designed to leverage promised subsidies from European governments. GM has asked for $2 billion in loan guarantees in addition to a $2.7 billion package of subsidies from Britain, France, Spain and other countries with Opel factories, the Times said. Those governments and unions in Europe had demanded that GM pay for 50 percent of the cost of restructuring its operations, the Times said. The United States government has paid billions of dollars to rescue General Motors, once the world's largest automaker and still the largest in the United States, and will own half of the legendary U.S. automaker when it emerges from bankruptcy reorganization. GM released a statement calling the increased investment “a vote of confidence in Opel/Vauxhall’s long-term business strength.” But the head of Opel/Vauxhall's European works council, Klaus Franz, said the new money meets the demands of the countries and unions in Europe. "They saw we were running out of cash and running out of time," Franz said. "I think they saw that there was no alternative if they wanted to get aid from European governments." British business minister Ian Lucas and Kurt Beck, premier of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, welcomed GM's announcement. "After a long period of uncertainty, it's high time to offer the Opel factories and employees reliable prospects for the future," Lucas and Beck said in a joint statement. GM's increased investment actually was signaled Monday by Nick Reilly, the president of GM Europe, who said in Geneva that GM believed it could not continue to be a global automaker without a major presence in Europe. Reilly said that was the explanation for GM's decision in November to back out of a deal to sell a majority of Opel to Magna International, a Canadian-Austrian auto parts company, and a Russian partner. Opel still plans to close a factory in Belgium and to cut 8,300 jobs in Europe, the Times said.

New power dispute in Kenya threatens shaky government

Word from Nairobi that Prime Minister Raila Odinga had called on former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan of Ghana to intervene in a disagreement that threatens to bring down Kenya's still-shaky coalition government. Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki are again caught up in a power struggle that demonstrates the fragility of the reluctant coalition Annan arranged in 2008 to settle weeks of ethnic violence following a disputed presidential election. The new crisis erupted after Kibaki overruled Odinga's decision to suspend two cabinet ministers -- one from each national party -- whose departments are caught up in a corruption scandal. Both Kibaki and Odinga claim they have the exclusive power to suspend ministers under Kenya's constitution. "The office of a minister can only become vacant if the president so directs," Kibaki said in a statement, according to Cable News Network (NCC). But Odinga said Monday that he had the power to oversee government officials. "The law is clear. On matters of discipline, suspension or interdiction of public officials including Cabinet ministers, the prime minister has exclusive authority," Odinga said in a statement. "Legally and constitutionally, neither the president nor the prime minister is superior to the other." Kibaki had already suspended several workers in the scandals, which involved billions of dollars in missing funds and supplies in the agriculture and education departments. But Odinga stepped in to suspend the ministers -- William Ruto and Samuel Ongari -- even though each has powerful tribal constituencies. That's when Kibaki stepped in to overrule his prime minister. The United States and Great Britain suspended education assistance to Kenya after auditors reported fraud in the government education program, CNN said.

She says she wants a revolution

Maybe it's the language itself that's to blame. In American English, there are many words that mean the same thing, or almost the same thing. And sometimes, the different shades of meaning are regional, because the United States is a very big country with hundreds of millions of people speaking slightly different dialects. Perhaps that explains former Alaska governor Sarah Palin telling Saturday's national Tea Party Convention that "America is ready for another revolution," according to Cable News Network (CNN). Palin, who achieved national prominence in 2008 as the Republican Party nominee for vice president but who became the butt of irreverent jokes for her lack of command of domestic and foreign policy issues, told the conservative group that they were right to be concerned about the Obama administration's approach to the economy and national security. "The Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda will leave us less secure, more in debt and under the thumb of big government," she said, referring to the president and the top Democratic Party leaders in Congress. "We are drowning in national debt and many of us have had enough." Of course, Palin did not mention the astonishing increase in the national debt during the eight-year Bush administration, nor the financial crash that happened under its regulatory watch. Republicans rarely do, particularly on the national stage. But the voters certainly knew as they booted the party out of the White House and elected a large majority of Democratic Party legislators 16 months ago. On international affairs, Palin was critical of Obama's policies -- perhaps a sneak peak at the Republicans' 2012 campaign strategy. She, of course, denied that she was politicizing national security, even though that is exactly what she did. "It's not politicizing our security to discuss our concerns because Americans deserve to know the truths about the threats that we face." But her call for "another revolution" was truly amazing. Does the woman whose greatest claim to knowledge of world affairs was that she could see Russia across the water know what the original American Revolution was about? Does she know that colonists from Great Britain revolted to stop England from continuing what they saw as years of over-taxation and disrespect? Does she know that the Obama administration has been in office for 16 months and has continued nearly all of the policies of the previous, Republican, administration? Does she realize that the U.S. system has enabled her to rise to political prominence? Does she understand that after her preposterous campaign, she was able to get a book published under her name that will probably relieve her of the need to work again in her life? Does she know what revolution means?

World's richest nations plan economic recovery

Maybe the worldwide recession actually is over. The world's eight richest nations ended two days of talks Saturday in Italy to plan for the expected worldwide economic recovery, according to the Reuters international news service. Or maybe the recession is about to be over for them. Meeting in Lecce, finance ministers of the world's eight richest nations began getting ready for the end of stimulus programs propping up their economies. "The force of the economic storm is receding," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said as the Group of Eight meeting concluded. "There are encouraging signs of stabilization across many economies." Ministers agreed that the stimulus programs would not be ending anytime soon, however, and also agreed to ask the International Monetary Fund to help them figure out the best way to bring the programs to a conclusion. But there appeared to be sharp disagreement on how to roll back stimulus spending plans and how to stress-test each country's banks, Reuters said. In fact, Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin called the meeting "stormy" since there were major arguments about what stage the crisis had reached. Conservative nations like Germany and Canada are pressuring other G8 nations to end stimulus programs to keep interest rates from rising too rapidly once the recovery takes hold. But Geithner said the United States would probably not be tightening monetary policy anytime soon. "It is too early to shift toward policy restraint," he told the ministers. Reuters said a G8 source who did not want to be named said the IMF report would likely be presented in October at the fund's annual meeting in Istanbul. Private sector economists do not expect tightening of fiscal and monetary policy before next year, Reuters said. The other G8 nations are Japan, Britain, France and Italy.

Dismantling of General Motors picks up speed

News from Detroit that General Motors Corp. had agreed to sell its Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group Inc. seems to be good news for 13,000 Saturn employees but not such good news for the largest U.S. automaker. The dismantling of bankrupt GM, which sought bankruptcy protection Monday, raises real doubts about whether the automotive giant will ever emerge as a viable company. GM has already agreed to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese company and its Saab subsidiary to a fellow Swedish automaker, Koenigsegg Automotive AG of Angelholm. GM and Penske plan to complete the sale of the brand and its 350 dealerships by this summer, according to the Reuters international news service. GM has said it plans to reorganize in bankruptcy court and return as a smaller company concentrating on its core brands, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac, Reuters said. Penske, which operates hundreds of car and truck dealerships and supply stores across the United States and Britain from its headquarters in Bloomfield, Mich., was one of more than a dozen bidders for Saturn, which was created by GM in 1984 and began selling cars in 1990. GM announced it would sell the Saturn brand in February. Under the agreement with Penske, GM will continue to build the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook as a Penske contractor, Reuters said.

Sacre bleu! France threatens to storm out of G20 summit

That France. Just when we thought Paris had returned wholeheartedly to the family of Western nations by resuming full membership in NATO, French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to walk out of the G20 economic summit in London if he didn't get the toughened financial regulation his country was seeking. "I want results. We have to get results, there's no choice -- the crisis is too serious to allow us to have a summit for nothing," Sarkozy said, according to the Reuters international news service. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde later echoed Sarkozy's remarks, saying Paris would not sign any accord it didn't like, despite Britain's call for unity. "(Sarkozy) was very clear on that front," Lagarde said. "He said if the deliverables are not there, I won't sign the communique -- that means walking away." But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the summit's host, said he had spoken personally with Sarkozy on Monday and they were looking forward to working together, Reuters said. Actually, it wasn't just France. The United States and Britain have been divided from other countries in continental Europe on the size of stimulus and regulation packages. European nations have been pushing for overhauls of world financial regulations over the objections of the U.S. and the British, which favor stimulus packages.