GM to build hybrid cars in China

SHANGHAI - US auto giant General Motors announced a plan to build environmentally-friendly hybrid cars in China by 2008, while it paraded its latest hydrogen-powered vehicle before Chinese officials.

The hybrid would go into mass production at the Shanghai GM plant, a joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, the company said in a press release.

"The GM Hybrid System is flexible and cost effective and is ideal for high volume global applications, which include its introduction in China in 2008," said Martin Murray, head of GM's Asia Pacific hybrid engineering.

GM never offered the EV1 for public sale. It was only available to consumers under a lease program that had "no purchase" clause disallowing the vehicle's re-purchase at the conclusion of the lease

It has recently been theorized by the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? that the EV1 program was eliminated because it threatened the oil industry and because it required virtually no maintenance and therefore threatened GM's profitability by undermining the replacement parts aftermarket as well as the company's strategy of planned obsolescence. GM responded to the film's claims, before actually having seen the movie, laying out several reasons why the EV1 was not commercially viable at the time.^[27]

^{http://www.sonyclassics.com...}

 Saw this American made movie on TV while overseas a couple of years ago, Don`t think it ever made it into the American media for some reason, especially in California where it was made, this will tell you who profits.......

http://www.sonyclassics.com...

 The big oil companies win. What a shock. Here is

that ran a few years back in the LA Times that details concisely what happens in California with gasoline. It is still true today that gas station operators make only pennies on the gallon.

Planned obsolence should be a criminal offense, sort of like littering but multipled by 100,000,000.

 Pre-Planned Obsolescence=>Blue Ray vs High Def

Beta vs VHS

Chico, those platforms failed because they wouldn't allow pornography.  Beta is way better and is still used by pros.

Hey, I can post charts too!  http://seekingalpha.com/art...

Some economists and economic analysts estimate that $50 or more of a $100 barrel of oil is the result of artificially inflated cost due to speculative commodities futures trading.

The same is true of the the cost of many other essential commodities such as certain foods and grains, etc., which are hotly traded during times of economic stress.

Often, contracts guaranteeing future delivery of essential commodities such as oil and energy are folded into internationally traded financial instruments called derivatives which also contain things like like sub prime loan paper and other "investment" assets. Multi trillions of dollars worth of this nebulous, hocus pocus paper are the underpinnings of global economy.

If it turns out that individual components of these instruments are practically valueless like the sub prime mortgage paper or the price of given commodities plunged following an artificial run-up of prices, the entire global economy is threatened.

It is quite possible that the value of oil, for example, could in the long term fall to realistically lower levels in the next several years as new exploration increases and large existing petroleum reserves are tapped.

In the short term, oil could drop, if or when unbridled speculative futures trading is more closely controlled.

Unchecked profiteering by futures trading of essential commodities is a capitalistic flaw that needs much more regulation and diligent oversight.

Hopefully, oil companies will use the record billions in profits they are now enjoying to finance new exploration and development of new extraction methods while we await development of renewable energy sources to ease domestic demand for petroleum.

Meanwhile, we have little choice but to bite the proverbial bullet until the unregulated market does what markets traditionally do - fall after a steep rise - and induce better legislation of the hordes of midde-man profiteers who drive markets up with uncontrolled speculation while producing nothing nor contributing anything of value to society.

 Good job!

Note who makes almost as much profit as the oil co.

The Oil Co. who finds, produces, transports, refines, transports, distributes..................

The Govt

Who does......................

 Chico, those platforms failed because they wouldn't allow pornography.  Beta is way better and is still used by pros.

Always thought Beta better format myself

Hated to throw that big ol' sucker out!

Sat on top of TV for a long time!

My that porno bunch are powerful! Money talks I guess!

 Some economists and economic analysts estimate that $50 or more of a $100 barrel of oil is the result of artificially inflated cost due to speculative commodities futures trading.

Adam, Noone, and I were discussing this on another blog. The original idea of commodity futures is good. Helps producers and others directly involved in commodity hedge prices. But speculators with no direct nexus in any way to the product have defeated the purpose IMHO........

 For one thing, Chico, the government launches trillion dollar wars in the Middle East to make the world safe for drilling.

 Chico, I once heard it described this way by a web developer: Porn is a weak test of whether a system is working.  It's the equivelant of tapping a mic and saying "Is this thing on?".

Another friend who works in the gaming industry using the term "Time to d***", measuring the accessability of a system by gauging the amount of time from when a system goes live to the time someone posts a picture of male genitalia.

But back to the main point, video rental shops didn't want to carry both formats and since porn was only available on VHS, that's what they went with since that's such a huge market.

 No problem with that Tom (spending billions even trillions to drill). Trouble is we are not tough enough.

I used to craft production agreements with other govts.

After our geologists, geophysicists, engineers, etc. found and brought product on-line.

Then we'd let em expatriate us (nationalize the fields)

We shoulda been tougher

Used to irritate me greatly!

 And I figured porn would be  "the decider"  this time too!

 So that's what the government does for the tax dollars.  Heck, the taxes the oil companies pay don't begin to cover the costs to the government (which is actually taxpayers like us).  If the inflated numbers from the graph I found are correct, it would cover about 20 weeks of the war.  Your number (which seems way out of line) would cover almost a year of direct costs.

 All Hail Exxon

I can't believe Investors Business Daily would do so little checking of an editorial on Tuesday slamming the critics of ExxonMobil.

The editorial, "Record Profits Mean Record Taxes," is based in large part on a blog post by Mark Perry, an economics professor at the Flint, Mich., satellite campus of the University of Michigan and, more revealingly, an adjunct scholar at the hard-right, free-marketeer Mackinac Center for Public Policy.The Perry blog post is also making the rounds of free-marketeer web sites with its argument that Exxon pays so much tax that we must offer gratitude instead of criticizing its record $40.6 billion profit in 2007, or its $39.1 billion in 2006 profit.

Perry notes from Exxon's year-end unaudited figures that it paid, or expected to pay, $30 billion in taxes worldwide to all governments at all levels for 2007, on pre-tax profit of $70.6 billion, which would be a 42% tax rate. That's 42%, of course, after the accountants have deducted or excluded or stashed overseas every possible cent. The $30 billion in taxes can also be viewed as about 7% of Exxon's total revenue, $405 billion.

Over the last three years, Exxon has spent an average of at least $25 billion a year on buying back its own stock instead of investing in growth or modernization. The buybacks are a corporate piggybank with little or no economic use except for keeping the stock price high. It doesn't even boost dividends.

Exxon's daily cash on hand in 2007 averaged $33 billion. Yet it continues to resist paying $2.5 billion in punitive damages to Alaskans permanently harmed by the negligent Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989. Imagine what Exxon's lawyers are being paid, year after year, on this case.

http://www.huffingtonpost.c...

" For one thing, Chico, the government launches trillion dollar wars in the Middle East to make the world safe for drilling."

Tom is on the case....

My no. inludes all the taxes Exxon paid all the way up and down the veritcally integrated line (corp income, sales, ad val, excise, DOE, Property, Spec Distr, SMUD's, ORRI taxes, schools, dividends, etc. Yours represents direct product taxation inn all its forms only.

 Maggiepoo....two thumps up...I have seen the movie on a Political Cable show, but a movie most Americans dont know about and should see.

 The American media is doing a great injustice to the American people... the old saying is

" the people outside a burning building have a much better view than the people inside "

 So, Chico, you use the tax numbers all the way up and down including taxes paid directly by consumers but only the after tax profits on final earnings?  Also, are these cash taxes or book taxes?  How much of this tax burden is actually paid and not offset?  How much of these taxes are paid to the US and how much is paid to other governments?

I'm too lazy to double check this, but I believe Enron was the largest contributor to GHW Bush (Sr.) 1988 campaign, and Exxon was number two. Or maybe it was GWB's 2000 campaign...either way, I'm not surprised in the inaction of this administration in regards to this. Consider: two oil company EXECUTIVES (one of them a CEO of a major oil supply services firm) get elected to the Presidency and Vice Presidency and then, through various ways, the price of oil goes through the roof.

I read elsewhere that Halliburton was moving its headquarters to Dubai? Please, take Dick Cheney with you. I'm sure the Mideast would love to have him.

Chico, one last comment on futures: I know we don't like the speculators in the commodities markets, but the futures market would not work without speculators. Without the specs--someone willing to assume some of the risk in terms of which way prices might go--you wouldn't have a futures market. And that would be strictly a cash market.

When we curse the specs it's because they were right and we were wrong. We don't mind taking money from the specs, which asyou noted have been recently overrun with huge managed funds who can throw unbelievable amounts of money at the markets, but those in the trade don't want money to have to flow to the specs. And the big problem with the recent spec funds is they are so big, they even dwarf the trade in many commodities, though oil tends to be one of those that's a tad insulated. Options are another issue that have really complicated things.

Believe me, and you know this as well, oil companies don't mind selling contracts when prices are high. They just hope it comes back down...

 Cheney has bought a mansion in Dubai.

The "market" shouldn't exist in the first place. All "markets" are open and subject to manipulation. In this case, mostly OPEC. It's artifically up when it's up, artificially down when it's down, and so on. It's easier to control this way. All the people in the game are holding the same cards.

The corporations don't profit from the Government, they are the Government, and have been since long before Bush or Cheney even existed. The wars for oil total well over whichever number you want to use about taxes paid, and they're called investments. With numerous contributing investors. And the dividends pay big. They always have an inside man.

 Nooneisabovethelaw: Let me fill in your answers on what Bush got in 2000 and 2004 election:

Oil and Gas Industry: 1,9 Million Dollars and Gore got 140,000. Clearly, you can see where the Oil Industry was betting their money for the best return.

And since George did such a great job for the oil industry in his first term as President, they awarded him another $2,6 million dollars for his second term re-election.

Not bad investment when you think, that since 2002 the oil industry have made 285 BILLION dollars profit, pre-tax and 190 BILLION after tax.

AND, the oil industry is at it again.....though the Presidential Nominee for 2008 on the democratic side is still in question, they have already spend a total combined $2.8 Million in contribution, mostly on possible Republican Candidate, about 30% on Dem and 70% on Republic.

Kind of funny, but Obama as a Senator in 2006 received only $250.00...yes, Two hundred and FIFTY dollars. This year as a possible President he has now received $213,000 from the oil industry.

McCain has received $394,000 and Clinton $313,000. The biggest receiver was Giuliani with $658,000....but he is out so they need to do some re-investment

My source is Opensecret.org

 Oil & Gas