Stock Preacher

General Motors Corp has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group in a deal that could preserve more than 350 dealerships and 13,000 jobs, the companies said on Friday. The deal for Saturn, which the companies hope to complete in the third quarter, would be the second sale of a brand announced by GM since it filed for bankruptcy on Monday in an effort to drop unprofitable lines and leave court protection as a leaner company. Penske, the No. 2 US auto dealership group, would acquire rights to the Saturn brand and other assets, while bankrupt GM would continue production of the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook on a contract basis if the transaction were completed, GM and Penske said. Terms were not disclosed. “This is a day that we have all been hoping would come together, since probably the end of November when GM made its first viability plan,” said Todd Ingersoll, a Saturn dealer from Connecticut and a member of the Saturn dealer steering group. GM created Saturn in 1984 to compete with Japanese vehicles in terms of quality and service and initiated no-haggle flat-price sales for its models. The Saturn brand has languished for the last decade, and GM said in February that it would either be spun off or shut.

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Last week, US President Barack Obama thanked everyone from unions to executives for working to keep Chrysler LLC alive while blaming “a small group of speculators” for forcing the automaker into bankruptcy. “A group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout,” Obama said yesterday in Washington before Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection last Friday. Now, the US government and Chrysler plan to use bankruptcy to compel the dissidents, all secured creditors, to go along with a plan to create a more viable carmaker in partnership with Italy’s Fiat SpA. In lashing out at the holdouts, Obama is attempting to rally the public behind his efforts to rescue the automaker, said Stuart Rothenberg, a Washington-based political analyst. “In the real world, you have good guys and bad guys, and at the moment, auto executives, hedge-fund managers and bankers are all in the bad-guy category,” said Rothenberg. “He wants to be the guy who’s solving the problems and wants to make it clear who’s causing the problems.”

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Your Financial Net Worth Statement

Your net worth is an indication of your total wealth. You can calculate your net worth with this basic equation: total assets less total liabilities equal net worth. The table will shows this equation in action with a net worth of $169090 a very respectable number. For many investors just being in a position where assets exceed liabilities is a great news Use the table below as a model to analyze your own financial situation. Your mission is to ensure that your net worth increase from year to year as you progress toward your financial goal.

Your Personal Net Worth

One reason you continue to work is probably so that you can pay off your bills. But many people today are losing their jobs because their company owes, too!

Debt is one of the biggest financial problem in America today. Companies and individual holding excessive debt contributed to the stock market’s massive decline in 2000 and the U.S. Recession in 2002. If individuals managed their personal liabilities more responsibly, the general economy would be much better off.

One reason of the United Stated appeared to be doing so well during the late 1990s was the fact that individuals and organizations went on an unprecedented spending binge, financial mostly by excessive debt. The economy looked unstoppable. However, sooner or later you have to pay the piper. Stock prices may go up and down, but debt stays up until it is either paid down or the debtor files of bankruptcy. As of the 4^th quarter of 2004. U.S debt has surpassed a mind-boggling $37 trillion, which means that consumers, businesses, and government will continue dealing with challenging time through this decade.

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