How’s the stimulus working out for Caterpillar?
You’ll remember President Obama’s aggressive lobbying for the porkulus package at a Caterpillar plant in February. Obama grandly promised that if the stimulus passed, Caterpillar would rehire laid-off workers — a claim that was refuted by Caterpillar’s CEO.
How’s it all working out for Caterpillar? Not so well:
Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, posted its first quarterly net loss in 16 years and said full-year profit and sales will trail its previous forecast amid a global recession.
The first-quarter net loss of $112 million, or 19 cents a share, compares with net income of $922 million, or $1.45, a year earlier, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement today. Revenue dropped 22 percent to $9.23 billion, and the company’s shares fell.
…Caterpillar predicted the U.S. recession in October 2007 and said today it expects the world economy to decline about 1.3 percent this year. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has cut more than 24,000 jobs since December and imposed shutdowns, partial workweeks and executive pay cuts to cope with the global credit crisis and longest U.S. slump in a quarter century. Caterpillar fell $1.78, or 5.8 percent, to $28.70 at 9:34 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares declined 32 percent this year before today.
Obama used the company to ram the porkulus package through Congress. Now, Caterpillar’s having buyer’s remorse:
Caterpillar Inc., the bulldozer manufacturer President Barack Obama used to help push his $787 billion stimulus plan, called the program disappointing and less effective than measures approved by China.
“The infrastructure portion of the stimulus package was disappointing in that it was less aggressive than other countries and missed an opportunity to correct past underinvestment in U.S. infrastructure,” Caterpillar said in economic commentary with today’s first-quarter earnings report.
Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens, 63, is a member of the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Obama visited the Peoria, Illinois, headquarters on Feb. 12, the final day of his campaign to press for Congressional passage. Caterpillar today reported its first net loss in 16 years as a global credit crunch and recession reduced demand from builders and miners.
“You can measure America’s bottom line by looking at Caterpillar’s bottom line,” Obama said during the February visit. “What’s happening at this company tells us a larger story about what’s happening in the American economy.”
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BHObama- He’s a walking disaster area laying waste to everything he touches or even mentions.
Wow, there’s a news flash. President Chauncey is an empty suit… Next thing you know he’ll be shaking hands with dictators, and signing bills that nobody has read.
Looks like Rep. Aaron Schock was right about Caterpillar and the stimulus, despite the pressure that Obama tried to put on him to change his vote.
Are we talking about those carnivorous caterpillars we sic on the Gitmo detainees? I found that very stimulating.
But the first-quarter net loss of $112 million? He Who We Have Been Waiting For isn’t doing too good yet, is he? But to be fair he DID say these projects where SHOVEL ready–nothing about heavy equipment. So let’s build a lot of things we do not need and let our children and grandchildren pay interest on it for years-bring you own shovel.
That is what is happening in America’s Economy. UN Day is October 24-get your Blue Helmet ready for the parade-comrade.
I don’t know if it’s more like ‘Being There’ or ‘Flowers for Algernon’.
Either way, it’s an experiment gone awry!
Instead of the Midas touch, everything Obama and his cohorts touch turns to “you know what.” When will they ever learn that capitalism works best without government interference?
They got what they voted for…hope (less change).
You’d think that Caterpillar would be selling a lot of equipment to shovel all the shiite that this administration is producing.
as well as TARP is working for the nation
Reporting on the Catepillar experience from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, Time, Newsweek, WAPO, LA Times, in 7,6,5,4,…..
Someone needs to Photoshop the above photo to place some egg prominently on The One’s face.
Nope. Caterpiller could never keep up with this administration’s current and increasing production of bs. It would be way too overwhelming for caterpiller even if it expanded 10 fold and cranked out equipment 28 hours a day 8 days a week.
The stimulus hasn’t taken effect yet, partly because of Republican delays. It’s too soon to know what the effect will be.
Gee. Porkulus was a major F-up. Bet nobody saw that coming.
But you can rest easy, the government is now buying pens in bulk, so the future is safe.
In all 57 (or is it 58) states?
*dusts off old chestnut* “Q. How can you tell when a politician is lying? A. His lips are moving.”
Just as central government policy both…
deepened and prolonged the GREAT DEPRESSION…
so it will only inevitably…
DEEPEN AND PROLONG THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS…
perhaps to the point of destroying our economy, and…
exposing us to successful attack by our MANY known enemies.
When will we stop this?
STARVE THE BEAST.
Ohhh, c’mon FLYOVERMAN, get your head out… I read all about this in ALL those RAGS, and saw it reported on all those TV NEWS CHANNELS… I remember it was on, let me see, oh yeah, FEBRUARY 30th of this year!!! All kidding aside, I saw reports on the REHIRE MYTH within a few days of O-BOZO showing up at CATERPILLAR… One of the BUSINESS shows had the HONCHO on, and he stated the company had no plans to RE-HIRE ANYONE at the present time…
No it isn’t, as per corona’s link, above.
Do you care to compare your prediction with Jim Owens’?
Will no one stand up to this sock puppet Marxist and his comrades in Congress? Anyone? Do we have to hire that man with the shopping bag who faced down the column of ChiCom main battle tanks in Tienanmen Square? Remember him? Is there no one with any guts left in the Republican Party?
WTF???
As someone who owns CAT stock and never even considered selling it, I can vouch for CEO Owens as a man whose opinions on the economy can be believed. His pointing out that the stimulus bill, for which he was asked to support on the basis of much-needed infrastructure spending, was “light on infrastructure spending” should have been a major red flag.
It’s not just Obama, it’s the entire one-party government that is at war against the American taxpaying voter.
“He” has to be you and me.
We have to stand up, or sit down and shut up…choking on our own hypocrisy.
Not if GOP leadership can help it - “Don’t rock the boat, we LOVE the table scraps the Dems throw at us after they kick us.” are words they live by. They’d just hate to miss out on DC dinner parties and other social events if they made the Dems mad at them.
And the way to EFFECTIVELY fight that is to
STARVE THE BEAST. Refuse, non-violently, to be eaten.
what delays? post your proof.
Well, 58 if you count the Northern Marianas, with all those potential voters and all : )
Where are the real economists and other scholars who could easily expose this Obama brand of Marxist voodoo economics as an utterly dim-witted fraud? This is astonishing. These economic “strategies” are among the most logically, intellectually vacant in the history of modern civilization. I don’t know, maybe they and the Republican “leaders” are biding their time before they launch a political counter offensive but I’m not holding my breath.
You know, when the Republicans left it sitting on their desks for the long weekend while they went to play basketball.
Well, it looks like Juan McShamnesty is in for a dogfight in his re-election bid.
His defeat will go a long way in restoring the GOP. He should simply announce that he is not running for re-election.
If I remember right, congress signed it on the 13th of February…but Obama didn’t SIGN it until the 17th…4 WHOLE DAYS…of agony for the ameriKKKan people waiting to be SAVED by their new bi-racial messiah!!!
I bet ACORN almost went bankrupt!!
A group of economists, including several Nobel Laureates, bought and paid for a full-page broad-side in the NY Times before the Porkulus was passed.
THE ONE knew better than they.
THAT’s why nobody saw it – it was published in the Slimes. Nobody reads the fishwrap of record any more, except people like lgm.
What? and give up all that lovin’ he gets from the Dems and the MSM for sticking it to his own party?
On April 21st, 2009 at 12:14 pm, lgm said:
Right, let’s not extrapolate from past collectivist history to try and forecast what will happen.
This time it will allllllll be different.
The really bad thing – is that Caterpillar is a leading indicator of future (1-5.years) massive economic growth or recovery.
Caterpillar is the company that builds the GIANT dumptrucks for mining, the GIANT bulldozers for moving earth, the GIANT cranes for lifting things, the GIANT equipment for infrastructure maintenance.
That means as the Commercial Real Estate market implodes, there is not going to be a need to build big buildings. That means as Cap&Trade type policies are implemented there is not going to be a need to build power plants or dig mines.
When the CEO of Caterpillar is saying that they will NOT be rehiring workers, that means our country is screwed for a long time out. Commercial business parks are going to be vast ghost towns like Silicon Valley was in 2001-2004.
They weren’t kidding about only shovel-ready projects being the only ones ready to go…
Chauncey has already dissed the economists. Remember his “there are economists on both sides” comment?
Which is why he’s being prudent and going 100% socialist… what a complete fool.
Didnt someone call that Nobamanomics
Ragspierre has it right. He’s basically speaking of a real people’s revolution, not one based in the current corrupted, poisoned political construct. We currently are living in a one-party system with a sprinkling of tepid dissent. Government schools (indoctrination centers), and a compliant media have made this possible.
Without serious structural change via the Constitution, one limiting the ability of the Federal Government to sieze more power and control, America will fall into a fatal death spiral. Build a Constitutional sandbox to contain the statists or it will just get worse and worse until no recovery is possible.
Ragspierre: It is becomming increasingly clear that you are an RNC plant. McCain lost. Get over it.
RedDog: You are missing Raggy’s tactics. He is constantly speaking in terms of doom and gloom in regards to all of the tactics we are currently employing and that are proving effective. He trying to derail all of these conversations into staging a tax strike where millions of people refuse to pay taxes but he can’t because, being a trial attorney defending people who haven’t paid their taxes for years, he would be targeted as a lightning rod.
Do you see a problem with that? Let’s stick to what’s working and save tilting at windmills for another day.
Please, TRY not to be a dope.
Check my posts. I don’t consider myself a Republican, and haven’t for years…decades, in fact.
I was…am still…one of the most bitter critics of McAnus.
I consider him one of the worst enemies of the Constitution in this generation.
I am SO out of the box…you can’t even get what I’m saying.
You write posts here that are completely inconsistent, and you have to know it.
You seem to think a TEA Party is a great demonstration of power. That’s a delusion. It IS a great demonstration of discontent, but that has to be CONVERTED to power.
I’ve been consistent in everything I’ve said here…to the extent that is humanly possible.
What I’m calling for is a revolt. I don’t believe any longer that electing even good people CAN work to change things. It’s been done…for decades.
How’s it working for you…?!?!?!?
I maintain that is insanity…and worse, hypocrisy, given some of your insights as to the state of things in our nation.
We can bloviate here, and grouse and grip, but that is worse than useless.
We have to…if we are true to ourselves…DO SOMETHING EFFECTIVE.
The restoration of our Republic will NEVER be brought about by Republicans. In fact, if the country is restored to the Founding Fathers’ ideals, it will be IN SPITE of Republicans.
That is a lie.
What I DID say is that I would never ask someone to go where I will not.
As an officer of the Court, I will be the first to be targeted, if anyone is.
That is my burden to bear, and I have decided it is a small cost to pay to fight to vindicate what I know is right.
I chose to fight, and I chose to fight EFFECTIVELY…and not piss away an opportunity to oppose what we agree is wrong.
I agree with you Rag in theory. But wouldn’t it take several hundred thousands if not millions of us to be effective? Most of us can’t agree on what to have for lunch.
So true. Or at least the current Rep. party.
The answer is obvious…
We need more stimulus dollars spent in wilder and more irresponsible ways at a speed faster than the mints can produce. We must ensure that all businesses and revenue sources are beholden to the D.C. governmnent.
General business theories and accounting practices need not be applied. There is enough wealth available so that all people of the world will be exceptional or, at least, above average in income and net worth.
sarc off/…kinda…not really
Is it time for the 2010 midterm elections yet? Please say “Yes!”
Gonna be a long four years.
No, I don’t think it would take more than several thousands, and here is why…
The system can only deal with a given number of people, and due process demands certain procedures that cannot be denied.
At the same time as the system is clogged by this revolt, the government’s political side would see that it was being bled of its life’s blood…money.
Nobody is facing down a tank in this process. The IRS has successfully put the hoo-doo on all of us, and we regard it as more powerful, and more capable than it is. The risks to any one person are known quantities, and criminal penalties are not really probable.
Additionally, and this is important, this is not a quixotic or vacant notion. It does not suppose that no organized, intelligent groundwork is laid. On the contrary, a legal team would be a requirement. A support team, to assuage the hurt of anyone targeted, would be mandatory. A public relations team would be required.
This is not some effort to avoid taxation.
This is an in-their-face, straight up, very public declaration of civil disobedience.
I have tried to go everywhere in my thinking on this. I have a certain capacity for analytical thought.
But part of my purpose in raising this concept here is to enlist critical thinkers to test my own analysis.
I need people who will give this a place in their thinking. I don’t ask anyone to swallow what I say uncritically…but I do expect people to think.
Think with me.
I face losing my profession. If somebody can convince me they have an effective tool that would not cost so much, I’d be tickled to death to know about it.
But, all of my experience, all of my study, all of what I know tells me that I am not wrong.
And all of what I see tells me we are reaching a critical time…a decision point. We cannot massage events to avoid it. We are either going to respond, or we are going to watch events spin to a point were we are faced with greater costs.
haha, lgm posted another comment! haha! What a laugh riot! Everything he says produces the biggest laughs of my day! haha!
Breaking News: April 21, 2012.
“The stimulus hasn’t taken effect yet, partly because of Republican delays. It’s too soon to know what the effect will be”.
See, sometimes he tells the truth…it’s just not what he meant…
Not possible. Dimocrat libtards control congress and they shoved this bill through without even reading it. What delay are you delusional about?
Perhaps the effects of the stimulus will be similar to the effects of the bailouts.
But you know who will get the credit if the market somehow manages to slog through government bureaucracy and corrects itself.
It seems the more people try to point out how smart BHO is the more he proves them wrong.
*Good mottos for 2010 and 2012:
“If you voted for the bailout, then it’s time to get the hell out”
“If you voted for the stimulus, then you’re gonna feel the pain from us”
*We just need viable alternative candidates(and support them) and then we can target the undesirables for removal.
*Simcox vs McCain is a prime example!
Cat is opening a plant in North Little Rock to manufacture road graders. They already have the building. Already in the process of renovating the building to their needs. It’s an expected investment of 140 million.
But one has to wonder what the ultimate outcome will be considering this latest news from Cat.
This is the one I will used for the next one.
Errah, Catapillar needs to retool and create a light more efficient bulldozer possibly with hybrid technology that has a smaller carbon footprint.
(Sarc Off)Dopes . . . .
Personally, I have no sympathy for Caterpillar or ANY worker who supported Hussein and lost his job because of it. Neither should you.
If that worker voted for him based on the hopes of getting something from it, like that big fat goose egg of a terrible bill, then he deserved to lose his job.
If that worker voted for him based of political principles, I’d say it’s time to re-examine his principles and educate himself on how the DNC really works.
Errah Are these the types of catapillars that the CIA was puting on Gitmo detainees like KSM? If so I should invest!
Errah, Not ot change the subject, but where’s Biden Time been hiding the past week or so. I think they keep him holdup at St E’s with a muzzle on unless BHO is out of the country apologizing for something or another and the remaining left behind Lame Stream Media needs to be distracted. The Chavez book still hasn’t passed Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny yet so there may be hope yet for America.
you are kidding, right?
Caterpillar is doing so well that they are going to be laying off even more employees at their Clayton, NC plant, and, from rumors I have heard, at other locations in the Raleigh area.
RAGS, the masses take a long time and a lot of pain to break the cycle of continuity. read the history of the 1850′s and the acrimony expressed in the news papers of the times. the north and south were continually arguing, because agrarian economies, (the south) required low cost “slave” labor. seems i hear that today from farmers still. meanwhile manufacturing economies (the northeast) demanded low cost goods, and also a ban on slavery. the catalyst for the war occured in the midwest between missouri and kansas.
True. Usually.
But we are in a time of tipping points…not one or two, but many.
The TEA Parties are not worthless, and I have not said that. They are powerful indicators of readiness to do something.
Thus far, however, they are unfocused expressions of “fear and loathing”…not necessarily in that order.
What I suggest is that we begin to make them focused, effective swells of popular revolt against the status quo.
I know that MANY Americans are cowed by the IRS. That has been a concerted design of our government for many decades. We have a job of education to do.
No mention of this in the MSM. Wonder why? Maybe because “it is their job to make sure this is a successful presidency”?
Everything King Mudus touches turns to $hit.
Agree. As much as this administration tries to come across as “hip”, they repeatedly exhibit a knack for being tone deaf.
Caterpillar manufactures long-lived equipment and operates in a cyclical industry, and the cycles are protracted.
In bad times there is an incentive to maintain and repair equipment, not to buy it, and since the cycles are long, no stimulus will make a significant impact in the near-term.
The pres is like a high school kid who thinks he knows everything and has the world by the jewels, but does not.
Just an educated guess, based on the past history of the Carter administration, but most likely a Dow far below 6200 and unemployment >10 percent by the fourth quarter, resulting in a Republican sweep in 2010 & 2012.