Ford had total after-tax profits for the five years from 1995 to 1999 of $29 bil, even excluding its $16 bil gain from spinning off The Associates.
And General Motors registered total after-tax profits for those same five years of $28 bil.
So it wasn't just the start of the Internet, but also the auto industry, which were major players in making the US economy so robust in its go-go years in the last half of the 1990's.
How times had changed by 2009. General Motors had a Core Pretax Loss of $24.5 bil, Chrysler a Loss of $8.1 bil, and Ford a Loss of $2.1 bil.
Enter the Obama Administration.
Despite opposition from nearly all Republicans in the US Congress, the Obama Administration took bold actions to revive the considered-for-dead US auto industry.
Objectively, how did they do? By any measure, a clearly miraculous rescue, which continued in 2011.
There are 28 US Motor Vehicle and Parts Corps with Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of more than $100 mil in any of the most recent three years. I am including both Delphi Automotive plc, a Jersey corporation, and Autoliv, a Swedish Corp, because they both have such substantial operations in the US.
These 28 Big US Motor Vehicle and Parts Corps registered a Total Pretax Loss of $36.4 bil in 2009. In 2010, these same 28 Corps generated Total Pretax Income of $20.7 bil. Yeah, that's an almost unbelievable $57.1 bil Profit turnaround in just one year.
So, how did they do in 2011? Just great.
In 2011, these same 28 Corps generated Total Pretax Income of $27.8 bil, an increase of a robust 34% over 2010.
How can a reasonable person vote for Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, who still boldly, stubbornly, close-mindedly, and even cockily states that the Obama Administration's rescue of the Auto Industy was a very bad idea?
I suggest that it wouldn't be good for the US to have as its President someone who is so out of touch with reality.
In deriving Pretax Income, I start with Pretax Income under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and then exclude several clearly unusual very large items relative to Pretax Income, such as Intangible Asset Impairments, Gains/Losses on Debt Retirements, and Reorganization Gains/Losses.
Below here is the Pretax Income (PTI) or Pretax Loss (PTL) of these 28 US Big Motor Vehicle and Parts Corps for each of the most recent three years.
| Obama | |||||
| Bump | |||||
| PTI | PTI | ||||
| 1 Year | 2 Year | ||||
| PTI(L) | PTI(L) | PTI(L) | % | % | |
| 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | Change | Change | |
| mils $s | mils $s | mils $s | |||
| Motor Vehicle and Parts | |||||
| Ford Motor | 8,681 | 7,993 | (2,067) | 9% | 520% |
| GM | 7,253 | 5,541 | (24,473) | 31% | 130% |
| Paccar | 1,507 | 660 | 109 | 128% | 1283% |
| Delphi Automotive | 1,506 | 944 | (1,129) | 60% | 233% |
| TRW Automotive | 1,188 | 1,041 | 140 | 14% | 749% |
| Chrysler | 932 | (513) | (8,095) | 282% | 112% |
| Autoliv | 828 | 806 | 6 | 3% | 13700% |
| Harley Davidson | 793 | 475 | 207 | 67% | 283% |
| Borg Warner | 766 | 478 | 18 | 60% | 4156% |
| GoodyearTire&Rubber | 618 | (65) | (357) | 1051% | 273% |
| Lear | 616 | 449 | (229) | 37% | 369% |
| Oshkosh | 417 | 1,212 | 12 | -66% | 3375% |
| WABCO Holdings | 405 | 223 | (28) | 82% | 1546% |
| Visteon | 371 | 318 | 169 | 17% | 120% |
| Navistar | 320 | 290 | 359 | 10% | -11% |
| Dana Holding | 296 | 35 | (298) | 746% | 199% |
| Tenneco | 271 | 132 | (41) | 105% | 761% |
| Gentex | 244 | 203 | 96 | 20% | 154% |
| Federal Mogul | 241 | 179 | (55) | 35% | 538% |
| Clarcor | 181 | 143 | 106 | 27% | 71% |
| Meritor | 159 | 76 | (52) | 109% | 406% |
| Nacco Industries | 157 | 116 | 19 | 35% | 726% |
| Thor Industries | 153 | 171 | 33 | -11% | 364% |
| American Axle | 138 | 119 | (297) | 16% | 146% |
| Cooper Tire | 134 | 160 | 116 | -16% | 16% |
| Accuride | (7) | (56) | (122) | 88% | 94% |
| Terex Corp | (83) | (238) | (524) | 65% | 84% |
| Tesla Motors | (254) | (154) | (56) | -65% | -354% |
| Total all 28 | 27,831 | 20,738 | (36,433) | 34% | 176% |
