Attention douchebags: Your favorite over-sized wanker-mobile, the Hummer, is no more. Along with Saab, Saturn, the Dodge Durango and the PT Cruiser, the Hummer is set to land on Detroit’s chopping block.

In addition to those cuts, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler 300C and Dodge Charger are all scheduled for redesigns, which includes some plans for increased fuel efficiency. Chrysler also has plans for a smaller sedan, the 200C as well as plans to begin selling and manufacturing some models of Fiat, a popular European car company that now owns a 35-percent equity stake in the American company. (more…)

I have an economics professor that is such a hippie-liberal-douche, it pains me to hear him speak. Every now and then, though, he says something completely uncharacteristic that I agree with. Being that it is my 8am class on Tu/Th, it leaves me with the rest of the day to ponder.

We give the Detroit Big 3 a ton of crap for being slow in transitioning to fuel efficient and alternative fuel automobiles. They still make trucks and SUVs like they did in the prime of the 90’s waste, F-THAT! Good luck with your losses…right? After some poking around after class, I ran across a fun stat – the same Big 3 spends $25B a quarter or over $8B a MONTH in pension benefits.

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While we were all watching our parents cry over their lost retirement accounts and House Republicans decided not the bail out the rich – I was expecting stigmata or the seas to turn to blood. Instead, I found a little blurb on CNN that noted a $25B loan to the auto industry that was quietly approved with some MAJOR implications.

First, the background: the American automakers have been struggling with pensions and pay increases for union workers who have dedicated their lives to American cars. Unfortunately, the automakers themselves have the reflexes of a 90 year old Parkinson’s patient.

While the world is moving forward with hyper-efficient cars, American automakers have what’s called a ‘backlog.’ In essence, they can’t start building efficient cars until they finish all the gas-guzzling SUVs that they currently have cued for production. Over $4.5B in SUV parts are not even in production yet, but “have to be used” before the companies will move onto the basic planning stages of new vehicles. (more…)

General Motors revealed today, on its 100th anniversary, the 2010 Chevy Volt–the car that’s expected to ’save Detroit,’ where the American automakers have seen steep decline in sales with the rise in gasoline prices and more affordable, fuel efficient cars coming out of Japanese companies. Cool, you might think. Saving US automakers is a good thing. And we’re not trying to take a dump on your dreams, Detroit. But just one question: Why the hell does it have to look so F’ing stupid? (more…)

Poor Tom Brady is out for the season and now we learn that he has an ACL and MCL tear, which will take him about 9 months to get back to any kind of athletic position. Tears? Angst? Hold onto that for a moment. Tom Brady is not hard up for your sympathy just yet.

1. This one is easy. If I had 9 months of doting and BJ’s from Gisele Bundchen, I am not sure I would be fighting rehab too badly. Not a shabby recovery period at all…

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Let us begin in the beginning…

Freddie Mac’s full legal name is the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation and Fannie Mae is the Federal National Mortgage Association.

Fannie Mae was created in 1938, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, at a time when millions of families could not become homeowners, or risked losing their homes, for lack of a consistent supply of mortgage funds across America. The government established Fannie Mae in order to expand the flow of mortgage funds in all communities, at all times, under all economic conditions, and to help lower the costs to buy a home. In 1968, Fannie Mae was re-chartered by Congress as a shareholder-owned company, funded solely with private capital raised from investors on Wall Street and around the world. Freddie Mac was created in 1970 to support the same operations as Fannie Mae.

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