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"The trend continued in 2007, when general motors, Volkswagen, and Washington Mutual all ran TV commercials that depicted depressive feelings and suicidal behavior, albeit in satirical ways. In the GM ad, which appeared during the Super Bowl broadcast, an assembly-line robot hurls itself off a bridge after committing an error; in the Washington Mutual spot, despondent bankers are poised to jump off a building; and in the VW ad, a man is about to jump off a ledge until he learns that he can buy a new VW for under $17,000." - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.)

"To pay for rising health insurance premiums for employees, companies had been forced to raise the prices of their products so that everything from milk to machinery was more expensive. At general motors, executives estimated that the company's health costs in 2004 accounted for $1,500 of the cost of each vehicle it manufactured. The auto executives said rising drug costs?1.5 billion for GM in 2004—were hurting American automakers'ability to compete with European and Asian manufacturers." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"Neuroscience is one of the principal areas of focus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the endowment of which is $16 billion (derived from the 1985 sale of Hughes Aircraft to general motors). The emphasis on neuroscience is appropriate, as the institute's founder, the aviator, industrialist, film tycoon, and iconoclast Howard Hughes, famously and prodigiously suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Government funding has followed suit. Funding for the National Institute of Mental Health, $90 million in 1976, reached $1.4 billion in 2006." - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.)

"Companies that are staggering under the weight of their health care obligations, like general motors, will find themselves able to pay their workers more, to innovate and invest in new product lines. New jobs will be created to support IT systems in hospitals, and medical researchers will be needed to conduct the studies that evaluate the effectiveness of medical treatments. There's no denying that shrinking our health care system will cause dislocation among workers and lower profits for some sectors of the medical industry." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"In this book, Nader exposed how general motors lied about the safety of the Corvair. It was proven that general motors knew that the Corvair was a dangerous car and many people would die if they did not recall the vehicle. The book pointed out and proved the fact that the corporate executives knew that people would die, but decided to let those people die—all in the name of profits. It was also proven later that Ford knew that thousands of people would die with their "exploding Pinto." - Kevin Trudeau, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease (Get the book.)

"And general motors is hardly alone. Starbucks, one of the most successful companies of the past two decades, recently announced that it is spending more on health care for employees than it spends on coffee beans. Across the American economic spectrum, employers are trying desperately to rein in health costs, asking workers to pick up more of the tab for their care or, in many cases, dropping insurance coverage entirely." - Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (Get the book.)

"Medco, which allowed the subsidiary to help clients craft specialized health improvement plans for specific corporate populations. If general motors saw that more and more of its health care money was being spent on treating heart disease, for example, Medco could craft special prevention and treatment plans, often mentioning Zocor and its rivals, as part of that plan, as well as sponsoring clinics for cholesterol screening and state-of-the-art information on healthful eating and exercise." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"The $160 million Merck spent advertising Vioxx in 2000, for example, was $35 million more than was spent on Pepsi that year; it was equivalent to Dell's advertising spend on its top computers, and only slightly less than the $169 million that general motors spent on ads for its Saturn model.5 Advertising spends had been rising fast as competition for market share in certain blockbuster categories accelerated. In 1997, total spending was under one billion dollars; four years later, in 2001, it had more than doubled to $2.25 billion, with most of that going on TV exposure." - Jacky Law, Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda (Get the book.)

"That same year, in a small general motors plant in Dayton, Ohio, the two workers responsible for bottling liquid lead died. The production line was shut down in April 1924. Charles Kettering, chief of GM's effort to develop leaded fuels, blamed the workers. "We could not get this across to the boys," he said. "We put watchmen in at the plant, and they used to snap the stuff [pure tetraethyl lead] at each other, and throw it at each other, and they were saying that they were sissies. They did not realize what they were working with." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.)

"But just like the executives at general motors in relation to the Corvair, and just like the executives at Ford in relation to the Pinto, and just like the executives at Big Tobacco in relation to cigarettes, the business decision was made to "let the people die" because it's cheaper to handle the lawsuits than to not sell the drug and make the profits. Now we find front-page news in the Wall Street Journal that Merck executives not only knew and hid the information, but actually falsified documents and didn't report known deaths in the clinical trials of Vioxx." - Kevin Trudeau, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease (Get the book.)

"The War Department's official, unsigned letter on the matter, sent to the heads of Standard Oil, general motors and Ethyl on December 15, 1934, was clear: I am writing you this to say that in my opinion under no conditions should you or the Board of Directors of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation disclose any secrets or "know how" in connection with the manufacture of tetraethyl lead to Germany.16 In response to these concerns Ethyl lied to the government. On January 12, 1935, Earl W." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.)

"Suppose all Ford and general motors automobiles with excellent safety and service records were removed from the marketplace, leaving an inventory of low-end cars with bad safety and service rankings. Eventually, when each company introduced a new automobile at a significantly higher price, the makers could state the prices are warranted. Consumers could choose between a new, higher priced vehicle (with an unproven safety and service record) or they could purchase cars with known inferiorities. (The absence of Dodge, Toyota, Nissan, etc. from the American marketplace might also be noted." - Brent Hoadley, Ph.D., Too Profitable to Cure (Get the book.)

"It was proven that general motors knew that the Corvair was a dangerous car and many people would die if they did not recall the vehicle. The book pointed out and proved the fact that the corporate executives knew that people would die, but decided to let those people die—all in the name of profits. It was also proven later that Ford knew that thousands of people would die with their "exploding Pinto." The executives of Ford made a business decision that it was okay for people to die because the company could not afford to lose the millions of dollars by recalling the Pinto." - Kevin Trudeau, More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease (Get the book.)

"On August 25, 2005, USA Today reported: "The debts of general motors and Ford Motor were lowered to junk status by Moody's Investors Service."2 Conversely, not going green soon enough could already have been the death knell tolling. It might already be too late for GM. It was GM that rejected the hybrid concept and lagged years behind Toyota by the time its first consumer version came out in 2006. But it wasn't too late for Ford—or the well-paid blue collar working men and women in Claycomo, Missouri, where Ford was building its future." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.) "Meanwhile, General Motors' fleetwide fuel economy—the truest gauge of an automaker's impact on the climate—is the same as it was ten years ago. . . . America's leading corporations aren't kids learning how to play ball. They should be treated like marquee players, whom much is expected of and on whom the spotlight always shines." Can an entire nation go green? In 1989, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert of Sweden founded The Natural Step organization to address the systemic causes of environmental problems, according to the program's Web site." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.) "At the time, neither Daimler Chrysler nor general motors had a hybrid on the market. Ford was selling hybrids as fast as they could make them. "So you think being first with a hybrid gives you an advantage over GM?" I said. "You think?" he said. Early on with my awkward stopping and going, the car's 29 miles per gallon were impressive. But it could do much better, 7 or 8 mpg better, he said. "The actual rating is thirty-six to thirty-seven." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"Realizing the value of being able to tap such advice on a regular basis, the Ethyl Corporation, general motors, DuPont, Frigidaire and others promised to give Kehoe $100,000 every year starting in 1929 (equivalent to several million today) to run the industrial toxicology laboratories on the University of Cincinnati campus—named for one of his main benefactors, Dr. Kettering. Just thirty years old, despite the global economic depression, Kehoe had hit the scientific jackpot. A university official told the Detroit Free Press in 1936 that the companies "would meet all salaries and expenses. . . ." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.)

"Boeing, Dow, DuPont, Apple, general motors, American Express, and Cargill. Environmental policies top their list of concerns. "Every single one of the companies we represent is touched by REACH," explained AmCham EU's Belgian spokesperson, Anja Duchuteau. "[Our companies] have to comply with whoever sets the most severe regulations. Whoever sets those establishes the standards for the rest of the world. And a lot of those standards are now coming out of Brussels.'" - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.) "What's good for general motors," the saying went, "is good for America." Today, however, the company is sensing its loss of control over the new forces emanating from Europe, that dictate what goes in under the hood. "The End of Life Vehicles Directive came washing over us in 2003," Taubitz said, "and we had an immediate multibillion dollar problem." Taubitz was frank in describing how dramatically the landscape had shifted underneath the mighty foundation once laid by the U.S. car industry. In the 1990s, he explained, GM prided itself on developing a globally harmonized production structure." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.) "But each of the American "big three" has substantial ties to the European market: Ford has its own Ford Europe production facilities, and owns the Jaguar line in the UK; general motors owns the German Opel, the Swedish Saab, and produces its own line of vehicles in the UK under the Vauxhall label; until May 2007, when it was sold to the U.S. firm Cerberus Capital Managment, Chrysler was owned by the German manufacturer Daimler-Benz." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.) "I wanted to see what it takes to build the defining machines of our era, and so imagined the deranged amusement Tinguely might have gotten out of sitting in the three-trailer caravan, like I did on a public tour in the winter of 2007, as we snaked through a factory run jointly by general motors and Toyota. Spreading over the equivalent of a hundred football fields, the NUMMI plant produces Toyota Corollas, Pontiac Vibes, and Tacoma pickup trucks. The great rolling assembly line rumbles on without end." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.)

"You do not know whether general motors will be in business in 10 years' time. You do not know much about the past, little about the present, and nothing about the future. What do you do when you know so little? You become very modest. You turn to the essentials. You focus on what you do know and what you can control. You follow the rules. Essentialism venerates humility as its highest virtue. Your authors are so humble, we are practically arrogant about it. No one is more humble than we are. But the humble recognition of your own ignorance still leaves you with decisions to make." - William Bonner, Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis (Get the book.) "He sees himself as Kirk Kerkorian making a bid for general motors or Warren Buffett shrewdly moving on an insurance company. "I bought Google," he tells his wife. His chest expands. He feels a crown of authority on his head and imagines his most private part growing. For he has mastered the most sacred and all-powerful rite of our time; with a single gesture he has joined the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, and the local country club. He is in. He is with it. He gets it. He is one with all the other swells who make up this wondrous modern economy." - William Bonner, Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis (Get the book.)

"Ford, like general motors, couldn't deny it was in trouble; major workforce reductions would be announced a few months later, and after that William Clay Ford would step down as CEO of the company while announcing even more plant closings and accelerated retirements." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"Back then, the United States still made things. general motors was our biggest employer; you could tell what year a car was made by looking at the tail fins, they got better every year. When Eisenhower was in the White House and William McChesney Martin was at the Fed, the United States had most of the world's gold and most of the world's credit. This happy state of affairs persisted until the reign of Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan, when Wal-Mart—a retailer, not a manufacturer—became its biggest employer. The foreigners own more and more of what used to be American wealth-producing assets." - William Bonner, Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis (Get the book.)

"The wife of a general motors executive, Illig chaired the public health division of the General Women's Federation in 1935. As a radiologist, she had seen dozens of young women whose X-rays revealed abdomens riddled with spreading white blotches of disease. Illig explained to her colleagues at the federation that doctors could identify subtle abnormalities of the cervix long before cancer showed up on X-rays. Women's lives could be saved if they would show up for regular physical exams." - Devra Davis, The Secret History of the War on Cancer (Get the book.)

"Yet when higher rates made it difficult to offer monthly terms that were palatable, Ford, general motors, and others would eventually extend the maturity dates of the agreements by 50 percent or more. Or they would push leases where, in essence, monthly payments covered only the interest and part of the principal—in exchange for 0 percent of the ownership. In March 2005, for instance, Edmunds.com reported that 19.8 percent of all vehicles were leased rather than bought, the highest rate since 2001." - Michael J. Panzner, Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes (Get the book.) "As of early 2006, General Motors's unfunded pension promises were estimated to be as much as $31 billion—despite the company's claims to the contrary—while other postemployment benefits were thought to total more than twice as much, or $70 billion, according to some analysts. Despite the similarities, there is a key difference between corporate America and the public sector when it comes to retirement-related liabilities. The private sector generally has more freedom to deal with future promises." - Michael J. Panzner, Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes (Get the book.) "By the spring of 2006, at least $200 billion of General Motors's CDSs were estimated to exist, covering $30 billion of bonds. Aside from the tail wagging and other market distortions, as well as the upheaval such a mismatch can cause, there is also the very real risk that major financial operators could find themselves in over their heads, leading to dangerous systemic pressures. Still, these instruments suit a wide range of interests." - Michael J. Panzner, Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes (Get the book.)

"Ford and general motors may not have been particulatly concerned about the electrical signals transmitted between nerve cells, but they have been worried about the potential degeneration of spark plugs caused by long-term exposure to this chemical. Reportedly in tesponse to the urging of the automobile industry, the major gasoline formulators in the United States, who would have had to purchase MMT from Ethyl, agreed to a de facto moratorium on the use of the additive. As if this was not bad enough, even Ethyl's old ally north of the border began to get cold feet." - Paul D. Blanc, M.D., How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace (Get the book.)

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