Friday, December 12, 2008

Auto Bailout FAILOUT!


Since the auto bailout failed in Senate, the collapse of GM and Chrysler could come by the time we sing old lyne syne.

The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which say they may not be able to survive through this month.

After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a deal, but deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.


The failure in Congress to provide a financial lifeline for G.M. and Chrysler was a bruising defeat for President Bush in the waning weeks of his term, and also for President-elect Barack Obama, who earlier on Thursday urged Congress to act to avoid a further loss of jobs in an already deeply debilitated economy....
G.M. and Chrysler issued statements expressing disappointment. G.M. said: We will assess all of our options to continue our restructuring and to obtain the means to weather the current economic crisis." Chrysler said it would: "continue to pursue a workable solution to help ensure the future viability of the company."

Earlier in the day, G.M. confirmed that it had legal advisors -- including Harvey R. Miller of the firm Weil Gotshal & Manges --to consider a possible bankruptcy, which the company until now has said would be cataclysmic not just for G.M. but for Chrysler and Ford as well. The rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday by a vote of 237 to 170 would have extended $14 billion in loans to the troubled automakers and required them to submit to broad government oversight directed by a car czar to be named by Mr. Bush.


This ain't cute, y'all. Senate, go back to work!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ford is up to $3.085 per share, compared to under $1.50 a couple weeks ago so I think the recovery for them has already started.

I did read that Ford looked into raising fuel economy and producing more efficient vehicles but came to the conclusion that it was too expensive.

This is the problem when you let the bean counters take control. I say put an engineer and a bean counter together and let them figure it out.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.