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Showing posts from June 2, 2009

Want an SUV with that?

How does it feel to own a car company (or two)? GM is ours (at least nominally) as is Chrysler, at least for a little while. The good news is we only paid 50 - 60 billion for them. And what gets better from there is, we are now "selling" the only valuable parts of Chrysler to Fiat. Then the plan is to give (for a nominal investment in operating capital) most of the value of GM to Magna (a large parts supplier from Canada) and a Russian banking/investment firm. The auto workers union gets another large chunk; and the US and Canadian government get most of the rest. If, and that is a BIG IF, GM (and the new owners) gets what is left turned around and makes money, we (the US government part) gets a return. Whoopee! After the money we paid in "bailouts' prior to the bankruptcy, and the unseen fallout that will occur after the bankruptcy (layoffs and closures from suppliers, dealers, etc) it would have been cheaper to buy the three million cars that sales were off and gi