Remember the auto bailout? It’s not in the front pages anymore, but last week the Congressional Oversight Panel — a body created by statute to oversee TARP spending — issued a comprehensive and critical report on Washington’s foray into Detroit. The headline news, reported in most major media: the money won’t be paid back, not in full anyway. Even if the firms return to viability, taxpayers — said the panel — will likely never be able to recoup anywhere near all of the $77 billion or so they have put …
In the wake of the General Motors and Chrysler’s bankruptcies, United Auto Workers finds itself in a complicated position. In some sense it has achieved a Marxist ideal: it has gained (at least some) control of its means of production. The UAW owns 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of GM. Consequently, however, the UAW is placed in a strange situation when negotiating with Ford.
With General Motors slated for nationalization, and the government holding major stakes in Chrysler and several major banks, many concerned observers have been asking when it will all end. President Obama, however, has not even ventured a guess. The omission is an odd, and dangerous, one: the president who campaigned on the need to set a deadline for U.S. withdrawal from Baghdad has failed to establish one for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Detroit. Now comes Senator John Thune of South Dakota, joined by John Cornyn of Texas, with …
What if they ran a bailout program and no one came? Last year, the Bush Administration Treasury Department opened TARP’s doors to insurance companies, a number of which promptly filed for aid. Last week, the applications of six of those were approved, totalling some $22 billion. But rather than rush to claim their winnings, most of the firms are reconsidering. According to the Wall Street Journal, one — Ameriprise Financial — has already said no, and another — Prudential — is expected to decline soon. Two others, Allstate and Principal …
In a surprisingly frank statement this morning, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson confirmed that the Treasury Department is calling the shots on the company’s on-going restructuring. As reported by the New York Times, Henderson stated that GM was told by the Treasury Department to offer bondholders only up to 10 percent of GM’s equity in return for $27 billion of debt. “They didn’t support us going above 10 percent,” Mr. Henderson said. “We went to the maximum that they permitted us.” Why 10 percent? According to Henderson, Treasury didn’t give …
Did the White House threaten a Chrysler creditor who refused to sign on to the rescue plan brokered by the government? That’s the charge levelled on Friday by a lawyer for the holdout creditors. In an interview with a Detroit radio station, attorney Thomas Lauria said that the investment firm Perella Weinberg Partners dropped its opposition to the plan after it “was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press …
Even as the Detroit automakers are asking Congress for a taxpayer bailout, the Detroit News reports that Ford Motor Co. is operating highly automated, highly integrated, and highly profitable auto plants — in Brazil. They employ state of the art technology and techniques to produce high-quality vehicles: This state-of-the-art manufacturing complex in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia is not only the centerpiece of Ford’s Brazilian turnaround plan, it is also one of the most advanced automobile plants in the world. It is more automated than many of Ford’s U.S. …
Nothing gathers a crowd in Washington like the sight of money being handed out. Banks, carmakers and now ethanol? From the Wall Street Journal: The Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group for the U.S. ethanol industry, has spoken with staff members from Capitol Hill and President-elect Barack Obama’s team and “provided them with some ideas on how to craft the language of” an economic recovery package, said Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the RFA. Hartwig said RFA has suggested a number of steps including setting up a $1 billion short-term …
Despite the fact that Congress intended the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) solely for financial institutions, the Bush administration, the Treasury, Members of Congress and the automakers are negotiating a plan to use the last $15 billion to bail out Detroit’s automakers. I won’t get into the illegality of the issue; my colleagues Andrew Grossman and James Gattuso do a fine job of that here. The groups are in tough discussions to establish strict conditions for Detroit and establish a plan for the automakers. But is this better …
With the Senate’s rejection of a bailout for Detroit’s ailing automakers, there now comes word that President Bush is actively considering using funds allocated by Congress for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) to prop up the automakers for the time being. Such action would be wrong legally, wrong economically, and counterproductive to turning around these troubled businesses. And by opening the door to such open-ended use of taxpayer money for virtually unlimited uses, a unilateral decision to employ TARP funds would jeopardize George W. Bush’s legacy as a friend …
