Oh, darn, I was so hoping I'd get to see how an "orderly" bankruptcy might work-- the unstructured ones are so messy -- but President Bush apparently chickened out:
The White House has decided to come to the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler by providing them with $17.4 billion in low-interest loans to keep them afloat, ABC News has learned.
The money for the loans will come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program fund, signed into law this fall to bail out the financial industry.
But I'm pretty sure this still qualifies as "abandoning free market principles in order to save the free market." As one who was involved in the late, great effort to save villages by destroying them, I think I'm a pretty good judge of such things.
Comments
My understanding is March 31st is the date by which the automakers must prove "viability'.
Yeah, and what if they don't or can't? Are we gonna call in the note which they can't pay anyway??
Brilliant, just freaking brilliant.
I thought all spending had to be approporated by congress. this is the dumbest thing Bush has done know. I was hoping to see a Chapter 11 which would allow the companies to reorganize based cost and price constraints.
Every $1 billion Bush gives away is $10 out of each American Families pocket. Gee, thanks bush for taking $170 out of my pocket. Oh, I did not have $170, you borrowed it and will give the bill to my kids, I only have to pay the interest on it.
You probably think things done by the federal government should be constitutional, too, you delusional dreamer.
Well, a fellah can dream, can't he Leo??
Leo: After all these years a Marine friend has given me a name for "destroying a village in order to save it." The phrase is "Ben Tre Logic" after the Vietnamese village that was saved/destroyed. Peter Arnett was quoting an unnamed Air Force major so it was probably invented.