the continuing bailout...

[wil]

this one is interesting...

GM just got their 5/6 billion...or did they??

No GMAC got it...but how??

Well they became a bank, just now, so they could get the bank bailout money...

So a while back they started loaning on more than just cars...started into housing, which got them in trouble...so now to make them elligible we'll change them from a car loan company as part of a car firm to a bank so they could get the money...

But I thought the car company, ie GM needed to get bailed out, not the financing company. But I guess GM owns GMAC...or does it??

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. on Monday said it agreed to sell a 51 percent stake in its financing arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., to a consortium led by hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management LP for a total of $14 billion.

The long-awaited sale will generate much-needed cash for the world's largest automaker, which some analysts believe faces the possibility of bankruptcy after reporting a $10.5 billion loss in 2005.

The Cerberus-led investor group includes the private equity unit of Citigroup (NYSE:C - news) and Japan's Aozora Bank Ltd, a portfolio company of Cerberus....Dan Quayle chairs Cerberus Global Investments, a unit of the New York-based firm.

Dan Quayle? You mean Bush Sr's VP who was ridiculed in the press?? The company he chairs saved GM from bankruptcy in 05, and didn't the gov't bailout GM before??

 

[iBrian]

I was all for action originally - buy up bad debt in order to get the commercial markets moving again. It was a necessarily premise.

But now big business around the world are seeing free money and want a part of it. It's become a fast corrupted intention.

You can either trim down a non-viable business into a viable one and take a little pain - or you can get in your private jet, fly to congress, and plead poverty for extra loans.

This isn;t how free markets work, and if GM and co can't sell cars for a year and that threatens collapse, then they are mismanaged.

If the US government was serious about repairing the economy (same here in the UK), they would force banks to match their mortgage rates to central bank rates - thus freeing up consumer spending, stopping foreclosures, and ensuring that bad debt was good again. A simple demand that empowers the poor about the blood sucking corporations who expect rewards for bringing this upon themselves and us.

Truly socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.

 

[bob x]

Cerberus owns Chrysler as well.

 

[juantoo3]

Not to mention I believe Citibank was in on part of the dish out to the banks.

And it was Chrysler, under Iacocca back in the '80's that the gov't bailed out before. To Iacocca's credit, they paid back the loan, in full, ahead of schedule.