[sgarnett]

The Senate, UAW, et al, just gave up (ie failed) on reaching a compromise a few minutes ago.

I don't know how GM will come out after bankruptcy (they just hired the bankruptcy lawyer), but the stock market futures are looking ugly tonight. It actually held up well through some dismal recent employment numbers, but I suspect tomorrow is gonna be ugly. Rebuilding my retirement is going to mean austerity and no new cars for a very long time, and I suspect that will be true for many others. That can't be good for any automaker.

I'll admit I wasn't convinced that bridge loans to March could solve the problems for GM, so I don't claim to know what the right answer was. Nevertheless, this is going to be a big kick in the teeth for the economy.

This post has been edited by sgarnett: Dec 12 2008, 04:07 AM

[sgarnett]

OK, now the treasury is going to backstop backstop GM until congress reconvenes. I still think the coffee and locked restroom idea could work, especially if they have to hold out until ... January.

[StanIROCZ]

If your going to take the time to gripe about this please take the time to send a letter to the white house to tell Mr. Bush how important it is that the Big 3 get this bail out.

Here is the email address: comments@whitehouse.gov

[BigEnos]

If your going to take the time to gripe about this please take the time to send a letter to the white house to tell Mr. Bush how important it is that the Big 3 get this bail out.

Here is the email address: comments@whitehouse.gov

Personally I'd like to see it called what it is, which is not a "bailout", but a loan. To me, a bailout is free money with oversight strings. This is money with strings attached that they actually have to pay back. All the Wall St. firms are getting "bailouts" which afaik they don't have to repay but the gov't gets to keep their eye on them for a while.

What really needs to happen is that the companies need to have the ability to "right-size" themselves. They all have too many plants, employees, and factories and I blame the UAW. I know it'll hurt a lot of people, but not as many as will be hurt when these companies fail outright.