Chrysler Gets $8 Billion For 60-Day Bankruptcy

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Or, as President Obama puts it, “a new lease on life.” Chrysler (“a company with a particular claim on our American identity”) will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Manhattan court today, as Obama has promised $3.5 billion in federal aid over the next 30 days in hopes of hitching the troubled automaker to Fiat. The case will be handled by judge Arthur Gonzalez, a veteran of the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies. When the deal is concluded and Chrysler emerges from bankruptcy, the federal government will inject another $4.7 billion. That more than doubles the current taxpayer investment in Chrysler, which had reached $4 billion (not counting ChryFi). See President Obama’s full statement at C-SPAN.


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Troonbop Troonbop on Apr 30, 2009

    "where posters dump on the people trying to solve the problem and not make it worse" I suspect this is because these posters see nothing positive in any of these developments, just an endless waste of taxpayer's money. They weren't competing for decades, now they're taking on more debt and will be managed by the government and a union. Meanwhile, the same companies that were kicking their ass previously are going to be as strong as ever. Personally, I view the auto industry cash dump as just one more indication of this administration's contempt for capitalism and the free market.

  • U mad scientist U mad scientist on Apr 30, 2009
    Personally, I view the auto industry cash dump as just one more indication of this administration's contempt for capitalism and the free market. See, the problem is the variety of "capitalism and the free market", ie. the profitable kind, is not going to exist for too long if the gov does absolutely nothing in the face of possibly massive deflation. In any case, this is coming off as cheap compared to the banking situation where the numbers are more than one order of magnitude larger, along with the level of opacity. I do hope fiat has to contribute some capital, though, otherwise I'm not sure why they would be chosen exclusive since surely there must be someone somewhere willing to pay something to get control.
  • Akear Akear on Apr 30, 2009

    Can a nation be considerded a superpower without its own auto industry. If you bow to the Italians then you indeed have no pride. I feel sorry for the next generation that have to live in this declining envirnoment. I think everyone knows this merger will be an absolute failure. Maybe it will be for the better.

  • Jeff Puthuff Jeff Puthuff on Apr 30, 2009
    Can a nation be considerded [sic] a superpower without its own auto industry. Don't forget Ford! For better or worse, we still have an awesome (in the size sense) military-industrial complex.
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