Bailout Watch 527: $80 Billion. And Counting.

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Time did the math, and reports that the total cost of the recent wave of automotive industry “assistance” has reached $83 billion. With Chrysler’s bankruptcy not going well (286,687 2009 models and 36,370 2008 models languishing on lots, according to Fortune) and GM about to join it in court, that number will top $100 million by the end of the summer. GM bondholders are also requesting something more than ten percent of New GM’s equity to give up their debt. And guess who’ll pay for that? Meanwhile, a lousy $4 million in federal emergency grants are going to assist Michigan’s autoworkers who have been laid off by the industry.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on May 12, 2009

    If we just shut down GM and Chrysler and sent the money straight to the employees ...

  • Stein X Leikanger Stein X Leikanger on May 12, 2009

    I predicted a bill of 200 billion when they went to D.C. in their jets - now I think we'll be racing past that before all involved realize it's a lost cause It's a sinkhole, without end. The automobile equation does not compute any more and needs to be reexamined. They might as well spend the money on retraining everyone as cobblers. There's money to be made on redoing how we move across the ground, from the ground up.

  • Paris-dakar Paris-dakar on May 12, 2009
    If we just shut down GM and Chrysler and sent the money straight to the employees … I said at the start that would have been cheaper in the long run. Mandatory $1 mil buy-outs to every UAW employee. Of course, that would have meant the death of the UAW and the Dems can't consider that. Ironically, for all the criticism the Dems do of 'trickle down' ecomonics, this is the most disgusting example of that principle I've ever seen. Throw a billion $$$ a week at a politically connected labor union to keep the economy from going in the tank. [Holds nose]
  • RickCanadian RickCanadian on May 12, 2009

    $80B ? C'mon, who's counting? It's just money...

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