GM to file Chapter 11 on June 1st

[J]

Bloomberg link

GM Said to Plan June 1 Bankruptcy as Bondholders Back New Offer

By Jeff Green and Mike Ramsey


May 28 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., the world’s largest automaker until its 77-year reign ended in 2008, plans to file for bankruptcy protection on June 1 and sell most of its assets to a new company, people familiar with the matter said.

GM’s path will be smoothed by an accord today giving some of its biggest bondholders an equity stake in the reorganized automaker. The U.S. Treasury is requiring that an unspecified percentage of debt holders accept the terms by 5 p.m. New York time on May 30, Detroit-based GM said in a regulatory filing.

“If bondholders agree to this up front, this would essentially be a prepackaged bankruptcy,” said Shelly Lombard, an analyst with New York-based bond-research firm Gimme Credit LLC. “GM could exit Chapter 11 faster.”

Battered by almost $88 billion in losses since 2004, GM fell short in a bid to cut debt by $44 billion under a U.S.-set June 1 deadline to restructure outside court. The 100-year-old automaker seeks to rebuild around assets such as the Cadillac and Chevrolet brands as it follows Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy.

The people familiar with GM’s plans didn’t specify where the automaker might make its Chapter 11 filing. They asked not to be identified because the details aren’t public.

Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, while not confirming GM’s intentions or a possible bankruptcy venue, said any court restructuring would be quick.

‘Pay It Back’

“We intend to get in and out very soon,” he said today at an Automotive Press Association luncheon in Detroit. “The U.S. government wants its money back, and our plan is to pay it back as quickly as possible. The U.S. government doesn’t want to own auto companies.”

The bankruptcy probably would last 60 to 90 days, said an Obama administration official who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The Treasury will finance the trip through bankruptcy with about $50 billion, which includes $19.4 billion in current borrowing, GM said in a statement.

GM’s bankruptcy will be the third-biggest in U.S. history after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and WorldCom Inc., based on GM’s reported global assets of $91 billion and total liabilities of $176.4 billion as of Dec. 31. Chrysler, which sought court protection on April 30, listed assets of $39 billion.

Going to court would end the suspense for GM, which said it expected to declare bankruptcy after failing to get enough support for a debt-for-equity exchange on $27.2 billion in unsecured bonds.

Sweetened Offer

Only 15 percent of bondholders approved the offer to trade their debt for a 10 percent stake in the new company, a person familiar with the matter said. GM sweetened the plan today to promise warrants good for buying 15 percent more of the new enterprise, which would have an improved balance sheet based on a U.S. plan to trade bailout loans for equity.

Another 20 percent of bondholders now support the swap, according to a statement from their ad hoc committee today.

Bondholders would lose some or all of the warrants and their 10 percent stake in the new GM entity unless the company wins sufficient support from those investors to satisfy the Treasury, GM said in the regulatory filing.

The government will make a “judgment call” on May 30 as to whether bondholder backing for the latest proposal is sufficient, the administration official said.

The accord with bondholders marks “another important step” in GM’s restructuring, another administration official said in Washington. President Barack Obama set the June 1 deadline after the government began propping up GM with emergency loans.

New Owners

The filing shows the U.S. Treasury owning 72.5 percent of equity in the new GM, a union health-care trust with 17.5 percent and 10 percent going to the old GM to hand to creditors in the bankruptcy process.

Creditors would have warrants to buy as much as 15 percent of the company through newly issued shares in two portions. The first 7.5 percent would become available when GM’s market value reaches $15 billion and the remainder at $30 billion, according to regulatory filings.

GM’s market capitalization last exceeded $30 billion in January 2004, according to Bloomberg data. The value at yesterday’s closing stock price was $702 million.

According to the filing, the debt at the new GM would consist of $8 billion in new Treasury loans, $2.5 billion owed to the United Auto Workers fund and $6.5 billion in dividend- paying preferred stock. The Treasury will get $2.5 billion in preferred shares that pay a 9 percent annual dividend, bringing the issuance to $9 billion in preferred stock.

Bonds, Shares

GM’s 8.375 percent bonds due in July 2033 rose 1.38 cents to 8.5 cents on the dollar as of 1:58 p.m. in New York, according to Trace, the bond-pricing service of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The yield was 96.8 percent.

The shares rose 1 cent to $1.16 at 2:42 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock fell 64 percent this year through yesterday.

A portion of the debt financing for the new GM may be provided by the governments of Ontario and Canada, according to the filing. In that case, those governments would receive part of the preferred stock and common equity of the new company allocated for the Treasury.

GM wants to scrap the Pontiac line, sell its Hummer and Saturn units, and drop as many as 2,400 U.S. dealers by the end of 2010. Its Saab Automobile unit is in bankruptcy protection in Sweden, and the Opel division in Europe is up for sale.

Federal Recovery

The administration is optimistic about prospects for recovering taxpayer dollars being invested in GM’s restructuring, according to the official who discussed the timetable for the automaker’s stay in court.

The official didn’t know how much may be recovered and wasn’t certain about amounts invested during the George W. Bush administration. GM would be a private company for a time under the restructuring plan currently envisioned, the official said.

Chrysler may leave court protection as soon as next week under a plan to create a streamlined entity run by Italy’s Fiat SpA, based on the official’s prediction earlier this week that the automaker’s time in bankruptcy might be only about 30 days.

As Chrysler worked to complete its reorganization this month, GM took steps to speed a restructuring with or without court protection.

Bankruptcy Preparation

The company reached a tentative agreement with the UAW on May 21 to modify a 2007 labor contract and a day later arrived at a similar accord with the Canadian Auto Workers to keep alive operations in that country.

UAW members are voting this week on the contract changes and a plan to shrink GM’s obligation to a union-run trust fund for retirees’ medical expenses.

Struggling with the worst U.S. auto market since 1981, GM trimmed expenses by $3 billion last quarter and planned to shut 16 plants. It published no list of factories set to close.

GM ceded the global auto sales crown last year to Toyota Motor Corp. and hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2004. The company’s U.S. sales fell 34.4 percent in April, the 18th straight monthly drop.

April ended with Chrysler’s Chapter 11 filing, the swine flu outbreak and GM’s race to beat its June 1 deadline, putting a lid on rising consumer confidence. GM sales dropped 33 percent last month, less than the 37 percent predicted by auto analysts.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at jgreen16@bloomberg.net; Mike Ramsey in Southfield, Michigan, at mramsey6@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 28, 2009 15:00 EDT

On the bright side GM won't have to change its logo, only its name; in a few days it will officially be known as Government Motors.

This is also death for Ford since GM & Chrysler now have access to cheap government backed financing via GMAC and Chrysler Financial, both can now undercut any financing and leasing deals which Ford can offer to its customers, stealing sales away from Ford.

And of course this will kill any hopes of an economic recovery, however, I think that'll take a little while to sink in.

[Solauren]

All because the bondholders voted 'no' to exchange debt for stock in the company.

Idiots.

[J]

All because the bondholders voted 'no' to exchange debt for stock in the company.

Actually they have very good reasons for voting no. In a bankruptcy filing, bondholders have first claim meaning they need to be paid in full before anyone else is, they get everything while preferred & common stockholders get anything that's left, if there's no residual then they're completely wiped out. This is basic bankruptcy law, creditors always get first dibs. In a debt to equity swap, it means the creditors will always have the majority stake in the company by a mile.

The problem here is the government has decided that the union will have a larger stake in the company than the bondholders, in other words, they've effectively subordinated the creditors' claims & rights to those of the union which is blatantly illegal. The union currently has an equity stake in the company so in a bankruptcy they should be completely wiped out and end up with a 0-5% share of the new company, with the government & other creditors holding the vast majority of new shares.

If the government had allowed the creditors to assume a majority stake in the debt to equity swap while giving the finger to the union, the bondholders would most likely vote in favour of the plan. But they didn't. Which is why this is going to be tied up in court for quite some time just like the Chrysler deal which was quite similar to this one, and was in fact the trial balloon for GM.

[aerius]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/30980236

GM to Announce 14 Plant Closures Monday
By: AP | 28 May 2009 | 09:14 AM ET


A person briefed on General Motors' plans says the company on Monday will identify the 14 factories it will close as it heads toward an a likely Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing.

The person says United Auto Workers officials in Detroit have told plant-level union leaders that the company will make the announcement, not the union.

The person did not want to be identified because the plan has not been made public.

GM spokeswoman Sherri Childers Arb would not comment on Thursday.

GM has said it soon will identify factories to be closed under its restructuring plan. About 21,000 jobs will be lost.

This will do wonders for unemployment when all the suppliers and subcontractors get taken down with them. Visteon (Ford & Toyota parts supplier) just went tits up today, that ain't a good start.

[Starglider]

I find this hilarious;

GM unloads Hummer to Chinese buyer
Bankrupt automaker discloses details of plan to sell truck line to China's industrial company Sichuan Tengzhong.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Corp. has struck a deal to sell its Hummer truck unit to a Chinese industrial business, the two companies confirmed Tuesday. Privately owned Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in China, will acquire the truck brand, which has been part of GM since 1999. Tengzhong said it plans to keep Hummer's management team.

"We plan to ... allow Humer to innovate and grow in exciting new ways under the leadership and continuity of its current management team," said Yang Yi, chief executive of Tengzhong. Yang said the deal "will allow Hummer to better meet demand for new products such as more fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S." The companies said the deal would likely close by the end of September.

As part of the deal, some GM plants will continue to build the Hummer brand for the new owner, at least for awhile. The company said its Shreveport, La., plant will keep building Hummers for the new owner until at least 2010. The news comes a day after GM (GMGMQ) filed for bankruptcy protection in New York.

"I'm confident that Hummer will thrive globally under its new ownership," said Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, in a press release. "And for GM, this sale continues to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a leaner, more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker." GM also said that the deal should protect more than 3,000 jobs in manufacturing and engineering, and at dealerships "around the country."

The sale of the Hummer brand to a Chinese company will not impact the production of U.S. military vehicles. Military Humvees are produced by a different company, privately held AM General, based in South Bend, Ind.

The Hummer and other large vehicles have been a drag on the U.S. auto industry since fuel prices spiked in 2008 and the recession deepened. GM said it sold 5,013 Hummers worldwide in the first quarter, down 62% from the 13,050 that it sold in the same period the prior year.

Yes, the vehicle of choice for hyper-patriotic USA! USA! mouth breathers and 'I'll burn as much oil as I can' anti-environmentalists will now be made by a Chinese company. I expect them to move most production there too and just do token final assembly in the US, and hopefully introduce hybrid powertrains to add insult to injury.

[Count Chocula]

One item that seems to have been missed or ignored is the impact this will have on GM bond holders. Put simply, they are screwed. There are millions of GM bond holders who BY LAW have precedence in any bankruptcy proceedings. They are supposed to be first in line. Instead, they are getting a 80% - 90% haircut while the US government gets the controlling interest and the UAW, who arguably contributed to GM's woes, get the second largest interest. At every step of this process, from the ignoring of bankruptcy law to the ignoring of the Fed's lack of legal right to acquire shares in private companies, this entire bankruptcy/takeover is illegal. Plus, for a little lagniappe, we now have the UAW with significant financial interests in two bailed-out auto makers, and still representing labor for Ford, who has requested no bailout funds. I can't even begin to count the worms in this can.

If I were a Ford lawyer, I'd be licking my chops and preparing the largest anti-trust suit against the federal government and the UAW since J.P. Morgan's era. And that doesn't begin to count the GM bondholder allies Ford could get; if I were an Indiana or Michigan representative, I wouldn't count on holding office past the next election.

Woops, J was there first with a more articulate reply. I do believe it bears repeating, however, that the federal government's actions in this and the Chrysler case are ILLEGAL. Given GM's size, I expect a legal challenge to at least be forwarded in the next month or so.

[Ma Deuce]

And now for some amusement, we go to everyone's favorite faux-working class lardass, who is positively gleeful at GM's plight, and in typical Mikey Moore fashion, what little few good points he does make are buried by a mountain of oversimplifications, half-truths, and outright lies. I haven't the time to address every point at the moment, but anyway:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/messa ... php?id=248

Monday, June 1st, 2009
Goodbye, GM ...by Michael Moore

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know -- who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let's be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we've allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is "reorganized" by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made "Roger & Me," I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war -- a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call "cars" may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn't give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true -- that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades -- and we don't even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal. Let's hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we're going to have automobiles, let's have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories -- that simply isn't true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don't throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front -- and the back -- seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it's over. It's a new day and a new century. The President -- and the UAW -- must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.

Tell me Mikey, does that UAW cock taste good? I'm sorry to break it to you, but your precious union cooked it's golden goose, and it's their own damn fault they're out of work and SOL. So while you're bashing GM for what's really your UAW butt-buddies' fault, I'm taking glee in the fact that no matter how well GM and Chrysler come out of this bankruptcy, the UAW is a Dead Union Walking. The many concessions they've been forced to make will render them as toothless as the ATC unions after Reagan got through with them, and there isn't a damn thing their sycophants in congress can do about it.

P.S. Mikey, it's always amusing to hear you whine about GM outsourcing jobs to Mexico (even though only a fraction of their cars are made there), and complaining about shrinking American manufacturing when last I checked, you drive a car that was made in Mexico and designed in Germany.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Does Michael Moore seriously believe we can actually build a Bullet Train line over Raton Pass which will let the trains maintain 165 mph!? Jesus christ.

Mind you, we could make it 20 hours transcontinental, I've worked that out myself, but that requires faster trains (like 225mph), but that is also practical, but there's simply going to be places in even the Appalachians, let alone the rockies and Sierra Nevada, where the train will have to massively slow down for some long distances.

[Starglider]

Does Michael Moore seriously believe we can actually build a Bullet Train line over Raton Pass which will let the trains maintain 165 mph!? Jesus christ.

I've tried searching for max gradients on Japanese high speed rail designs and it's difficult to find good data. However as far as I can tell the max climb gradient for Shinkansen trains is 3.5%, better than many legacy rail designs, but the max gradient that full speed (170mph) can be maintained over is only 1%. Now, how many km of tunnels would be required to maintain a 1% gradient across the US from coast to coast?

[Redleader34]

Does Michael Moore seriously believe we can actually build a Bullet Train line over Raton Pass which will let the trains maintain 165 mph!? Jesus christ.

Mind you, we could make it 20 hours transcontinental, I've worked that out myself, but that requires faster trains (like 225mph), but that is also practical, but there's simply going to be places in even the Appalachians, let alone the rockies and Sierra Nevada, where the train will have to massively slow down for some long distances.

You could just do what they did in NY and just drill a massive tunnel through the worst offending landscape, and lay tracks along the low slopes, since trains this fast NEED to be electric unless you want to use the Jet Trains from the 80s. Trains along the mountain routes though should be slower locals, I doubt you can make 225 mph trains on those god forsaken hills.

[Ma Deuce]

Does Michael Moore seriously believe we can actually build a Bullet Train line over Raton Pass which will let the trains maintain 165 mph!? Jesus christ.

That isn't as absurd as his belief that 5 years and $30 billion would be enough for such a project; hell that would barely get it started: A new high-speed rail network would need not only new tracks, but completely new rights-of-way. There is simply no getting around that. Existing rights of way have too many and too sharp curves for high-speed trains (not to mention all grade crossings would have to be eliminated), and we need those for freight anyway. For comparison to a similar project, the interstate highway system took over three decades to complete, and the equivalent to $450 billion of today's dollars. That time and money is derived not only from the construction itself, but also from the fact the government will have to acquire the land for the right-of-way from someone who already owns it, and probably demolish more than a few buildings as well.

Come to think of it, almost all of his 9 step plan in superfluous: All we need is fuel excise taxes, and the fact that's the last point on his list shows he's looking at the whole issue backwards. All we would have to do is make gasoline expensive enough (ultimately, a lot more than $1-2 per gallon, though not immediately), and people will buy more efficient cars, and use public transit more, which will in turn force governments at all levels to build more public transit (including high-speed trains). Tax exemptions, refunds, incentives and so forth could be judiciously applied to soften the impact of the new tax.

[J]

I mentioned a nice battle in the courts, well, it seems we're about to have one...

Bloomberg link

U.S. States Form Committee to Oppose GM’s Sale to Government
By Linda Sandler and Christopher Scinta


June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Nebraska and at least 37 other states formed a committee to oppose General Motors Corp.’s planned sale of assets to a company controlled by the U.S. government, according to a court filing today.

The states have said they oppose GM’s use of bankruptcy law to annul contracts with unwanted auto dealers. Their informal, or ad hoc committee may call witnesses at the hearing on GM’s sale set for June 30, including GM Chief Executive Officer Frederick Henderson and Harry Wilson of the Auto Task Force, the group said in today’s filing.

Detroit-based GM filed for bankruptcy on June 1 after failing to reorganize outside of court, reporting debt of $172.8 billion, more than twice its assets. Wilson said in a court filing this week that a swift sale of its most valuable assets to U.S. Treasury-funded Vehicle Acquisition Holdings LLC is needed to help avoid a “catastrophic and expensive meltdown in GM auto sales.”

GM also faces objections to the sale from bondholders, consumers and steelworkers.

The case is In re General Motors Corp., 09-50026, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District, New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporters on this story: Linda Sandler in New Yorkt ; Christopher Scinta in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York at cscinta@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 26, 2009 16:53 EDT

And if the bondholders and other wronged parties decide pile in as well...boy oh boy would it ever be a mess.

[KrauserKrauser]

I'm still wondering where the government thinks it makes sense that Ford will be the only operation trying to make a profit competing against one government owned car company and one government subsidized one.

Seems like a market and court fuckup all in one.

[Master of Ossus]

The bondholders do have a point--they're supposed to have their money securitized by the equity, but here the equity holders are keeping some of their money at the expense of the bondholders! I don't know how this'll hold up in bankruptcy court.