Friday, December 12, 2008

Thoughts on a Big Three Bailout

General Motors has a debt load of $45.16 Billion. Ford Motor Co. has a debt load of $156.79 Billion. Chrysler's debt is harder to come by as it is a private enterprise owned by Cerberus Capital Management (you know, the folks buying up all the American firearm manufacturing companies), but it can be assumed that it is much more than the $15 Billion in the bailout package.

So riddle me this. How does a $15 Billion dollar bailout save companies who are much more than $200 Billion in debt? GM and Ford owe more than they are worth, billions of dollars more than they are worth.

It seems to me that investors would be much better served by the bankruptcy courts than they would by an "auto czar" and a .gov bailout of less than 10% of their debt.

But what do I know?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since when is private enterprize entitled to a government bailout?

all the begging won't help unless the UAW gets off it's high horse and gives some concessions.

I think I will start a failing business just so I can get some free bailout money.

Unknown said...

"Cerberus Capital Management (you know, the folks buying up all the American firearm manufacturing companies)"
Just curious, I had not heard this before. Do you have any links. Which companies have they bough?



"Since when is private enterprize entitled to a government bailout?"
Perhaps when government has been a major factor in their failing. Remember it was the government that pushed the big industries to offer social welfare, pensions, inflated prices, and passed laws that allowed the unions to become overly strong.

John R said...

From Wikipedia;

"Firearms - Acquired Bushmaster Firearms, Inc., from Windham, Maine native Dick Dyke for an undisclosed sum in April 2006, and purchased Remington Arms in April 2007. Under Cerberus direction, Bushmaster Firearms acquired Cobb Manufacturing, a well-respected manufacturer of large-caliber tactical rifles in August 2007. Cerberus also announced the acquisition of DPMS Panther Arms in December 2007.[4][5] Remington Arms acquired Marlin Firearms in January 2008"