Let GM go Bankrupt

It's easy to look at the bailouts and bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler as a big-government bonanza. Some even see tints of socialism in the loans and subsequent government ownership stakes. But as Ford points out today, there was more at stake than just two companies.

The entire industry, and in some ways, the entire U.S. economy, was riding on the survival of GM and Chrysler, says Ford Motor Co executive chairman Bill Ford, Jr. "It would have been so catastrophic to have a supply-base meltdown because it would have brought down all the auto manufacturers and frankly some other industries as well," Ford told CNBC TV according to an Automotive News report.
A cascading chain of bankruptcies was one of the primary fears of an unassisted GM or Chrysler bankruptcy. Because so many companies rely on GM and Chrysler to purchase their parts, and because there's no easy replacement outlet for those parts, there's no way for the supplier base to survive without them

A cascading chain of bankruptcies was one of the primary fears of an unassisted GM or Chrysler bankruptcy. Because so many companies rely on GM and Chrysler to purchase their parts, and because there's no easy replacement outlet for those parts, there's no way for the supplier base to survive without them.

How? Okie had to have his SUV to drive down to the corner store for a 6-pack.

Bankruptcies work in capitalism by allowing new investors to come in with a clean slate with no debts & no unions & buy up the assets in foreclosure for 10 cents on the dollar to create a new low cost base to build cars more efficiently.

Allowing GM/Chrusler to go bankrupt doesn't mean all those factories shut down and everyone working there loses a job

The number one problem is GM/Chrysler DID go through bankruptcy. It's just that the bankruptcy was funded by the only entity capable of buying GM/Chrysler for a few cents on the dollar. That entity was the US government

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The number one problem is GM/Chrysler DID go through bankruptcy. It's just that the bankruptcy was funded by the only entity capable of buying GM/Chrysler for a few cents on the dollar. That entity was the US government

"Just is the right word only after you write out of history that the US Government decided what it wanted to do and then bullied its will upon all parties. Hell, up until pressure was applied GMC had no intention of filing for bankruptcy at all.

Hell, up until pressure was applied GMC had no intention of filing for bankruptcy at all.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co posted a lower third-quarter profit on losses in Europe and offered a disappointing outlook that raised doubts about the speed of its turnaround two years after emerging from bankruptcy.
GM vowed to slash costs to shore up margins and said it would consider closing plants in its sputtering European unit, but its fourth-quarter outlook disappointed investors and sent shares tumbling 11 percent on Wednesday.
The percentage drop was the largest one-day decline since the company's initial public stock offering in November 2010.
Worries about slowing growth in key markets like Brazil and the continued drag from Europe prompted questions about whether the top U.S. automaker had taken its foot off the pedal after a 2009 taxpayer-funded restructuring wiped away its debt.
Chief Executive Dan Akerson called the third-quarter profit of $1.7 billion "solid" but quickly added "solid isn't good enough," an unusually stark assessment from a company long-criticized for moving too slowly to admit mistakes and force changes.
GM executives conceded the automaker needed to follow Ford Motor Co in streamlining historically tangled operations. Under the slogan "One Ford," CEO Alan Mulally has pushed GM's smaller rival to unify its vehicle development and purchasing over the past five years