GM bailout *may* be reversed.

Emphasis on ‘may:’ the Washington Free Beacon article is not actually claiming that NY judge Robert Gerber will reverse his approval of the sale; merely that Judge Gerber may do so.  Basically, what happened was that – as part of the original bailout/bankruptcy agreement – GM dumped its existing debt and liabilities into a garbage company (‘Old GM’) while creating a new, liability-free company going forward (‘new GM’).  If any of this sounds familiar, it may be because it was precisely this situation that allowed New GM to stop paying for mercury reclamation from old cars.  The liability for that was handed off to Old GM, which spent two years in lawsuits with various states over this before settling – a settlement that had no effect on New GM whatsoever.  Which is why the company set up the split in the first place, of course.

The problem is that Gerber – who approved the original sale – isn’t actually very happy about any of that: Continue reading GM bailout *may* be reversed.

#rsrh QotD, Mickey Kaus Brings The Pain To GM edition.

And by extension – tanjitthe federal government:

I’d forgotten that in April, 2010 President Obama told the nation (in his weekly radio address)

“It won’t be too long before the stock the Treasury is holding in GM could be sold ….”

Two years later, the Treasury still owns more than 26% of GM. The stock price of the dramatic administration success story is too low to sell without taking gigantic, embarrassing losses.

I know that Mickey Kaus likes being a Democrat, but at some point you simply have to admit that you didn’t leave the party; the party left you.

(H/T: Instapundit)

GM thanks taxpayers for forced bailout.

I would have let you collapse, GM. So there’s no need to thank me for your government seizure. My no doubt naive belief in basic capitalism precludes me from fully appreciating said thanks; or, indeed, appreciating them at all. How much of MY tax money went into making this self-congratulatory paean to Italian-style fascism, by the way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr94zStsk8E&feature=player_embedded

Whatever it was, it was too much.

Moe Lane (crosspost)
Continue reading GM thanks taxpayers for forced bailout.

SIGTARP auto report out.

The short version?  Having the government do your restructuring for you isn’t necessarily the brightest thing in the world.  Particularly when there’s a variety of conflicting objectives.  At least, if what you’re trying to do is actually create a better version of your company; if your goal is to use government fiat to streamline the operations of your newly government-owned automobile manufacturer it apparently works out just fine.

Longer version after the fold.

Continue reading SIGTARP auto report out.

GM’s environmental quid pro quo.

(H/T: Instapundit) I am honestly surprised to find that there are people surprised by this.

Among those clamoring for attention and payouts from Motors Liquidation Co., the company that assumed General Motors’ unwanted assets after its Chapter 11 filing, are the environmental and economic redevelopment departments of state governments. According to reports, when GM exited bankruptcy, its polluted factory and land sites were consumed by the Motor Liquidation, allowing the automaker to avoid the responsibility of cleaning up its mess, and state leaders fear there won’t be any money to clean the locations.

After all, this was the original point of the exercise.  GM was an unsustainable, debt-ridden mess; the government takeover and bankruptcy was designed to let it cut out the most diseased portions of its operations and reorganize as something more… ‘untainted,’ as it were.  Or possibly even just ‘less tainted.’  That this ends up with individual state governments left holding the bag on the cleanup* is either an unintended consequence, or just a previously-obscure detail, of the bailout/bankruptcy; it all depends on whether you see the administration as a collection of dangerous idiots, or as a collection of dangerous idiots.  A federal bailout of the state governments’ obligations to clean up a private industry’s ecological mess would certainly be a useful weapon in the federal government’s ongoing quest for ever-more power and oversight.

On the other hand, the White House can’t even spell “Barack Obama” reliably on official state documents, so it’s entirely possible that they stuck already-struggling states with the cleanup bill by the sheerest accident. Continue reading GM’s environmental quid pro quo.

Show your loyalty. Sell your Prius.

(Via Glenn Reynolds) GayPatriot has the right idea here:

Those who want to give people like Barney a say in the running of General Motors (and Chrysler for that matter), that is those who favor Obama’s Auto Plan, can show that they really believe this is the right way to manufacture automobiles by put their money where their mouths are.  When it comes time for them to buy a new car, they should buy a GM (or Chrysler) model.  Heck, why wait?  Show your confidence in this plan by buying one now.

…but he doesn’t take it nearly far enough.  We’ve already established that this administration considers falling in with its policy positions to be ‘patriotic‘: and clearly, supporting the GM/Chrysler takeover is falling in with its policy positions.  Considering that – as usual – the Political Class is wildly divergent from mainstream America when it comes to this issue, it is clearly their patriotic duty to make certain that the GM/Chysler bailout succeeds.  That means selling that hybrid made by a foreign auto company and buying an American car*.  And since it’s a crisis, well, they need to do that right now.  Everything else has to be, so this should be, too.

If they were really loyal, they’d do it.

Moe Lane

PS: Me?  When we had to replace the car a couple months ago we went with a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Which I guess makes me a better American than all those people out there selfishly and bitterly clinging to their hybrids and foreign sedans.

*Hey, it’s better for the environment anyway.

Crossposted to RedState.

Let us compare two commercials: GM’s, and its parody.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.  Have you seen the new Rasmussen trust numbers yet?

This is the original:

…annnnnd (via Ace of Spades) this is the parody.

The parody’s better. Not to mention, considerably more honest.

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t know whether this site is Left-oriented or Right-oriented, but I’ll say this: whoever made it is not happy. And he or she is right to be not happy.

Crossposted to RedState.

Wagoner out at GM.

Just to get into the spirit of the thing, I had somebody translate my post on the subject into something perhaps a bit more fitting for the mood.

“Barack Obama, il leader statunitense, oggi licenzia Richard Wagoner, il direttore del colosso automobilistico General Motors. Il funzionario Steven Rattner, del comitato ministeriale Gruppo Autoindustria, e’ impegnato con la sopravvista della GM. Assistente al Rattner sara’ Fritz Henderson, finora un manager a GM, da oggi il direttore.

Secondo il Sig. Obama, la crisi economica necessita che gli impiegati della GM dovranno subirsi a “sacrifizi.” Il Duce degli Stati Uniti ha promesso un avvenire piu’ favorevole per i lavoratori, e giustizia sociale per tutti.”

Crossposted to RedState.