Thuggery

This past week, a major change crept over the American Auto industry. Chrysler declared bankruptcy. The deal was announced on Thursday by the President and spelled out in detail all over the news. Here's one the articles that I urge you to read.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for the Auto companies declaring bankruptcy, in order to free themselves from the bondage of the UAW, the United Auto Workers' Union; I say bondage because of the handicap that this union imposes on our American auto companies (here's a great Op ed piece by Mitt Romney that expounds on that). However, sometimes I wonder how these decisions are made.

Here's a fun quote from Jake Tapper's blog (Tapper's an ABC News correspondent for the White House Press Corp.): "A leading bankruptcy attorney representing hedge funds and money managers told ABC News Saturday that Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's Auto Industry Task Force, threatened one of the firms, an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration's Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation."

What? When you read further, you'll see the response from the White House: "The charge is completely untrue," said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, "and there's obviously no evidence to suggest that this happened in any way."

Neat huh? Remember in Elementary School? "Teacher, Billy hit me!" Then little Billy pipes up..."Prove it!"

Ah, the White House at its best.

In the blog sited above you'll also read that there were four larger creditors to Chrysler, that were owed 70% of the total debt on Chrysler's books, that the investment firm in question joined in eventually pushing for bankruptcy. The four creditors were JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. The blog points out that all of these firms and companies are recipients of huge amounts of TARP money. Hmm. I wonder if that had anything to do with their enthusiasm to take 29 cents on the dollar for their loans.

This is where our country is going - God Bless America.

PS - For those of you not familiar with Chrysler here are some cars they make:



The Dodge Challenger - very sweet!



Dodge Caravan - very nice!



Jeep - excellent!



Chrysler Sebring - Crap Sandwitch! There had to be some reason for the bankruptcy, right?