auto bailout

With the hugely popular “cash for clunkers program” running short on funds, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood took to the Sunday morning television circuit to urge the Senate to pass an extension this week. From The Associated Press:
“If we don’t get the $2 billion from the Senate … we would have to suspend the program next [...]

As funding for the $1 billion cash for clunkers program has reportedly dried up less than one week after its launch, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) want answers from the White House about what vehicles are being sold and scrapped under the program. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the [...]

With the news that the popularity of cash for clunkers has already consumed the program’s $1 billion allotment comes the inevitable rehashing of the debate over what cars should be eligible for trade-ins if the program is extended.
Earlier in the year, Detroit’s powerful defenders on Capitol Hill pushed through legislation that effectively allowed consumers to [...]

As we pointed out last month, environmentalists are none too happy with the recently enacted cash-for-clunkers program, which grants a cash rebate up to $4,500 for drivers who turn in their gas-guzzling vehicles for more fuel efficient models. (In some cases, for barely more fuel efficient models).
But consumers, it seems, are on the edge of [...]

As part of the war-funding deal reached yesterday between House and Senate negotiators, Detroit’s automakers found a $1 billion gift: The launch of a cash-for-clunkers program that focuses more on selling large, otherwise unwanted cars than it does on curbing greenhouse emissions, as the program was initially intended. Detroit News lays out some of the [...]

Seems that critics of the White House decision to bail out General Motors and Chrysler were right to question how well federal government would manage its enormous new investment. The New York Times reported today that the administration recently bought thousands of new vehicles, but a lion’s share of the money went to the only [...]

How familiar does this sound? Washington bails out an enormous industry with tens of billions of (borrowed) dollars, tells that industry to tighten its ship to become self-sustaining and viable, and then blasts the industry when it starts doing just that.
We’ve seen this with the banks — which were asked not to make bad loans [...]

You might have heard that Detroit’s automakers have been struggling recently, and also that the federal government has stepped in with offers to help the dying companies weather the storm if only they’ll revamp their business models and make some concessions regarding employee compensation.
Well, it seems that some industry executives haven’t been willing to take [...]

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) just told reporters that he doesn’t know.
That cash, gifted to General Motors ($13.4 billion) and Chrysler ($4 billion) in December was intended to keep the companies from going bankrupt before April, when they would require more.

As Detroit waits anxiously for the Obama administration to decide whether to grant more TARP funding to the ailing automakers, the White House today announced $5 billion in federal help for a related sector: the auto-parts suppliers who are struggling right alongside the Big Three. From The New York Times:
“The program will provide supply companies [...]