auto industry

A GM bankruptcy would be unprecedented, and probably controversial, because the company owns physical assets worth about $160 billion, directly employs 90,000 Americans and is an integral part of the U.S. economy. While the White House has signaled that it may come to the rescue in the short term, the pain of downsizing the auto giant would have a ripple effect across the economy.

Nearly a month after the executives of the Big Three automakers arrived in Washington on corporate jets to ask Congress for a bailout, a group of auto workers made the same trip by carpool. Their mission was the same, but the blue-collar image they projected was strikingly different.

Last night, sixteen auto workers from Detroit packed into four cars (American-made, of course) and drove to Washington, where they met up with colleagues from four other states this morning to urge Congress to pass a bill to bailout the auto industry.
Speaking on Capitol Hill, active and retired union leaders voiced frustration that they were [...]

Lawmakers granted Wall Street enormous leeway in dolling out a $700 billion lifeline free from Congressional oversight. Thursday’s Senate hearing appears to foreshadow a tougher line with the Big Three.

Detroit’s auto executives might be in Washington pleading for billions in taxpayer bailout cash, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to give up a lifestyle.
ABC News reported today that the CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors continue to travel on private jets, even as their companies crumble around them. For GM head Rick Wagoner, [...]

Because he just gave 2012 oppo researchers an early Christmas present, particularly if any of the Big Three automakers collapses before then.
In an op/ed in The New York Times titled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” Romney prescribes tough love for the ailing auto industry, rather than a federal bailout.

It’s not just the government that’s considering bailing out the auto industry. Several utilities executives are considering ordering thousands of plug-in electric cars.