Detroit

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 [...]

Robert Reich, economist and former Clinton administration labor secretary, doesn’t think much of General Motors expected bankruptcy filing today, as the nation’s largest automaker prepares for a de facto government rescue and takeover. If the United States really wanted to help GM, Reich wrote in an op/ed for the Financial Times, it would try a [...]

The real risk to the future of General Motors (other than the unpopular vehicles) is that a bankruptcy and reorganization process would not be quick, in what’s called a 363 sale, but would go through a standard Chapter 11 reorganization, which could take several years. A long and drawn out reorganization would probably have an [...]

Specifically, Chapter 11. General Motors’ creditors have rejected the latest offer extended to them to facilitate an out-of-court restructuring — a swap of some $27 billion in GM debt for a 10 percent equity stake in the new, reorganized company. Creditors are complaining that union stakeholders were offered a much better deal than they were [...]

The Washington Post reports that the Detroit automaker is on its way to joining Chrysler in bankruptcy proceedings:
The Obama administration is preparing to send General Motors into bankruptcy as early as the end of next week under a plan that would give the automaker tens of billions of dollars more in public financing as the [...]

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner appeared before the Senate Banking Committee today to discuss the Wall Street bailout, but Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) wanted to talk about the auto industry instead. There was good reason for Brown’s concern. Not only are Detroit’s automakers hemorrhaging cash, ditching dealerships and laying off employees, but recent reports indicate that [...]

The Obama administration’s move today to install strict new fuel efficiency and emission standards for the nation’s vehicles has left some Michigan Democrats in a bind. On one hand, they have a long history of protecting their famously regional industry from new regulations, including stricter fuel efficiency standards. On the other hand, they don’t want [...]

This can’t be helpful for General Motors’ efforts to build confidence among American consumers.
General Motors Corp is recalling nearly 1.5 million Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Pontiac mid-sized cars due to a potential leak of engine oil that could cause an engine fire.
The recall applies to the 1997-2003 Buick Regal; 1998-2003 Chevrolet Lumina, Monte Carlo and [...]

The push to retool Detroit as a center of green manufacturing got a small but significant boost today with the announcement of a new wind turbine plant that will initially create 250 jobs.
The Detroit News reports that Global Wind Systems will open the facility in Novi, Mich., about thirty miles outside of Detroit, and will [...]

President Obama is pushing a compromise cash-for-clunkers program that will bridge the gap between two competing bills and provide a sliding incentives scale, whereby drivers will receive a cash voucher for trading in their old cars for more fuel-efficient ones — the greater the increase in efficiency, the more valuable the voucher.
Yet the plan has [...]