Bailing out Banks vs Bankrupting GM and Chrysler .........

[Stinky The Clown]

What are your feelings about these two strategies now that we are past the initial shocks and see the banks appearing more stable and the car companies slip-siding into bankruptcy court?

There was a story of some ordinary guy who had $700,000 in GM bonds as his sole retirement plan. He said he is now essentially wiped out as his reward for being frugal and thrifty for his entire life (which is how long it took him to amass that money). Then there are the union retirees who will see their health care simply shrink or disappear altogether and there's not a thing they can do about it.

So ...... overall ...... what's the general thinking about all this?

[DJ13]

1. I dont like the obvious favoritism towards the banks

I have a few complaints about the treatment of the auto industry, but overall I wish the administration treated the banks the same way they've treated the auto makers and forced them into a nationalized insolvency.

If they had taken that approach from the start with the banks, the banking crisis would likely be mostly over with already.

In trying to maintain the status quo for the executives in the banking industry the Obama administration has actually put our economy in even greater peril.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. No one has an opinion? No one gives a shit? Everybody's happy?

[csziggy]

3. Who had the comment about the workers who shower at night vs. those who shower in the morning?

They had it right. This sucks. Things may look a little better for the economy as seen by the financial sector, but the rest of the US will suffer even more as the supporting industries for the auto companies fall over.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Not sure of the name, but a MAJOR auto parts supplier declared bakruptcy just today

And, in fact, that is what prompted this thread.

The house of cards is tumbling down.

[Hannah Bell]

5. by design....

[csziggy]

7. I thought there were two - an auto parts one and an auto body firm

Yes:
Visteon, Metaldyne File for Bankruptcy as Sales Fall
By Alex Ortolani and Jeff St.Onge

May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Visteon Corp., the former parts- making unit of Ford Motor Co., and chassis manufacturer Metaldyne Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection after a global slump in vehicle sales reduced orders from U.S. automakers.

Ford will provide financing to help Van Buren, Michigan-based Visteon operate while in bankruptcy, Visteon said in today’s Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Metaldyne, a Plymouth, Michigan-based unit of Japan’s Asahi Tec Corp., plans to sell its businesses, according to yesterday’s filing in New York.
More: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aGt58DGzU1B4&refer=us

[Romulox]

6. Only a Democrat could get away with giving so much to Wall Street while turing the screws on Detroit

John McCain could not have gotten away with giving the Corporate Paymasters a no-strings-attached blank check while making working people the sacrificial lambs.

This is shameless betrayal by the Democratic Party of one of its most loyal constituencies.