Thursday, December 11, 2008

Bailing Out Chrysler?


This OP-ED and this article on the bail-out of Chrysler make some very important points:

1. Chrysler is owned by Cerberus.

2. Cerberus is a private investment firm whose CEO is former Bush appointed Treasury Secretary John W. Snow

3. If Chrysler goes bankrupt, Cerberus will lose approximately $2 billion

4. Cerberus has spent $7 million hiring former Bush senior appointed Vice-President Dan Quayle to lobby Washington to bailout their investment.

5. Cerberus and Chrysler are both private corporations and therefore the public has no access to any of their financial reports.

So...

What we don't know is very much about the company that owns Chrysler, Cerberus.

What we do know is that Cerberus isn't willing to risk any further capital beyond the original $2 billion loan provided to Chrysler when it was purchased. Cerberus risks losing this $2 billion if Chrysler files for bankruptcy. We also know Cerberus has strong connections in the federal government and are lobbying hard for this bailout.

Essentially, Cerberus wants the tax payer to burden the cost of keeping its bankrupt investment, Chrysler, afloat so that it can get its $2 billion back. This has nothing to do with jobs, this is all about money.

5 comments:

Douglas Porter said...

This was very interesting.

Josh said...

You've been very non-combative lately.

Feeling some Christmas spirit?

Douglas Porter said...

I have to remember that I'm debating my brother. In fact, compared to my forum and blog writing, I've been positively polite to you.

Also, I genuinely found the overlap interesting. Cerebus owns a car company and sells mortgages.

Josh said...

I think you should simply remember that calling me "stupid" and "ignorant" don't prove you right, it just discredits yourself.

I can't think of a time when I've directly insulted you, however that doesn't mean I haven't, it just means its very rare.

Douglas Porter said...

Yes, but sometimes your dishonest continuation of your position in the face of unanswered propositions makes me angry, hence creating a need to vent. ;) You can not honestly continue to support a position if you can not answer a point. That's why I keep repeating the point that you have ignored.