That's only enough money to get the automakers through May. They'll be back, and there will be a second (and third, and so on) chance for the Democrats to claim full credit.

I think Thomas meant March. I assumed that all Presidential appointees would be reset once Obama is in office, so a Bush appointee would only be in there until January 20th.
If the President, whoever it may be, follows Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) advice he will appoint Ron Gettelfinger, the President of the UAW, to be in charge of the auto oversight board. That would score huge points for the Democrats and would result in the Union downsizing itself, having only itself to blame for decisions made. Gettelfinger is well respected amongst both the corporate and union side of the US auto industry.

Why didn't Bu$hco and the GOP insist on these kind of requirements (no planes, no golden parachutes, no dividends) for the banksters?
Wasn't Paulsen saying that you wouldn't be able to get/keep qualified people if their hands were tied?
But that doesn't seem to be an issue when it comes to the auto companies - I guess they figure anybody with a $11/hr McJob could run GM into the ground, but you need a $10million HBS grad to crash AIGChaseCitiBoA?

The arguments for this bailout don't make sense. For this to have any chance at all to work, lay offs and shutdowns are necessary. And how much more likely are people going to buy cars from gm now than if they were bankrupt?

It will take continued fiscal contributions and tax policy incentives (interest deductions, tax credits)to string this along. The costs will be tremendous and will clearly show to be substantially more expensive than bankruptcy.

Strange? Well, yes, if by strange you mean unbelievably stupid.

But don't fret too much.

Because, the idiot will just punt the bill right on back to them anyway. No matter what they give him, it won't be enough.

Lucy doesn't ever really want to play ball.

She just likes the tormenting.

It's not the UAW they're afraid of.

It's the dealers. Auto dealers have tremendous influence on state and local governments (very little of it good for consumers, btw).

The dealers are -- or at least should, if these restructurings are done properly -- going to suffer WAY more pain than the UAW, which has already gone much of the distance it will have to go.

There are many California cities (Cerritos and Tustin being the most prominent) that rely heavily on the revenue generated from their massive auto squares. Close up those dealerships and those cities go bankrupt soon after.

I hear from other websites it's Kenneth Feinberg (sp?) the 9.11 compensation special master. Seems a fair guy who has taken on a number of thankless tasks, however, I would want someone other than a lawyer, someone who actually has engineering and product development experience with some finance thrown in. There are too many lawyers in charge of things as it is and I say that as a lawyer.

It isn't $25B, it's only $15B (if I understand it correctly, the appropriation was for $7B to guarantee loans, but now the auto makers are in such dire straits that $7B only gets you $15B cash).

And with GM on the brink of insolvency, and burning through cash at about $7B/quarter, their share probably only gets them to some time in March. The incoming Obama administration will have to scramble to get a real rescue plan done.

And that also makes it clear why the oversight doesn't amount to much: the loan to GM will be paying the bare costs of operations - wages, payments to suppliers, power bills. When you put someone on a ventilator, you don't need to worry how they're going to use the oxygen.

...here are many California cities (Cerritos and Tustin being the most prominent) that rely heavily on the revenue generated from their massive auto squares.

If they really are massive, they should be amongst the ranks of dealerships that will survive. A lot of dealerships will (should!) fold, but not all of them. Also, I suspect a portion of those domestic dealerships that do fail will ultimately become Toyota or Nissan dealerships.

And with GM on the brink of insolvency, and burning through cash at about $7B/quarter, their share probably only gets them to some time in March. The incoming Obama administration will have to scramble to get a real rescue plan done.

Right. And that's probably a good thing. I don't trust this administration's thinking on anything involving the current crisis. They're simply incompetent. Not that any Democratic administration is going to find it easy to face down unions, but still...

yes. It's not the UAW they're afraid of.

Interestingly, the UAW is demanding a seat on the board in exchange for any giveaways. If that, plus a public oversight board, takes hold and the Big Three don't go under, American capitalism will have changed in a significant fashion.

Walter Reuther would like that.

"Also, I suspect a portion of those domestic dealerships that do fail will ultimately become Toyota or Nissan dealerships."

I wouldn't bank on this. Auto sales in the US are down for all manufacturers. I'm pretty sure that current Toyota, Nissan, Honda dealers are going to push back against new dealers diluting the customer base.

Ezra,

You are absolutely correct. Instead of breaking the dealer network - where the real problems are, the impetus is to break the union movement. Make Detroit smaller, and more importantly union weak. A midwestern alabama.

The Democrat, per usual are looking at finding cover for their cowardice.

Welcome to the banana republic.

The auto square concept is not one enormous dealership but instead 20+ dealerships of all makes operating on basically the same block. The Japanese manufacturers are already there.

http://www.cerritosautosquare.com/dealerships/

The approx. number of GM dealerships is 7500-8000, and Toyota and Honda have about 1500 each in the US.

This czar thingy is weird. Pelosi (who I generally like a lot) said that she hoped Bush would appoint someone who would be acceptable to Obama for continuity's sake - the ranking contender for the 2008 dumbest statement of the year.

A committee of the Congress can't supervise anything on a consistent basis, but this should be in the hands of a cabinet sec'y (or perhaps the GAO), not some powerless czar. To begin with, the law isn't specific enough to make executive supervision by the gov. realistic. All that can be hoped for is timely reporting, and that would be battle in of itself.