Saturday, January 3, 2009

U.S. auto makers receiving government loan

Special Report:Global Financial

Crisis










General Motors Corp. major auto maker in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said Thursday.





neral Motors vehicles are seen at a car

dealership in Toronto Dec. 12, 2008. General Motors Corp. major auto maker

in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury

Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said

Thursday. (Chinese media/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery



CHICAGO, Jan. 1 (Chinese media) -- General Motors Corp. major

auto maker in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S.

Treasury Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said

Thursday.

The cash infusion will prevent the automaker's

imminent financial collapse after a dramatic sales decline and cash crunch this

year.

The automakers in Detroit are to receive another loan

of 5.4 billion dollars by Jan. 16 and possibly another loan of 4 billion U.S.

dollars on Feb. 17.

The loans serve as major lifelines to two of

Detroit's Big Three automakers, both on the brink of failure, and for a U.S.

industry that has lost more than 100 billion U.S. dollars since 2004, trimmed

tens of thousands of jobs and closed numerous plants. In exchange, GM and

Chrysler must execute drastic restructuring plans or face bankruptcy.

GM had faced the possibility of collapse as early as

the first week of this month, when large supplier bills will come due, while

Chrysler warned it could have collapsed early this year.





White House unveils mulit-billion-dollar loans to bail out auto industry





WASHINGTON, Dec. 19

(Chinese media) -- The White House announced on Friday a rescue plan of multi-billion

dollars in emergency loans to bail out the country's crippled auto industry from

bankruptcy.



President George W. Bush made the announcement a week

after Senate Republicans blocked a 14 billion dollars legislation to aid the

automakers that had been negotiated by the White House and Congressional

Democrats.

Global auto bailout, a risky

game?


NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (Chinese media)

-- When the White House finally handed out to the Detroit carmakers a

long-awaited lifeline last Friday, it seemed to have triggered or at least

fueled a wave of auto industry bailouts around the world.

While many cheer the move as a timely rescue for the

victims of global economic recession, many others have raised the acute

question: Will this really work or will it make things even worse?



Wall Street relieved at pre-holiday

auto rescue, but worries persist



New York, Dec. 23 (Chinese media) -- With the Bush administration

finally extending a helping hand to the country's struggling auto industry,

investors of the Wall Street, who have been closely watching the so-called "auto

bailout" for months, at least have something to cheer for ahead of the holiday

season, though the specter of a sweeping industry collapse lingers and may

easily come back in just a few months.



The White House announcement on Dec. 19 to lend 17.4

billion U.S. dollars to cash-thirsty General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, two

of the American auto Big-3 that had jointly pleaded for government loan support,

has bought the companies three months more of survival, and also granted the

market a three-month reprieve from a widely-expected severe impact.



1 comment:

BeyondGreen said...

The high cost of gas this past year has seriously destroyed every budget from the average family to the largest of municipalities.The average family went broke at the pump alone, then added to the misery the higher cost of manufacturing and shipping was passed on to us at the checkout for every consumer product. School districts went broke keeping the busses on the road.One police dept in my area required officers to park their car for 15 minutes of every hour just to conserve .Lower prices are not here to stay.OPEC just announced another production cut.With all these bailouts in the billions why doesn't our nation see the need to bail us out of our dependence on foreign oil? I just read a really interesting new book called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now by Jeff Wilson.I never realized it would only cost the equivalent of 60 cents per gallon to charge and drive an electric car. Also,The electricity to charge the car could come from solar or wind generated electricity. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota.What powerful resources we have been neglected. The last economic stimulus package cost 168 BILLION and did absolutely nothing to stimulate our economy or create jobs.
Bail America out of its dependence on foreign oil. Wouldn't that make more sense?