The bankruptcy is right on track:
A federal judge approved a plan by General Motors late on Sunday to sell its best assets to a new, government-backed company, a crucial step for the automaker to restructure and complete its trip through bankruptcy court.
The decision by the judge, Robert E. Gerber of United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, came after three days of hearings to address the 850 objections to the restructuring plan and after he had received a revised sale order from G.M.’s lawyers.
I think it is interesting that this is being don e with so little fanfare, yet Chrysler, which was much smaller, was met with screams of indignation and howls of socialism (or whatever ism is the scary word of the day).
ArtV
Give it time. There will be challenges. They have until Thursday to file them.
DBrown
Unless some group has bought vast amounts of debt for a few pennies on the dollar, I don’t see anyone fighting this in a real way.
Dork
I’m sure if the union gets a single bone, like the workers making $13 an hour with health insurance instead of minimum wage and no bennies, the Limbaugh Lunatics will be out in force.
Nevermind that they made much more than that before BK, and probably cannot save Detroit on such pittance. Unions are teh suck! they’ll squeal.
Napoleon
Well 1) New GM is assuming some/all of Old GM’s personal injury liability which I understand raised some serious questions in the Chrysler case; 2) New GM has not filed a motion to reject a bunch of franchise agreements (they are trying to work out deals with franchises and 3) I would guess the bondholders in Old GM see the writing on the wall with the Chrysler decision and are not going to throw good money after bad.
Brian J
Are there people who bought the stuff for pennies on the dollar and then lost their minds when the bet they made–that they could pick the pockets of the taxpayers–didn’t work out? Or rather, are there enough of them to make a big difference?
PeakVT
IIRC in the Chrysler case some of the bondholders were “secured” whereas GM managed to get everyone to take unsecured debt before imploding. The secured bondholders argued they should go to the very front of the line. The usual suspects repeated this line endlessly, which makes me think it was at best a questionable assertion.
JenJen
I know it’s not an open thread, but man do I need to vent about Mika’s performance on Morning Joe this am. Anyone see that? Yikes!!
Keith G
So little fanfare reported because: It (as noted) happened before; Sarah Palin; A certain memorial service.
The Moar You Know
@PeakVT: IIRC, it was a certain group of secured bondholders that claimed they should go to the front of the line; the UAW was the largest group of secured bondholders, and this group of poor gamblers made the argument that they, not the people who built the cars, should get preedence.
Sometimes I wish there was a hell.
someguy
Fuck people with secured interests.
Seriously. Fuck them.
Know what a synonym is for “person with a secured interest”?
Speculator with benefits.
And fuck UCC Article 9 while we’re at it.
Mnemosyne
My Rush Limbaugh-listening dad keeps insisting that Ford is not actually going through bankruptcy no matter how many times I point out that they’re in bankruptcy court and a bankruptcy judge is making the decisions, not the Obama administration.
And he wonders why I don’t call very often ….
cliff
keep in mind guys that lots of these bonds are likely in your pension fund if you have a pension.
someguy
@ Mnemosyne
When did Ford declare bankruptcy? That’s really huge news but I missed it somehow.
The Moar You Know
@someguy: Mnemosyne’s a bit confused. Ford is not in bankruptcy.
KevinNYC
Yeah, either he meant to say GM or he should listen to his Dad more.
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pika
You missed the fanfare–the right made all sorts of stink about “Government Motors” and Obomit and teh socialism. Get it? G M? Get it?
BDeevDad
GM was never owned by a foreigner and more votes are at stake as GM is bigger.
Wile E. Quixote
It’s because 95% of the people who were in favor of the Chrysler bailout went to the Michael Jackson funeral, or are going to his funeral, or something. WOLVERINES!
grumpy realist
I think it’s basically because GM is the second in line to do this and all the Usual Suspects are pretty pooped out from their hissy-fit about Chrysler. Plus the fact that all the whinging and pounding the table didn’t do a thing to impress the judge, who told them effectively “it’s a bankruptcy, shut up” and went on exactly according to the original plan.
GM does seem to be trying to drive this thing through the law courts faster than the speed of light, mainly because a) they don’t want to let the hissy-fitters gain any momentum, and b) the longer that GM remains in bankruptcy, the less value the company will have, period.
I also think that what probably put a big kibosh on the whining was the report that came out about the value of Chrysler and pointed out that the “take-it-or-leave-it” offer the bond-holders had gotten was, in fact, probably better than what they would have received under standard bankruptcy proceedings. I noticed things got *reeely* quiet after that.