02-17-2012, 06:41 PM
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-kl...draft.html
Good interview on the topic. Economists are generally in agreement that GM would have been liquidated under normal bankruptcy. I can't find anyone saying that credit was available for them to avoid that, or that any company was willing or ABLE to step in and buy those companies, even in pieces. The credit to do that simply was not there.
The reason? A perfect storm of worst-in-70-years credit crunch, bad management, and too much debt. In normal times the companies could have bailed themselves out with borrowing. But there was nothing normal about 2008, as we know.
As for concessions, no group made more concessions than the UAW to get these companies back on their feet.
I think seeing the current success of these companies, apologies are owed both Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama. They did the right thing in the face of many voices telling them not to do this.
It's up to these companies now to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. I think a lot of lessons have been learned.
Good interview on the topic. Economists are generally in agreement that GM would have been liquidated under normal bankruptcy. I can't find anyone saying that credit was available for them to avoid that, or that any company was willing or ABLE to step in and buy those companies, even in pieces. The credit to do that simply was not there.
The reason? A perfect storm of worst-in-70-years credit crunch, bad management, and too much debt. In normal times the companies could have bailed themselves out with borrowing. But there was nothing normal about 2008, as we know.
As for concessions, no group made more concessions than the UAW to get these companies back on their feet.
I think seeing the current success of these companies, apologies are owed both Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama. They did the right thing in the face of many voices telling them not to do this.
It's up to these companies now to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. I think a lot of lessons have been learned.