[willy]

there is some valid points made, I am sure many of the facts quoted have been skewed to make the point.
My biggest issue with the chapter 11 will be the lack of leadership concerning those 1 million retirees. No one wants those people to be put in harms way. To be honest they could do the managed chapter 11 maintaining there contractual benefits but there has to be a leader with balls to stand up for it and not for the corporate shareholders.
The issue concerning quality has not been one of initial quality which they are proud of publishing in all their marketing, it is of quality down the road, after you put 80,000 on your car and have to start repairing major components that never seem to be covered by the warranty. That is the arena in which detroit has not been competitive and still are not.
The simple fact was explained very succinctly by the buisness and finance leaders in the industry, the buisness model currently being used by chrysler and gm especially will never be competitive. In fact what they want from the current congress is a stop gap temporary loan to see them into 2009 when the new congress and president is in office so they can get a huge payout from the government. Every single investment expert including those in detroit say that it is just an initial hold over stopgap loan. That many times that would be needed and the likelihood of a payback very slim.
I did not want to bail out wall street because we do not have the money to do it, we still don't. And after the initial 700 billion is almost gone the market still is no where near being stable and they in fact expect they will need up to an additional 750 to one trillion from the taxpayers in 2009.
THIS IS MONEY WE DO NOT HAVE, WE ARE PRINTING IT AND BORROWING ON OUR FUTURE TO DO IT.
This is insane and we do not have a government that has the guts, brains or wherewithall to handle it.
The loan to the auto industry is just adding more insult to injury and a controlled chapter 11 would protect the retirees and force the UAW to reformulate their contracts to be in line with the other auto industry workers, not in asia or a third world country but here in the U.S
It will also force these poorly run industries to restructure and become competitive in the marketplace. Competitive as in profitable and competitive as in leading the world auto industry in inovation and technology.