I’m pretty clueless about this car stuff, but it seems that it’s the financial speculators again. No?

There is a good reason why Cerberus is named after the mythological, multiheaded dog that guards the entrance to Hades; any company that sees this figure is doomed.

Do you go bankrupt and make your cars toxic, bc no one will buy a car from a company in bankruptcy?

Or do you shed dealers the hard way?

In a sane political world, Congress would have dealt with this–there is nothing that Chapter 11 gives you that they can’t legislate (all car sales are, after all, interstate commerce). But fucking with dealers (or even finding a soft landing for them) is politically toxic for politicians, therefore we can’t do that–which would be the best thing for our country.

I forgot we were dealing with Junior, and ought to be indulgent.

The Federal Reserve gave General Motors a crucial boost yesterday by approving a request from GMAC, which provides funding for most of the automaker’s dealers and many of its customers, to become a bank holding company. […]

In return, the company is subjecting itself to regulations that could force changes in some business practices and limit its future profitability. For example, GMAC will need to hold more money in reserve against its portfolio of outstanding loans. The Fed also required GM, which owns 49 percent of the company, and Cerberus, the private equity firm that bought 51 percent of the company from GM in 2006, to divest much of their ownerships stakes, because commercial companies are not allowed to own banks.

You know Hamsher and Markos and Christy and Duncan. Digby and Bowers and Silver and Krugman. But do you recall the most brilliant blogger of all? Marcy the Red-Nosed Wolverine!

What does this Fed move mean smurt peeple?