$25 billion in perspective

Peggy Risley of Blanchard Gold sent an e-mail around, detailing steps the government has taken so far in this financial crisis. I haven’t done my usual fact checking on this but it seems right. Here’s the list (edited somewhat):
Wall Street

$1.6 trillion in loans to banks so far in exchange for otherwise unwanted collateral. The Fed [...]

The Three Stooges of Detroit

The pathetic performance by the CEOs (Moe, Larry, and Shemp) was almost enough to make me change my mind about supporting aid for the automakers. They were that bad. Did their PR departments have any clue how to prepare them, or did they all just go off the reservation on their own?
Did Wagoner actually object [...]

Auto execs shoot their companies in the foot

The Detroit Three CEOs stood before Congress today to plead their case. They insisted that their companies could not declare bankruptcy and survive, as posturing small-town-values hypocrite Senator Shelby insisted they should go bankrupt so they could put their retirees into poverty, break their promises to vendors and banks (putting many of them into bankruptcy), [...]

Fallout for Chrysler from Cerberus and GM

General Motors and Chrysler may or may not merge. At this point, though, both will be weaker from the rumors that have been flying.
Analysts and journalists have been fairly unanimous in their belief that neither company deserves to live. The jobs of tens of thousands of people - hundreds of thousands when suppliers are added [...]

What if Cerberus isn’t selling Chrysler but buying GM?

General Motors has very little free capital for an automaker.
It is a difficult time for the Big Three, who have pandered to Americans for years, building the big, gas-guzzling vehicles preferred by the United States and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Canada. General Motors did try, producing the credible Cobalt and Saturns, but Americans didn’t [...]

The three-headed dog of Chrysler (updated)

Cerberus has apparently taken its image as the three-headed dog guarding the entrance to Hell (from the demons within) to heart, as they’ve put three different heads in charge of Chrysler.
At the very top is Bob Nardelli, who has taken a bunch of his old pals from GE and Home Depot and installed them [...]