Local Dodge dealer strikes back and the customer is the winner.  Only a few months after agreeing to open/purchase a Dodge dealer, owner principal, Will Churchill, finds that his dealership is on the public list of Chrysler stores which are to close.  Thus, he promptly offered all of cars for sale to wholesalers and then [...]

The administration’s new rules tightening regulations on greenhouse gases emitted by cars and increasing gas mileage could not come at a worse time for car makers.  These rules while perhaps laudable in a perfect economic environment will increase the cost of the cars to be sold and will increase the cost of making those vehicles [...]

“After 100 years in business and 10 months of frenzied but failed restructuring, General Motors Corp is weeks from the bankruptcy filing experts say will be required to complete the Obama administration’s bid to reshape a fallen icon of American industry.
Facing a government-imposed June 1 deadline to restructure, GM is scrambling to slash some $27 [...]

Here is a link to “map” the Chrysler dealer closings, at least as they have been proposed by Chrysler in its bankruptcy case:
http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/chryslerdealerclosings/TX.html
 Michael

Merrill’s former chief economist, David Rosenberg, had some very negative comments about the much touted “turn around” calling it the stuff of fairy tales.  Some of his comments were published on a blog, causing his former employer to work hard to remove those posts! Here is a quote from an article about that effort:
“Rosenberg’s reports [...]

“General Growth Properties Inc., which filed the biggest real-estate bankruptcy in U.S. history, won court approval [over the objections of some of its other lenders] of a $400 million loan from a group led by Farallon Capital Management LLC and the right to use cash on hand to fund its operations.
The company received approval to [...]

As I contemplate the government’s corporate preferences — GMAC yes; Chrysler Financial no (see one article on the forced switch: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090510/SUB01/305109961/1069 ) – I am reminded of the recent Saturday Night live skit where “President Obama” gives a speech on the government’s decisions about which companies will be allowed to continue and which will be [...]

As previously noted, the authors who I read generally agree that we have been experiencing a bear market rally in the markets and that it will soon, or perhaps already has, resume its steep declines.  Here is another advocate of that position.  “Merrill’s economist David Rosenberg left the firm Friday, May 8 (planned for several [...]

“The kerfuffle about current New York Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Stephen Friedman’s purchase of some Goldman stock while the Fed was involved in reviewing major decisions about Goldman’s future—well-covered by the Wall Street Journal here and here—raises a fundamental question about Wall Street’s corruption. Just as the millions in AIG bonuses obscured the much more [...]

The attorney for some of the bond holders in Chrysler, Tom Lauria, (once a co-worker of mine) has pointedly stated that the White House has threatened his clients in order to get them to “go along” with the deal which the Treasury Dept. and in particular, the car czar panel (no one car czar was [...]