Thursday, April 30, 2009

Obama Speaks on Chrysler Video

Chrysler will get a "new lease on life," Obama says. Chrysler has filed for bankruptcy while Chrysler teams up with Fiat. Obama says Chrysler and Fiat have a "strong chance of success."
Obama gets mad, slamming a group of investors and hedge funds for pushing Chrysler to bankruptcy. He says they were waiting for a government-funded bailout instead of making sacrifices as others have. (Slime)
"I don't stand with them," Obama said.
U.S. officials had offered Chrysler's secured lenders $2.25 billion in cash if they would agree to writedown the $6.9 billion in secured debt that the company owed. But a small group of hedge funds refused the 11th-hour deal.

An administration official this morning expressed disappointment, saying the holdouts had failed to "do the right thing," but that "their failure to act in either their own economic interest or the national interest does not diminish the accomplishments made by Chrysler, Fiat and its stakeholders, nor will it impede the new opportunity Chrysler now has to restructure and emerge stronger going forward."

"I don't stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices," Obama said at the White House today. WaPo
GMAC will finance new Chrysler sales. If you decide to buy a car, I hope it will be an American car, Obama said.
It's interesting to note, Obama once owned a Chrysler 300.

More perspective on the handful of slimy hedge funds and investors from Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan: