Some movement with the GM bondholders:
As General Motors moved closer to a bankruptcy filing, possibly early next week, attention on Thursday turned again to the bondholders, the most important group that the company has yet to win over for its efforts to start fresh.
Early Thursday, G.M. proposed a deal in which bondholders would receive up to a 25 percent stake — a bigger share than G.M. offered the autoworkers union — if they do not oppose its bankruptcy reorganization, and then said that a group representing many of the largest bondholders had accepted the offer.
The proposal came as administration officials and G.M. began to discuss how the carmaker would look once it emerged from a court reorganization. The company is expected to seek bankruptcy protection by Monday, the deadline set by the Obama administration to restructure outside bankruptcy.
In a regulatory filing, G.M. set Saturday afternoon as the deadline for other bondholders to support the plan. In addition to the group supporting the G.M, plan, which represents about 20 percent of G.M.’s debt, people with knowledge of the discussions said a second group, with about 30 percent of G.M.’s debt, was in talks with the Treasury.
Sadly, this will probably mean the plaintive wails in the Clusterstock comments section will be less frequent, which is a shame. They were pretty solid entertainment.
Laura W
Beep Beep
m’ Beep Beep
Yeah!
demkat620
Gee, you wonder if they looked at Chrysler and got the message.
MikeJ
And can I say that Steve Benen is right when he says Kevin Drum is right?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018383.php
Rick Taylor
I doubt it. They’ll always have something to complain about. Like how the evil socialistic government forced them to take a mere 25%. Even David Broder was chiming in; sacrifice is only for retired folk on social security.
SrirachaHotSauce
@MikeJ:
Meh, I think they are more right when there is some actual evidence of actual discrimination against Republican car dealers. Who made the list of dealers to be closed? What process was followed? Absent these facts, where is the problem here?
The GOP tactic is to get the mileage out of the idea whether any evidence is found or not. “That’s what opposition parties are for?” Pulling shit of your ass and making unfounded accusations and smears against your opponents? Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t. Time will tell.
An alarmist website I visited purporting to “expose” this problem consisted mostly of claims that closing dealers was illegal, which of course is nonsense, and sketchy “data” purporting to be about campaing contributions which lacked necessary specific detail of the most basic kind. It looks and sounds for all the world like Truther and Birther rants.
Does anyone really think that the Obama administration has nothing more important to do than try to interfere with the creation of this dealer list so as to injure Republicans? The idea is absurd on its face, reducing the administration to a large example of the Blagojevich approach to government. A keystone cops maneuver. The thing makes no sense.
Kevin Drum is usually pretty good, but his take on this is just bone stupid. Opposition parties are for ginning up any half-assed charges and throwing poo at the government?
I don’t think so.
Evidence, please.
Death By Mosquito Truck
Nothing to add, just trying out my new handle.
Indylib
@SrirachaHotSauce:
They don’t give a shit about evidence. They would think this was a stellar idea if Repubs could do it to Dems, and they are incapable of believing that in the same position of power Dems won’t go out of their way to petulantly and childishly abuse said power against them.
SrirachaHotSauce
@Death By Mosquito Truck:
Mom?
Indylib
@SrirachaHotSauce:
Ohhh, fucking lol!
PeakVT
It’s too bad the Obama administration won’t (or can’t – you make the call) muscle the banksters around like it’s doing with the car companies and bondholders.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Win. Exactly how I would have transcribed it.
less is more
A Fire everyone above foreman at GM. No severance no insurance no retirement. A poorly printed pamphlet on how to apply for food stamps.
B give GM to Toyota. Just give it to them. No financing, no lets make more of Geithners buddies rich. Just give the whole thing to them for free.
C now about that universal health plan that we can’t afford, we are going to hire Bernie Maddoff, he knows people who will give him free money. Say for every 10 million we knock a week off of his sentence. Bet he will raise the whole sum in a month.