Economics

Who Wants to Go Halfsies on a Chevy Cobalt?

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GM has announced a new "ambitious" restructuring plan that would stick the U.S. government with a majority stake in the carmaker:

General Motors Corp. outlined a revamped survival plan Monday that would leave the U.S. government as its majority owner in return for an extra $11.6 billion in federal aid.

The plan includes an ambitious debt-swap offer that could move the auto maker closer to restructuring through bankruptcy court.

GM plans to cut another 7,000 staff, halve its dealer network and kill its Pontiac brand in an effort to secure government support after its existing proposal was rejected in March.

More here.

Reason.tv explored the problematic economics of GM and Chrysler not long ago. And I ran through some of the reasons why the government should not being dumping money into GM on CNBC's Power Lunch:

In other news, the United Auto Workers has agreed to "'painful' concessions to save Chrysler." It's not immediately clear if that means each UAW must adopt at least one PT Cruiser.