CHRYSLER, ER- GOVERNMENT MOTORS, NEEDS A DOSE OF FREE MARKET REALITY, BANKERS DON'T TAKE CRAZY OFFER

Chrysler Motors, the ailing auto giant, one of the former BIG THREE, was receiving help from its government benefactors in the form of negotiations to lower its outstanding secured debt, by converting most of it into a 5% stake in the ongoing company.

Wow, that's reality. The government wants the banks who received federal TARP money because of the losses they suffered or were going to suffer to basically write off the bad loan to Chrysler, so that the government could give them more taxpayer money for the losses they would suffer....but wait that is not how the accounting would work.

Under the Federally suggested arm twisting proposal to the banks, the conversion of the debt owed, which is now secured by the company's assets, thus giving them an ability to recover the funds, would be converted into worthless equity, stock ownership of 5% (WOW how generous), stock in a worthless business, which would still be saddled with all the billions and billions of benefit obligations, etc., with no predictable future as it is now positioned.

No wonder the banks balked at "such a deal". Would any sane businessman take such a deal if offered? Would the banks' stockholders be served well in accepting such a crazy deal ? If I was a stockholder of the banks involved and they accepted the deal, I would run to the first class action law firm powerhouse and sue the officials who wasted my equity in the bank through such a dumb decision.

After all they are bankers who would not lend any money today without a secured position to even way better credits such a successful smaller businesses.

I can remember a friend of mine who bought a Chrysler product some years ago, and showed it off. It was a brand spanking new Chrysler or Dodge convertible, the exact model I can no longer remember. What stood out for me was that the car had gaps in its doors which were so large you could see the door latching mechanism inside. That's then I realized that US car makers better wake up and start making a decent product.

Today's Chrysler cars sure look better, and are built better; a relative has a convertible which looks and runs great, but this may be too late for the company, especially since it is now essentially being run by government bureaucrats, rather than marketing guys.

The unrealistic demands for the banks to accept the crazy suggestion makes no sense to any businessman, but makes sense to the people who got the company into the mess to begin with through all the mandates which makes the price of the cars too high to afford by the average wage earner.

Congratulations to the bankers who did not knuckle under the heavy hand of bureaucrats and deplete the equity of their stockholders by accepting such an unfair offer. reorganization in a Chapter 11 or better yet a Chapter 7 would only benefit everyone involved.

At this time there are over 1,500 different car models available, is it worth it to save the dozen still viable models....if they will continue to be unaffordable to the average wage earner?

Do we really miss not being able to purchase a DESOTO ( my uncle had one), PLYMOUTH, PACKARD, YUGO, EDSEL, CITROEN (USA), CORVAIR, STANLEY STEAMER (we could use it today, I understand that Jay Leno has one that works/runs just fine and runs on steam power), DELAUREAN, BRICKLIN, CHECKER, OLDSMOBILE, CIMARRON, MERKUR, STUDEBAKER, AMERICAN MOTORS, ETC., ETC....

Did we even notice that they no longer exist? The same with Chrysler, we will not even miss it when it is gone, although I did own a DODGE VIPER and it was a heck of a monster car, which I'm sure can come out as some other brand.