Well, General Motors got a pass in bankruptcy court. US District Judge Robert Gerber has approved GM’s plan to slice and dice its assets at the expense of the usual fall guy: the US taxpayer.
The deal (if I may so characterize it) is that GM’s viable (in the loose sense of the term) will be moved into an entity 61% owned by the US government, and; whatever doesn’t make the cut ends up on the bankruptcy court floor to be picked over by the usual vultures.
What this does is wipe away any unsecured claims, essentially screwing bondholders, retired employees and people who’ve sued the company for building crap cars. GM's management, present and past, are doing the happy dance on that one, no doubt.
It remains to be seen what will be defined as “viable” and what as dross. Even as we speak, the EU is losing unity over which country will get to keep its taxpayers working under whoever buys the Opel unit from GM. So far Germany seems to have the biggest pockets (and the most immediate elections to spur the efforts) to save jobs and the smaller countries like Belgium and Britain are muttering and scuffing their feet in the dust.
But I’m not holding my breath that anything particularly good will come of this.
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