Big Three Rescue Part 2 -- Let's learn from Chrysler 1979
I am hopeful that my proposal for government-guaranteed loans and credit lines for the Big Three, in exchange for the meaningful structural changes, will soon become reality. Without knowing it, I was in some ways recounting what happened under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 with Chrysler. Check out this wonderful article from Time Magazine’s archives: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947356-1,00.html To summarize, The government guaranteed loans to Chrysler totaling up to $1.5 billion Chrysler had to secure another $1.43 billion in private financing at reduced rates from banks Chrysler had to gain concessions from suppliers on cost and financing Chrysler committed to $462.5 million in concessions from the company’s union employees, plus another $125 million from salaried workers. Chrysler shed unattractive assets (wholly owned parts and components factories), cut the workforce. The US government also extended the deadline by two years for Chrysler to meet C.A.F.E.
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