The Endless Bailout

Gabe sends a post by email -- damn his job.

The New York Times reports "the Treasury Department has agreed to take a stake of $5 billion in GMAC, the auto lending company, and agreed to lend $1 billion to General Motors to help GMAC reorganize itself as a bank holding company."

The Detroit Free Press adds "the money for the injection would come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout, and that GMAC would have to meet restrictions on executive pay as part of the deal."

And finally, the Wall Street Journal chimes in:

The move represents the second tranche of government aid that redounds to the benefit of giant private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which owns Chrysler and, until these recent moves, a majority stake in GMAC. John Snow, a top player at Cerberus, was the Bush Administration's Treasury secretary before Henry Paulson.

...

In bailing out GMAC, Treasury officials aren't just stabilizing an auto-finance company but a major player in the housing market's boom and bust. GMAC played a big role in purchasing riskier adjustable-rate mortgages.

posted by Ace at 02:07 PM

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