Reuters – General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are considering accepting a pre-arranged bankruptcy as the last-resort price of getting a multi billion dollar government bailout, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with internal discussions.

In response to automakers’ bailout plea, staff for three members of Congress have asked restructuring experts if a pre-arranged bankruptcy — negotiated with workers, creditors and lenders — could be used to reorganize the sector without liquidation, Bloomberg said.

General Motors and Chrysler could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

Industry executives and analysts say the immediate carnage from a bankruptcy of General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co or Chrysler would spread throughout an industry that is bleeding cash in a global slowdown.

Read Complete Article

Tags: amar-gill, auburn-hills-michigan, back-pain, chrysler, csx, dislocations, dphiq-pk, east-coast-routes, economic-crisis, financial-institutions, government-funding, investment-arm, investment-firm, last-november, miles-per-gallon, objections, reshuffle, setback, severe-losses

North County Times – The stock market is retreating, credit markets are squeezed and many corporate earnings are diving. But one piece of the mangled U.S. economy is making an improbable comeback: the dollar.

As the financial meltdown clobbers world economies from South America to Asia, investors desperate for safe assets are plowing money into the battered buck —- helping it snap a six-year slide and reclaim its long-held status as a stable asset during rough times.

"The dollar has become the safe-haven play," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading in New York. "It’s a pretty monumental move we’re seeing" and" reflects a "crisis of confidence."

While the U.S. economy by no means is showing signs of a recovery, Lien said other countries are "just beginning to feel the magnitude of the global slowdown, whereas the U.S. is maybe three-quarters of the way through. "What everyone is beginning to realize is that, yes, the U.S. is in trouble. But it’s also much further along (in the crisis) and probably closer to stabilizing than Europe and other regions," Lien said.

Read Complete Article

Tags: amar-gill, blue-jays, business-activity, credit-crisis, data-from-thousands, global-market-conditions, halo, institutional-marketing, losses, medallion, pariah, trust-funds