Any hope of a high-speed bankruptcy by General Motors faces a serious obstacle: a judge — not the Obama administration, not G.M. management and not the company’s creditors — would reign in court.
A bankruptcy judge would be required by law to listen to unions, whose members fear for their jobs, benefits and pensions. And the judge would have to pay attention to creditors, including bondholders frustrated by how much they stand to lose if G.M. is broken up into “good” and “bad” companies as the administration is planning. Even a judge sympathetic to the administration — and the administration would look for a sympathetic court — might be reluctant to rubber-stamp that plan.
Bankruptcy cases often drag on far longer than anticipated, slowed by unexpected obstacles to reorganization. The auto parts company Delphi, once a unit of G.M. and now a supplier, has languished in bankruptcy proceedings for four years, twice as long as originally planned, for example.
“It’s going to be about the union and the pensions,” said Ms. Mayerson, the bankruptcy lawyer. “And I don’t see any way that this is a quickie bankruptcy. After all, it took them 30 years to get into this mess.”
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/business/economy/17auto.html
As if it wasn't bad enough, according to the Wall Street Journal: "Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the executives involved with payments under scrutiny in a probe of an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter."
Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992516941227309.html
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