President Bush announced a rescue plan for General Motors and Chrysler LLC Friday morning that will make $13.4 billion in federal loans available almost immediately.A senior administration official briefing reporters said he expects that GMand Chrysler LLC will be signing the loan papers to access the cash later Friday morning. The money will come from [...]

President Bush today announced that Detroit would gain access to some of the TARP fund.  He is allocating $9.4 billion to GM and $4 billion to Chrysler.  The White House expects officials from GM and Chrysler to sign the papers this morning so they can gain access to the cash later today. The loan terms [...]

Last week the senate denied the automakers a $14 billion emergency loan (it was actually coming out of the $25 billion loan that is already promised to them, but not being released) saying that the UAW is to blame because the UAW woudn’t make more concessions.  The stock market and the value of the dollar [...]

The senate didn’t pass the bailout legislation yesterday citing unwillingness of the UAW to take pay cuts to bring them inline with the Japanese automakers pay.  Nardelli sent a letter to his employees, here is what it said: Dear Employees: We are all obviously disappointed in what transpired in the Senate last night. While a [...]

Bob Lutz told CNBC that Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner should not be made a “sacrificial lamb” as a condition of the company receiving federal loan package Lutz’s comments on the news channel this morning were in response to congressional leaders’ weekend calls for management changes at GM as a condition of any federal aid [...]

GM warned the U.S. government on Tuesday that it needs a $4 billion loan by the end of December or else it faces the risk of immediate failure. “The first $4 billion is crucial,” GM’s Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said. “There is no Plan B.” The loan would be part of $18 billion in [...]

Chrysler submitted their plan today to congress that outlines how it plans to become more healthy.  Chrysler has a good chance of going under without some kind of federal aid like it received in the early 80s.  In order to remain viable it is looking for $7 billion in loans, less than Ford and much [...]

GM is mulling whether to shed its Pontiac, Saab and Saturn brands, as well as its Hummer brand, as part of a plan to win $12 billion of U.S. government loans, Bloomberg News said on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. GM was not immediately available for comment. Federal lawmakers last week rejected pleas [...]

Congress has asked the CEOs of the Detroit 3 automakers for a more detailed plan on December 2nd.  My question is simple: if you were in charge of GM, what changes would you make to show congress that a loan to GM won’t be wasted?  Post your restructuring plan as a comment.

Detroit automakers began work on the turnaround plans demanded by Congress in return for a possible $25 billion rescue as General Motors Corp said it will cut production more deeply and drop two of its controversial corporate jets. Pushed to the brink of failure by a plunge in auto sales, GM said on Friday it [...]