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...White House's auto-task-force working group is headed by Steve Rattner, a former reporter who was head of the private-equity firm Quadrangle Group, and Ron Bloom, an investment banker who previously worked for the United Steelworkers union. Staffed by about 15 restructuring and other experts, the task force aims to do two things in the weeks ahead. First, it will try to close the deal on Chrysler's sale to Fiat. Sources familiar with the task force's approach describe Chrysler as "hollowed out" by a succession of owners and largely worthless, with no quality brands other...
...plan would involve forming one company around bad assets, such as Hummer and Saturn, and dumping the retiree health-care liabilities into it. That company could be sold off or wound down. A second company would comprise the better performing Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac and GMC brands. That ongoing firm could be partly owned by the bondholders, the UAW and other creditors...
...Also troubling: Wall Street veterans are complaining that banks and other investment firms - many of which are recipients of federal aid - may be taking advantage of the taxpayer bailout of AIG to boost their profits. "It seems very possible that the banks are forcing AIG to unwind its contracts at a premium," says James Bianco, who runs a financial-markets research firm in Chicago...
...celebrated in a different way in the Floating Mosque currently under construction off the coast of Dubai. Designed by Dutch firm Waterstudio.NL, the arresting building, which is due to be finished by 2011, resembles a futuristic submarine rising from the Persian Gulf with minarets so short and slender they could be periscopes. Built of floating modules of concrete and foam, it will be cooled by seawater pumped through the roof, walls and floors...
...course, there are corollaries to this. One must certainly touch the Queen if the monarch offers her hand (though you should return this not with a firm handshake but just a touch). On Wednesday, Michelle Obama put her hand on the Queen only after the Queen had placed her own hand on the First Lady's back as part of their conversation. So there is room for theological argument as to whether the American reciprocity of touch was allowable given the social dynamics of the situation. (Less explicable was when President George W. Bush winked at the Queen.) Still...