Word: tasks
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...Rattner, an icy-eyed, sharp-spoken Wall Street dealmaker, laid out Obama's unappealing options. Chrysler could be scrapped for parts through an unstructured bankruptcy. Or the task force could try to make the Fiat proposal work, using the leverage of bankruptcy to force concessions and the Treasury's wallet to refinance the debt and recapitalize operations as debtor in possession. Some task-force members argued that, painful as it would be, liquidating Chrysler would strengthen the survivors - GM and Ford...
...else but the government would pay the suppliers, fund the sales incentives, guarantee the warranties that would keep local economies limping along from Fresno to the Finger Lakes? "These companies were saddled with an impossible set of liabilities," a task-force member explained. "Our job was to clear up their balance sheets, restructure their debt, cut their costs and put the new management in a position to execute a turnaround. And we hope that a part of that will be an increased focus on designing and building products that people want...
...Administration's actions. Is it feasible now for GM and Chrysler, which made money on pickups, SUVs and minivans, to small-car their way to prosperity? U.S. carmakers have not earned a dime selling automobiles in a decade. "There's no question it's a challenge," a task-force official allowed. "It's something the domestic car companies haven't done successfully in the past." Whether it will work in the future is "a fundamentally significant question...
...Kicking the Can When Obama drafted Rattner and another financier, Ron Bloom, to lead his auto task force, he instructed them to "treat these transactions in a commercial manner." That is to say, restructure the companies in a way that makes good business sense. The "commercial" mantra proved fleeting. The first imperative of commerce - to add value and thus earn profits - is too narrow to host all the civic expectations attached to the auto industry. If GM's only task were to make money, the company would shutter its car factories (or move them to low-cost countries) and churn...
...March 26, Obama convened the task force in the Roosevelt Room. By then, as Rattner explained to the President, a commercially sound plan for a stand-alone Chrysler was out of the question; it was deeply in debt, bleeding money and saddled with unpopular products. Of the 20 best-selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2008, only one, the Dodge Ram pickup, was made by Chrysler - compared with five for GM and four for Ford. A venerable European carmaker, Daimler, had already tried and failed to revive Chrysler. Its current owner, the private-equity fund Cerberus, had spent months...