"There are two sets of rules. One set for the rulers and another for the rest of us." —Richard Yancey, former IRS tax collector 
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually, run out of other people’s money.” - Margaret Thatcher
Posted on 04/17/2009 7:06:38 PM PDT by re_tail20
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.
“Once you’re in, nobody knows where it’s going because anyone can come into court and say no, no, no,” said Sandra E. Mayerson, head of the insolvency practice in the New York law office of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. “I’ve had preplanned bankruptcies that we thought would be out in 90 days but we were in for a year.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
but what does the LAW say
Does it mater any more?
Why do I have the feeling that no matter what happens in court, we the taxpayer will be bailing out GM for years to come?
If you read the NYT like Soviet watchers read Pravda, very similar anyways, you notice how the debate over this issue has changed.
Five months ago, the NYT had articles and columns claiming that bankruptcy for GM would lead to liquidation of the whole company.
Now, it’s evolved to a debate and discussion over the bankruptcy details.
Events have thankfully overtaken them, even though behind their closed doors they knew liquidation was improbable, and they’ve gone on to their next posturing position.
Hold it, not so fast, has the UAW approved of this???
As expected those fear-mongering in order to get our tax
money were lying about the dissolvement of GM in bankruptcy
court.
I would submit that it matters to us conservatives because no matter how long this takes, no matter what form it takes, the industry power base infrastructure with the United Auto Workers that the liberals and the Democrats have benefited from will never be able to be at the same strength again.
Chapter 11 will break up the industry structure from which it derives its strength. Also, like Humpty Dumpty, all the liberals and Democrats and union members will never be able to put it back together again the way it was before.
The liberals and the Democrats will be forced to rely more and more on their strengths with the government employee unions and teacher unions.
The UAW isn’t worried about this. Usually you can’t get them to stop their whining. However they haven’t said squat for months.
The fix is in.
If anybody has 20,000 to blow this may be it! (Not me BTW)
How many dealers, their employees and suppliers will be represented at the table. Will there be parts on the market to service the millions of vehicles on the road now...
That’s a very high level question. Suppliers get first priority. Dealers and employees are dependent on the compromise.
zero can just fire the judge
"There are two sets of rules. One set for the rulers and another for the rest of us." —Richard Yancey, former IRS tax collector
I agree, this is very telling. I think that if there is collusion between obomba and the unions it is illegal. Maybe an impeachable offense, it's a good dream.
The 0bama team is hoping that a prepackaged bankruptcy will leave the unions unharmed while sticking it to the stake holders and white collar workers. However members of a creditor class must be treated equally.
I’m not a GM shareholder, but I thought the most incredible part of the article is that it does not contain a single reference to stockholders. To paraphrase Col. North, what are they, potted plants? It’s stockholders, not unions or bondholders, who in bankruptcy will be expected to give up everything — 100% total loss.
It’s not that I’m even particularly sympathetic to those GM stockholders — after all, they were ultimately responsible for their do nothing boards of directors and incompetent leadership, etc., etc. But I certainly don’t think the stockholders were as directly responsible for GM’s failures as the directors, executives, or UAW contracts
If we are to sympathize with the bondholders and the UAW pensioners and the suppliers, why not also sympathize with the folks who bought GM stock to send their kids through college or fund their pension plans.
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