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- Dec 3, 2009
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There was no other option short of simply giving them the money. Securing the bailout funds with stock ownership was the best way to go. It didn't take long to get them to a point where they could do an IPO and reduce government ownership to minority status. Wagoner should have been fired YEARS before GM's fortunes came to a head. That was absolutely a necessary move.
You can bitch and moan about how it was done, but there is no question that they were goners without the bailout and they are now on the path to profitability. The consequences of failure right at the depths of the recession would have been enormous: far worse than Lehman.
Ford wasn't a goner. Chrysler? Well, it's now an Italian company, but is still in business. What would have been the downside to letting GM either reorganize or go the way of Studebaker?