America Bails Out The Auto Industry
According to BBC News, the US government will provide $17.4bn (£11.6bn) in loans to troubled car-makers GM, Chrysler and Ford.
The outgoing President George W Bush has announced that America could not allow the US car industry to fail. President George W Bush said allowing the auto industry to fail “would not be a responsible course of action”.
The car makers have three months to get their house in order as the US government has set a deadline of 31 March for the firms to become viable.
Car-makers will get $13.4bn in short-term financing from the $700bn Wall Street bail-out, and another $4bn will be provided later.
Of course the problem the car-makers now have is selling their products. They need to pressurize the banks to let people have finance so that consumers can once again buy new cars.
Officials said that General Motors and Chrysler were expected to take up the loan offer immediately, but Ford will hold back as they don’t seem to need the money at this stage.
Simon McBride
See also:
No comments yet
