The Whole Delivery

And good riddance : General Motors said Wednesday that it was shutting down Hummer, the brand of big sport-utility vehicles that became synonymous with the term “gas guzzler,” after a deal to sell it to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart, The New York Times’s Nick Bunkley reports from Detroit. G.M. said only that its planned sale of Hummer to the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Company “cannot be completed,” without giving a reason, but the $150 million deal had been stalled as the companies awaited approval from the Chinese government. G.M. had been trying to sell Hummer for a year, and struck a preliminary deal with Tengzhong last June. The two companies had planned to close the deal by the end of January, then delayed the deadline by a month in the hopes of getting the green light from China. But I can hear some nut saying the Obama Administration ordered GM to shut the Hummer down because it fits their Energy Agenda. Sight at me not being far from the truth of how...

Yeah General Motors completed a major step in its turnaround on Friday and closed the sale of its good assets to a new, government-backed carmaker, at a speed unimagined by auto and bankruptcy experts even six months ago. The government and G.M. signed the documents at 6:30 a.m. at the offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, the company’s chief bankruptcy counsel, according to a person briefed on the matter, after a bankruptcy court order staying the sale for four days expired on Thursday. G.M. will hold a news conference in Detroit, hosted by its chief executive, Fritz Henderson, and its new chairman, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., later Friday morning. Score another "L" for the Drugdes and Limbaughs of the world.

The demise of GM reaches full proportion today, as they file for Chapter 11. But it is important to note, that GM is going under a massive reconstruction and not "folding for good." Then distinction is very crucial to make. And sigh, another divisive headline to stir it up from the Fudge Report: As the great Marcy Wheeler astutely points out, the Administration isn't really trying to make it their company: It's a bunch of pablum designed to calm the fears of those worried about socialism, but it doesn't really add up to protecting the interests of Americans. For example, when asked whether the government would limit executive compensation, they said only that the company had to comply with all laws (they mentioned the Dodd amendment specifically), and otherwise, that the compensation committee would decide executive compensation. Michael Moore couldn't have explained it better : It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence...

Photo from ABCnews.com Whatever way you want to label it, that is what is going down right now, as the three CEO's of American's auto companies return to the Hill today to plead their cases. But they won't be as good as Ron Gettlefinger from yesterday. The Agenda's Pending Schedule will be placed at 1PM, Eastern time.

Gut-wrenching stuff to read from Berkeley professor Robert Reich , the former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, along with being an economic adviser for Barack Obama. Once again, it shows how Paulsen and Bernake have sold out this country for their friends once again. Especially the auto industry's workers who have been hurting for years, and look to receive the ultimate blow to their stomachs. Citigroup was once the biggest U.S. bank. General Motors was once the biggest automaker in the world. Now, both are on the brink. Yet Citigroup is likely to be rescued within days. General Motors may not be rescued at all. Why the difference? Viewed from Wall Street, Citi is too big and important to be allowed to fail while GM is simply a big, clunky old manufacturing company that can go into chapter 11 and reorganize itself. The newly conventional wisdom on the Street is that the failure of the Treasury and the Fed to save Lehman Brothers was a grave mistake because Lehman's demise...