I’ve been writing for a few months on the billions of dollars bailing out the big US car makers and predicting Chrysler would go to the wall and today, it happens.
Yay me for being such a great pundit!
Count crow off that if you will when thousands of guys are going home to the wife and kids and saying, “Guess what honey? We’re getting an extra long summer vacation this year!”
It’s no bloody joke when a company like that goes down the toilet but one thing for America – it is the land not so much of opportunity as reinvention.
Fiat has been waiting in the wings for some months and the unions too, waiting to take a slice of this beached whale unable to swim without a massive buoyancy aid (in this case the US taxpayer).
90 days is the expected purdah for Chrysler to emerge from the proceedings, not as a dead name to be lost in the corporate swamp of time, but a newer, leaner, sleeker company with an Italian image makeover.
BaddaBing BaddaBoom!
I guess the poor Joes making their way home at the moment can console themselves with the CEO’s announcement he will resign after the bankruptcy and a new board of directors will be appointed, no doubt just in time to interview these guys trying to get their old jobs back.
Then again, this is America in action – you can’t make it don’t expect someone else to do it for you!
Expect new technology, ecologically sound policies and a reshaped company ready to emerge for the recovery which I suspect is looming around Q409 or Q110 – nicely timed by those pulling the strings and ultimately, if all those jobs are to come back perhaps this is the best way to get it done, cold, clean and quick.
Just my five cents worth.
