Reply #16: Should have let them die 30 years ago! [View All]

[ben_meyers]

Chrysler would have been absorbed by the other companies and maybe the ones left would have been better equipped to compete.

As Chrysler was tottering in 1979, President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic-controlled Congress cobbled together a rescue plan that included $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees and a package of concessions worth several billion dollars more from others interested in Chrysler's survival, including its union, its bankers and its dealers.

The Carter administration also made a 25 percent tariff on imports of Japanese light trucks unavoidable — building a protective wall around what were to become Detroit's hottest products: sport utility vehicles and minivans.

But the politics of the day didn't allow for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/automobiles/14bailout.html?_r=1&n=Top/News/Business/Companies/General%20Motors%20Corporation&oref=slogin