Chrysler Disaster - Mans Biggest Weakness

Interesting article in the NY Times.

www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/business/09cerb.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=cerberus&st=Search

These guys at Cerberus had so much hubris. It was doomed to fail. How in the world could they have possibly thought that they could turn this company around when the Germans couldn't?
Whats ludicrous is that these guys had no clue or idea how to run a auto company and then made disparaging comments about the Germans to the workers at Chrysler.

What they really wanted to do was to bleed the auto business while funneling the cash flow to the financing unit, eventual merging it with GMAC. Funny and interesting thing happened on the way to the arena.

Whats really surprising is not one of these "So called credit/finance experts" at Cerberus ever researched that sub prime would wreck everything.

Don't ever ever feel sorry for Cerberus, Blackstone, KKR, Fortress, and other Private Equity Jokers. They have not once ever contributed anything of real value for America or Americans.

What happened at Chrysler was long coming.

Good Riddance to all that were involved.

On a secondary note, I would have liked the author to play up the original takeover/bailout of Chrysler in 1979. This really set the stage for what happened to Chrysler 25 years later.

Like LTCM, the government should have let them fail, teach Wall Street a lesson, they didn't, and look what happened 10 years later?

tradersutra.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-ltcm-enabled-sub-prime-meltdown.html

tradersutra.blogspot.com/2009/07/shadow-banking-for-dummies.html

tradersutra.blogspot.com/2009/07/markets-evolve-uncoilget-used-to-it.html

Same with Chrysler, they should leveled this company, made them restructure back in 1979, it would have been a wake up call not only for Chrysler, but for the entire US Auto Industry. But what was done in retrospect was just cutting them a check to do what ever they wanted to do? The same ridiculous behaviour that got them in trouble was just being subsidized.

Sound familiar?

If we ever get out of this current mess, that is huge if! The odds even today is really 50/50, it just sets the next generation for another epic failure.