The Whitehouse has announced that $11.7bn is to be loaned to car manufacturers that can prove that they are viable. The loans are for a three-year term and will be provided within weeks of the announcement. Like the conditions attached to bank bailouts, executive perks are strictly banned - (I wonder how much could be raised by clawing back the executive payouts over the last five years??)The money has been ear-marked from the £469 billion Troubled Asset Relief Programme so we can at least be assured that this will not add to the already soaring national debt.
This comes at the same time that the UK government is considering bailing out domestic carmaker Jaguar-Land Rover which is not even currently owned by a UK company. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson (sorry still can't get use to 'Mandy' being a Lord...) has said that a bailout, rumoured to be in the region of £1bn is a possibility. I am sure the Indian owners (Tata) are delighted to find that a foreign government are willing to hand them a cool billion...
In even more bizarre news, NASA are flogging off space shuttles and for $42m you can have one delivered - if you can pick it up yourself, the price tag drops to $36m - one careful owner, full service history apparently, but I'm not sure what insurance group..??
Related posts:
UK reports GDP decline
Irish Republic in recession
Economic meltdown
Is this the new Great Depression?
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