Government may lend more to automakers: WSJ

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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Government-ready-lend-more-money/story.aspx?guid=%7B5F3E1405%2D88E5%2D46C9%2DBCFC%2D0FFB75BC59ED%7D&dist=hplatest

President Barack Obama's month-old auto-industry task force is prepared to make its first recommendations with days, and is ready to advise providing more loans for troubled U.S. automakers, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Task-force members interviewed for the report said the administration doesn't want to let General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC file for bankruptcy, and the group is expected to say it sees viable futures for both companies, so long as their management, unions and -- in the case of GM -- bondholders are all prepared to make sacrifices.

Chrysler and GM have requested $22 billion more in funds, including $9 billion for the second quarter, but the task force may not disperse new aid immediately, choosing instead to preserve that as leverage, the Journal reported.

The report also said the task force met with officials from Chrysler and Italy's Fiat SpA and indicated it is still interested in seeing the two companies form an alliance, as the automakers have proposed.


Auto Task Force Set to Back More Loans -- With Strings
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123801450038141147.html