Earlier this year, ‘media pundits’ called the Obama Administration Automaker bailouts a step closer to Swedish styled Socialism for America. Even The Daily Show with John Stewart sensed a gag in the making and sent comic Wayatt Cenac to Sweden on a report titled ‘The Stockholm Syndrome‘. So what would Sweden have done with an automaker on the ropes?
One of the least reported stories of the GM restructure was the loss of their European brands Opel and Saab. At one stage Saab did attempt Government funding to save the Automaker. They refused. Enterprise & Energy Minister Maud Olofsson said the following: “Voters picked me because they wanted nursery schools, police and nurses, and not to buy loss-making car factories“.
Saab then went into the restructure process while finding a new buyer. To starve of bankruptcy in May, they gained more time for the process through the courts. When Sports Car maker Koenigsegg bought Saab, they in turn renegotiated the Saab creditors into accepting massive write-downs so Saab could survive.
America is not even close to being Sweden, they took the same approach Mitt (Told You So) Romney suggested back in November 2008 for the failing Automakers “…a company restructure is by either having a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, where you stay in the court’s guidance, or you can that on an out-of-court settlement, where the parties come together and agree a restructuring. That would be preferable, of course.“.
CRAIG EDWARDS
