GMAC Wants To Be A Bank

by Dollars and Sense

In the olden days, you had to be a car company to get a bailout from DC (cue Tom Paxton's "I'm Changing My Name To Chrysler").

Now, car companies have to be banks (cue Arlo Guthrie's update "I'm Changing My Name To Fannie Mae").

That's what seems to be happening in the Motor City. After the pampered pleas of Detroit's mighty fell on unsympathetic ears in Congress, GMAC, the financial arm of Cerberus (the folks who own Chrysler, as it happens), is now seeking to become a bank so that they can formally apply for funds from the bailout. Cerberus CEO John Snow (yes, the former Bush Treasury Secretary) and his sidekick Dan Quayle (you laugh at him, but he's still richer than you'll ever be), probably figures that if American Express can call itself a bank, why can't a car company?

Labels: American Express, bailout, Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler, Dan Quayle, GMAC, John Snow

 

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11/20/2008 12:47:00 PM