If the U.S. Supreme Court does nothing but sit on its hands by 4 p.m. Eastern time Monday, the current predetermined fate of Chrysler is almost certain.
The Detroit company will emerge from bankruptcy particularly owned by both the U.S. and Canadian governments, the UAW and Fiat.
If all goes according to plan Fiat will eventually purchase a larger stake in Chrysler, and run it as a for profit company while the American tax payer gets paid back as the Fed sells its stock in the new company to whoever is willing to step up and take on the risk.
The hold-up?
A last minute and last chance appeal to the U.S. Supreme court by some of the pension funds that will most likely lose millions if the deal is allowed to go through.
"The negative economic consequences of permitting an unlawful sale to
proceed may well over time dramatically outweigh Chrysler's short-term
harm," the group said in its brief Sunday. The funds hold about $42
million, or less than 1 percent, of Chrysler's debt, according to CNN.
Let's be clear, it would most likely be political suicide on the part of the Obama administration to allow both Chrysler as well as General Motors to fail (as this would mean the loss of ten of thousands of jobs).
But at the same time to serious believe that the same folks who brought you the U.S. post office, the union jobs bank, the Fiat 124, and Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau will turn around a company Mercedes Benz could not salvage seems a bit too hopefully audacious.
