GM investors fear bankruptcy looming

An increasing number of investors are betting that General Motors may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection within the next six to 12 months as it struggles to overcome slumping sales and the high cost of health-care benefits for workers and retirees. Concerns about the automaker's future are showing up in the credit default swaps market, where investors effectively buy insurance protection against defaults. Holders of GM debt who want to arrange a hedge against the risk they won't be repaid are finding the cost of buying the protection has risen dramatically in recent days. "The markets are telling you that more traders are starting to see a greater risk that a default scenario could happen sooner in time than later," said John Tierney, a credit strategist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York. "You cannot deny there is a pattern here." GM spokesman Jerry Dubrowski responded by saying the automaker has "no plans to declare bankruptcy," and noted that GM has about US$19 billion in cash on hand. Beyond that, he declined to discuss recent pricing trends for credit default swaps.
(Calgary Herald 051116)

I hope all the N.A. car manufacturers go broke and go to hell. I have had a huge hate-on for them for years over their lack of vision, design, environmental custodianship, or marketing techniques, and complete managerial incompetence. Whatever comes to them they deserve. Of course, the governments in their short-sightedness will bail them all out once again. So much for free-market capitalism. Too bad about all the Midwest lackies that are going to lose their jobs in the process.