Below The Beltway

Just over a month ago, it was Chrysler filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, today General Motors did the same:
General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection this morning, marking the end of financial independence for the 100-year-old industrial leviathan that once conflated its interests with the country’s and — counting jobs at the company and its [...]

Yesterday it was Chrysler, today General Motors announced that it intends to trim it’s dealer network by nearly 20 percent:
DETROIT — General Motors is telling about 1,100 dealers on Friday that they will lose their franchises by late next year.
Unlike Chrysler, which on Thursday released a list of 789 dealers that it was cutting loose, [...]

It’s going to hurt, but it’s absolutely necessary:
Chrysler said today it wants to shrink its 3,181-dealership network by roughly a quarter.
In court documents filed this morning before U.S. Bankruptcy Court here, Chrysler asked Judge Arthur Gonzalez for approval to reject dealership agreements it has with 789 dealers across the country.
Chrysler said in court documents filed [...]

It turns out that Chrysler has no intention of repaying those government loans it got in December and February:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Chrysler LLC will not repay U.S. taxpayers more than $7 billion in bailout money it received earlier this year and as part of its bankruptcy filing.
This revelation was buried within Chrysler’s bankruptcy filings [...]

As the good Judge explains, things may not go according to Obama’s plan now that Chrysler is in the hands of a Bankruptcy Court Judge:

As suspected, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection today:
Chrysler, the country’s third-largest auto company, filed today for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under a plan that President Obama said will give the troubled automaker “a new lease on life.”
“I have every confidence that Chrysler will emerge from this process stronger and more competitive,” Obama said [...]

Thirty days ago, Chrysler was given a deadline to strike a deal with Fiat and it’s debtholders. That deadline expires tonight at midnight, and it appears likely that no deal will be reached, meaning that bankruptcy is all but inevitable:
DETROIT — Last-minute efforts by the Treasury Department to win over recalcitrant Chrysler debtholders failed Wednesday [...]

Later this morning, General Motors will announce a restructuring plan that includes shutting down an 83 year-old brand:
DETROIT — The storied Pontiac brand is dead and more car factories and jobs are about to disappear — the latest casualties of a massive restructuring plan that GM is counting on to help it stave off bankruptcy [...]

So reports The New York Times:
DETROIT — The Treasury Department is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for Chrysler that could come as soon as next week, people with direct knowledge of the action said Thursday.
The Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care [...]

Well, most of the company at least:
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Corp. is planning to temporarily close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles, two people briefed on the plan said Wednesday.
The exact dates of the closures were not known, [...]