A few questions to consider before a bailout

Richard C. Trenkler, Las Vegas

Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008 | 2:02 a.m.

Concerning the proposed bailout of the U.S. automakers, how about some real reporting on the options and their likely results? There are experts on bankruptcy law and the U.S. and international automotive field.

Questions I would like answered before making a decision concerning the automakers are:

• What is the likely outcome of bankruptcy for the automakers? If suppliers are all interconnected, why don’t we hear from the foreign manufacturers with factories in America? After all, you may not want the best for your competitor but you certainly wouldn’t want to hang yourself in the process.

• What is happening with other automakers? Are they all really financially OK? I saw on the news (MSNBC) the other day one of Michigan’s U.S. senators stating that Toyota was part of an effort to go to the European Union for a $56 billion bailout.

• Also, before General Motors sought a bailout, it was proposing to buy out Chrysler for no apparent reason. Would a bailout be used by GM to bail out privately owned Chrysler?

It would be nice for the American people and our members of Congress to have a reasonably thorough idea of a problem and be able to make a rational decision on a solution, instead of all the sound bites that just state opinion.