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GMAC now part of the bank bailout

A sign for GMAC Mortgage Corporate Headquarters in Horsham, Pa.

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TEXT OF STORY

Scott Jagow: A company that got into the mortgage business at the wrong time was GMAC. It's a car financing company. And until last night, it was about dead in the water. But you, the taxpayer, stepped in with another bailout. The government is taking a $5 billion stake in GMAC. And it's coming out of the money for banks, since GMAC was allowed to become a bank. Marketplace's Steve Henn has more.


Steve Henn: GMAC has been scrambling for weeks to get a piece of the bailout pie. GM's finance arm was in tough shape. During the housing boom, it branched out from its core business making car loans and became one of the most aggressive home lenders in America.

Keith Crain: After that happened, home lending self-destructed.

Keith Crain publishes Automotive News. He says the housing crisis left GMAC too strapped to make many car loans, and that's crushed GM's sales. With this cash infusion, GMAC's books suddenly look a lot better. But Crain's not optimistic that'll mean more sales for GM.

Crain: GMAC is going to want to make money. They are not going to want to subsidize the sales of General Motors.

When GMAC was founded decades ago, its entire purpose was to help move cars off the lot. But now as a stand-alone bank, it has to answer to its own shareholders and keep banking regulators happy.

In Washington, I'm Steve Henn for Marketplace.

About the author

Steve Henn was Marketplace’s technology and innovation reporter for the entire portfolio of Marketplace programs until December 2011.
Adam Smith's picture
Adam Smith - Dec 30, 2008

<b>A Specific Application of Employment, Interest and Money

Plea for an Adventure in a New World Economic Order

Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Alan Greenspan: a Unified Perspective</b>

Abstract:

<i>This tract makes a critical analysis of credit based, free market economy, Capitalism, and proves that its dysfunctions are the result of the existence of credit.

It shows that income / wealth disparity, cause and consequence of credit, is the first order hidden variable, possibly the only one, of economic development.

It solves most of the puzzles of macro economy: among which Business Cycles, Stagflation, Greenspan Conundrum and Keynes' Liquidity Trap...

It shows that Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx and Alan Greenspan don't contradict each other but that they each bring a meaningful contribution to a same framework for understanding macro economy.

It proposes a credit free, free market economy as a solution that would correct all of those dysfunctions.

In This Age of Turbulence People Want an Exit Strategy out of Credit, an Adventure in a New World Economic Order.</i>

<b><a href="http://edsk.org/">Read It.</a></b>

Adam Smith's picture
Adam Smith - Dec 30, 2008

<b>A Specific Application of Employment, Interest and Money

Plea for an Adventure in a New World Economic Order

Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Alan Greenspan: a Unified Perspective</b>

Abstract:

<i>This tract makes a critical analysis of credit based, free market economy, Capitalism, and proves that its dysfunctions are the result of the existence of credit.

It shows that income / wealth disparity, cause and consequence of credit, is the first order hidden variable, possibly the only one, of economic development.

It solves most of the puzzles of macro economy: among which Business Cycles, Stagflation, Greenspan Conundrum and Keynes' Liquidity Trap...

It shows that Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx and Alan Greenspan don't contradict each other but that they each bring a meaningful contribution to a same framework for understanding macro economy.

It proposes a credit free, free market economy as a solution that would correct all of those dysfunctions.

In This Age of Turbulence People Want an Exit Strategy out of Credit, an Adventure in a New World Economic Order.</i>

<b><a href="http://edsk.org/">Read It.</a></b>