General Motors Looking for Generous Treasury

Bloomberg reports that "General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, has asked the Treasury Department for financial aid to help complete a merger with Cerberus Capital Management LP's Chrysler LLC, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would prefer any funding come from the $25 billion in low-interest loans approved last month for the auto industry to build more-efficient vehicles, not the $700 billion banking-system rescue, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. GM executives have asked Treasury to consider taking a stake in the Detroit-based company, said one of the people, though the government is reluctant to do so."

So,

GM makes a big bet on SUVs, goes after short-term results, management gets away with the loot, shareholders make money trading paper, the SUVs flip over and out, management keeps raking it in, and now the Treasury, after giving the auto industry $25 billion in low-interest loans, is considering giving these folks more money.

How about a few conditions before giving more money to these lunatics?

• Every Board member of these companies has to return every penny they took from these firms over the past X years, X >10.
• Every manager in GM / Chrysler has to give back all the money he/she made over the past X years, X >10.
• Every shareholder who made a profit on these stocks has to give his/her profit to the Treasury.
• The top three layers of management agree to be fired.

This will not happen, but needs to happen to make these folks accountable for the destruction they cause.