German SolarWorld Offer for GM's Opel

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How ironic would this be given GM's EV1 crushing history? Of course, why cash out when you can borrow cheap money from new sugar daddy Uncle Sam. (FWIW, I don't mind some of these bailouts as long as the U.S. taxpayer gets a fair deal. Carter's Chrysler deal worked out.)

If such a deal ever went through, I'm guessing we'd see some wicked solar plug-in hybrids with V2G technology.

Solar CEO Serious About Buying GM's Opel - CNET - 20 Nov 08

"Adam Opel, which is part of GM Europe, includes four German factories and a development center in Russelsheim, Germany. SolarWorld is prepared to offer 250 million euros in cash for them, according to Asbeck, and has bank credit lines worth 750 million euros if the German government provides a guarantee. But the company would also request additional state funds to compensate Opel's 25,000 German workers at about 40,00 euros per job, an estimated 1 billion euros.

GM, which is currently seeking a multibillion dollar bailout from the U.S. government, publicly dismissed SolarWorld's offer on Wednesday."

Comments

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No, I hadn't read the article. Frankly, I'm not too keen on where the economy is going but it seems to me that the chance of another Great Depression (as such) is very unlikely. Back in those days, government actions and regulations were not known. We still have a shell of that even after all the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush years.

There is some concerns that countries that don't have even the residual regulation systems from the New Deal are going to be in much worse shape than the US economy. Many of those emerging countries in Eastern Europe for example.

I expect a LOT of deficit spending for the next year or two. The era of "small government" is over. Even the conservative economists know this. Now it's just a question of what kind of stimulus the government is going to give and to whom.

Hope things aren't getting too bad in your neck of the woods.