obambi may think he is pushing people around now, but they’ll be pushing back. the only question is when.

Whether his interpretation is correct on Section 363 of the bankruptcy code, and your thought that one offer was “reasonable” and the other not? All that would be up to a judge, ruling on a specific case. There are no absolutes, eh?

In the Chrysler case the attorney can directly challenge the sale on the grounds that it is not a reasonable offer.

But all this assumes that the law will be followed. I think thre is a high risk to secured creditors that the bankruptcy judge will bend to the will of the administration.

I suspect this is just “chapter two”…. I see the MSM is just beginning to pick up on the story. Better late than never.

Thanks for the update. I think the WH made a big mistake with the “absolute denial” posturing. It will, no doubt, come back and bite them.

Let’s hope so.

Who to root for… I can’t stand Obama, but if there’s anyone/any group I like less, it’s hedge funds and these damned ’boutique firms’ like PW that have done more to destroy the foundation of our capitalist system than a million lifetimes of liberal entitlement programs could.

Once upon a time, our securities markets were built on the idea of letting investors provide capital to companies who would then use it to grow, to innovate, and as such, to build the economy — more jobs, more products, more wealth earned through hard work by the recipients of that capital and the lenders of it.

Firms like PW – and hedge funds like their Xerion – do not operate in that way. These are paper traders and paper pushers. Charlatans and leeches who use their place in the market not as investment vehicles in the pure sense and certainly not as seed capital for business — but to twist, to mutate, and to corrupt the market through a dizzying array of complex bundled securities, short selling, and other machinations that should make a true capitalist puke. The advent of CDOs? Look no further than your friendly hedge fund. The market manipulation by heavy hitting short sellers? Ditto.

Funds like Xerion exist to destroy, to complicate, and to blaspheme the very foundation of our economic system. Their destruction would be a welcome step towards returning to the right fundamentals: If I have capital to invest, I invest it in a well-run company with good ideas. If that company performs well – offering a good product at a good price, we both profit.

That’s how it should work… but that’s not how it works at most hedge funds (and I used to work at one). You’ll get laughed out of the room if you bother to examine the company itself – how well (or not well) it’s run, whether it’s got good product in the pipeline, whether it’s got a good strategy to sell that product, whether it’s a leading innovator in a field from Medical Devices to automobiles to flyswatters… you’re supposed to read the tea leaves of abstract capital flow, know the ins and outs of shady (motto: “immoral is not illegal unless it’s in the statutes”) dealing, and make sure your positioning has short term growth potential.

How about if I root for the administration to succeed in destroying PW (and I could name several more firms I wish they’d take with them), then get impeached over illegal shenanigans in doing so?

Best of both worlds.