Special Report: Global Financial Crisis    

neral Motors vehicles are seen at a car dealership in Toronto Dec. 12, 2008. General Motors Corp. major auto maker in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said Thursday.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    CHICAGO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- General Motors Corp. major auto maker in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said Thursday.

    The cash infusion will prevent the automaker's imminent financial collapse after a dramatic sales decline and cash crunch this year.

    The automakers in Detroit are to receive another loan of 5.4 billion dollars by Jan. 16 and possibly another loan of 4 billion U.S. dollars on Feb. 17.

    The loans serve as major lifelines to two of Detroit's Big Three automakers, both on the brink of failure, and for a U.S. industry that has lost more than 100 billion U.S. dollars since 2004, trimmed tens of thousands of jobs and closed numerous plants. In exchange, GM and Chrysler must execute drastic restructuring plans or face bankruptcy.

    GM had faced the possibility of collapse as early as the first week of this month, when large supplier bills will come due, while Chrysler warned it could have collapsed early this year.

White House unveils mulit-billion-dollar loans to bail out auto industry 

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The White House announced on Friday a rescue plan of multi-billion dollars in emergency loans to bail out the country's crippled auto industry from bankruptcy.

    President George W. Bush made the announcement a week after Senate Republicans blocked a 14 billion dollars legislation to aid the automakers that had been negotiated by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

Global auto bailout, a risky game? 

    NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- When the White House finally handed out to the Detroit carmakers a long-awaited lifeline last Friday, it seemed to have triggered or at least fueled a wave of auto industry bailouts around the world.

    While many cheer the move as a timely rescue for the victims of global economic recession, many others have raised the acute question: Will this really work or will it make things even worse?

Wall Street relieved at pre-holiday auto rescue, but worries persist

    New York, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- With the Bush administration finally extending a helping hand to the country's struggling auto industry, investors of the Wall Street, who have been closely watching the so-called "auto bailout" for months, at least have something to cheer for ahead of the holiday season, though the specter of a sweeping industry collapse lingers and may easily come back in just a few months.

    The White House announcement on Dec. 19 to lend 17.4 billion U.S. dollars to cash-thirsty General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, two of the American auto Big-3 that had jointly pleaded for government loan support, has bought the companies three months more of survival, and also granted the market a three-month reprieve from a widely-expected severe impact.