Thursday, May 21, 2009

Chrysler Bankruptcy Ripped off the Retired Teachers and the Policemen of Indiana

It seems that one of the "speculators" that were burned in the move to give Chrysler to the UAW was the retirees of Indiana.

Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock revealed this week that his state's police and teacher pension funds have lost millions of dollars in the Chrysler "restructuring." Indiana's State Police Fund and Major Moves Construction Fund, which finances roads and bridges, together lost more than $1 million. And the Teacher's Retirement Fund "suffered, at a minimum, a loss of $4.6 million due to the action of the Federal government," reports Mr. Mourdock.

Yup instead of recovering a fair amount of those losses through a bankruptcy filing which would be his fiduciary duty the government stuck him with the loss. That is bad enough but this should really chill the blood of anyone that has even a dollar of TARP money on their books:

We've worried that the Chrysler sandbagging would discourage bond investment. And, sure enough, Mr. Mourdock says that from now on no funds under his control will invest in the secured debt of "General Motors, other manufacturing companies, or those insurance companies who have or will be receiving bailout funds." Given the recent actions by the feds, he adds, "the risk is too great for any prudent investor to accept."

I see his point 100% because you have the chance to go from secured creditor one day to having to accept $0.29 on the dollar the next. That is no way to invest the pensions of the retired teachers and policemen of Indiana or any other state for that matter. I think the debt of any TARP firm should be sold ASAP before the government gets a chance to rip you off.

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