The pensions are
federally guaranteed - but the pensioners will only get about a third of what they would have gotten.
GM directly employs about 250,000 people. It used to be 1 out of 6 jobs was tied to the auto industry nationwide - but not so anymore. I think CNN's numbers are alarmist - I don't think 1 out of 10 people will lose their jobs nationwide as a result of the auto industry collaspe, but I think it would certainly be several million to ten million. As bad as the 260,000 job losses we had last month - it would be much, much worse. Major reverberations across the economy. Million plus job loss figures month after month won't go over to well on Wall St.
Interesting that the collaspe of GM only got about 2 1/2 minutes on the national news - imagine how big a story that would have been even a couple of years ago?
Sinking - Like A Rock