Big Loss, Bigger Bailout

The White House proposes a $1.5 billion tide-me-over for Chrysler

The mood in the 54th-floor boardroom of Chrysler Corp.'s offices atop the Pan Am building in Manhattan was understandably subdued. Sales were still slumping, costs continued to soar, and back in Detroit the company had earlier in the week announced a third-quarter deficit of $461 million, by far the largest quarterly loss in its troubled financial history.

But Chairman Lee lacocca had some good news for his 16 fellow Chrysler directors. Before they gathered for their regular monthly meeting, he had received a call from Treasury Secretary G. William Miller, who told him that the suffering No. 3 automaker was going to get the Government aid that it had been seeking since August. Nor would the assistance be chintzy. The Carter Administration had decided to back a federal loan guarantee of $1.5 billion, which was twice what Miller had indicated he would support only last September and a full $500 million more than the company had asked for in the first place. As a result of a confluence of economic and political imperatives, the White House had decided to proceed with the biggest U.S. corporate bailout ever, one that would far exceed the $250 million in loan guarantees extended to Lockheed during the Nixon Administration in 1971.

The Carter pledge came after months of pleading from Chrysler executives that without a quick infusion of cash the company faced not just more losses and heavier layoffs but perhaps even a bankruptcy followed by a shutdown that would further weaken the nation's economy. That, plus the fear of having to campaign for renomination at a time when Chrysler plants might be closing for lack of operating capital, is what finally prompted the Administration to set aside any philosophical doubts about such a bailout and back a big loan guarantee.

The bailout plan comes with strict conditions attached, and it must also be approved by Congress, which will probably go along but may attach further limitations. Even so, the news cheered Chrysler's management, which is counting on a line of fuel-efficient, front-wheel-drive cars due to appear next year to spearhead a reversal of the company's decade-long slide and return it to solid profitability by 1981. Said lacocca after the Administration's announcement: "It's a vote of confidence we needed." Added Auto Workers Chief Douglas Fraser, who is joining Chrysler's board as part of a deal struck by his union to help the firm: "The Government is taking a very positive step, assuring the jobs of nearly half a million American workers."

The praise was by no means unanimous, and among the most vocal critics of the bailout plan was Wisconsin Democrat William Proxmire, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which must consider the actual legislation involved. He blasted the proposal as "a massive giveaway for the taxpayers, and a massive windfall for the banks, stockholders and others who have the main stake in a Chrysler bailout." He also pledged to make any aid terms "as tough as possible."