Thank you CD, that is exactly right. This column and most of the comments are ignorant. First of all, the UAW gets no money: the 55% equity interest that everyone is talking about is held by the VEBA–not the UAW. It is the fund to pay retirees the health care which they are owed by the company. Basically the retirees have been given stock in a risky enterprise in lieu of the company’s obligations to them. And even the VEBA will not control 55% of the company–their stock is structured so it does not give them voting control of the company. So the whole line that the UAW now “owns” or controls chrysler is false.

Now its true that the secured creditors have to go along with this deal, and don’t paid their full securitized amount owed to them. But the reason for this is not conspiracy or political intrigue. Its because for the secured creditors to be paid in full would have meant liquidation. The bankruptcy plan being enacted is an effort to save the company. That is a legitimate goal of chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. As CD says, it happens all the time, and when the debtor is one of three U.S car manufacturers it takes a jaw dropping lack of patriotism to argue for the speculators right to liquidate the company, which would be (and may soon be) devastating for our country and economy.