If you build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, the world will beat a path to your door. If you invent the minivan, though, you eventually end up in bankruptcy, apparently. Chrysler LLC, after narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in the last deep recession in 1980 and paying back the government loan that saved them three years later, filed for Chapter 11 yesterday.
Look, I’m from Detroit and thus incapable of driving a foreign car, and would only drive a Chrysler if even a Toyota were not available. They’re not so good, although Jeep retains a good reputation and the Chrysler 300 was a nice ride. But when you can invent the vehicle that has become shorthand for boring sexless parenting and still be on the brink of going out of business? Something’s messed up.
Thinking about following Chrysler into bankruptcy court? Forget about getting foreclosure relief that way, after a bill to let judges fix mortgages through bankruptcy proceedings failed in the Senate yesterday. Good news, though, is that the House passed a bill that would limit credit card companies’ ability to screw with you, basically. Under the bill, they couldn’t use double-cycle billing to squeeze more interest out of you and would have to give you notice before raising your rates or closing your accounts.
Still with me? You’re just waiting for the swine flu update, aren’t you? As of late yesterday the death toll in the US remained at one, but the confirmed cases rose to 109. One of those is a security aide to the president who accompained him on his recent trip to Mexico. Nearly 300 schools were closed across the United States. Although right now there’s no evidence you can get the disease from eating pork products, that’s no comfort to pork producers, who have seen their business drop. Nor is it to any friends of Olivia in Egypt, where the government is taking the drastic step of killing all the country’s pigs.
And then there’s good old Joe Biden, who felt it necessary to inform us he’s asked his family to stay out of confined spaces like airplanes and subways. Way to stay calm, Mr. Vice President.
