Negotiating With Pirates

Test Ticker

Please support Mother Jones with a year-end donation. The truth is, we're a long way from our $600,000 goal, and we have to get as close as we can by Tuesday so we don't have to make hard decisions come January. If you value our reporting, please consider pitching in today.

$600,000

We still need to raise 400,000: Whether you can give $5 or $500, it all matters.

Please support Mother Jones with a year-end donation. We need to raise $600,000, or get as close as we can, by Tuesday so we don't need to make hard decisions come January. Whether you can give $5 or $500, it all makes a difference.

Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.

Treasury’s last offer to Chrysler’s bondholders was 15% of the total value of their debt. The bondholders sneered. They wanted 65%. Today, Treasury upped their offer:

The Treasury now proposes that the banks and other lenders accept as payment 22% of the $6.9 billion they are owed plus a 5% equity stake in Chrysler, said several people familiar with the matter.

….The new government offer leaves the U.S. and Chrysler lenders at least $3 billion apart with one week left before an April 30 Treasury deadline to determine the auto maker’s fate. The two sides are also far apart in how big an ownership stake the lenders would get in a restructured Chrysler.

Who will blink? I’ll predict that they end up at, oh, 30% and a 20% equity stake. Put your guess in comments. Whoever comes closest get an autographed 8×10 of Lee Iacocca.