The first recipient of the stimulus package in 2009?

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081205/us_nm/us_economy_california_shortfall

"SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California is on track to run out of cash in February or March and faces a $15 billion cash shortage by the end of its fiscal year in June unless officials plug an $11.2 billion budget gap, according to the state's budget director"


Well... there you go. Obama, there's your first request for that stimulus package.

As Obama said, America will have to spend hundreds of billion in this stimulus package to create new jobs/ protect existing jobs.

Looks like California wins the race to request the first USD15 billion in order not to have to cut back on state government spending...

Or is Obama going to spend ADDITIONAL money on top of the bailout? Well, guess if Detroit starts asking for money for the state budget too... if every state asks for their fair share... looks like this is going to be a very VERY VERY expensive year for America... watch their Deficit go from below 1 trillion to 4-5 trillion in 18 months, maybe?

GMAC's bank holding plan = FAIL

Condensed from: http://www.thestreet.com/story/10452422/1/gmac-extends-deadline-for-tender-offers.html

"NEW YORK -- GMAC Financial Services, the financing arm of General Motors, said Wednesday that it hasn't raised enough capital to become a bank holding company and qualify for aid under the government's $700 billion bank rescue plan.
In a last-ditch effort to raise the needed cash, GMAC extended the early delivery time for its private exchange and cash tender offers by three days, to Friday and warned that a failure to convert to a bank holding company would have a "material adverse effect" on its business.
Wednesday's move marked the third time that the New York-based company, which is majority owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, has extended the deadline in hopes of drumming up the needed funds.
In order to approve GMAC's application to become a bank holding company, the Federal Reserve has said the company needs at least $30 billion in regulatory capital. In order to meet that requirement, GMAC said it would have to have about 75% participation on its offers.
So far, only about $6.3 billion, or 22%, of the outstanding GMAC notes have been tendered and about $2 billion, or 21%, of the outstanding ResCap notes have been tendered, GMAC said.
If the offers aren't successful, GMAC said it will withdraw its application to become a bank holding company and it's unclear what its next move would be.
GMAC said that if it's unable to transform into a bank holding company and complete the GMAC and ResCap offers by the end of the year, it would have a "near-term material adverse effect on GMAC's business, results of operations, and financial position."
The company, which is 49% owned by GM and provides both home-mortgage and vehicle loans, has been hemorrhaging money this year, hurt by both the crisis in the mortgage lending industry and slumping demand for vehicles.
Last month, GMAC warned that ResCap could fail. The business accounted for about $1.9 billion of GMAC's total $2.52 billion third-quarter loss.
GMAC has also slashed its costs in an attempt to stem the losses. In September, the company said it would close all of its 200 retail offices and lay off about 5,000 employees, with the bulk of cuts coming at ResCap. "


Summary. They've extended the deadline 3 times already... and this 3rd time they only got 3 days?
They need 30 billion and only got 8.3 billion so far...
Somehow, I don't think they will raise the other 22 billion in 3 days. How about you?

The point is, if they could raise 30 billion, they wouldn't need a 10b bailout effective immediately, would they? !!!

So, yet another "clever scheme" unravels.

FAIL.