You own an auto company. What do you do now?
The Obama administration -- and by default, taxpayers -- must answer that question now that the federal government is about to take big stakes in two of the nation's storied industrial companies and their joint financing arm.
Based on the latest bankruptcy and bailout plans, the government will hold 72.5% of General Motors Corp., 8% of Chrysler Corp. and 35% or more of GMAC Financial Services, the car loan business.
Ideas for what to do with those shares are colored by politics and investment philosophies, and they're sure to be debated.
Some economists and financiers believe Obama should dump the stock almost immediately, to whatever buyer the government can find.
Others say the administration should find a partner, maybe a savvy investor such as Warren Buffett or an equity firm such as Oaktree Capital to operate the businesses for a generous share of any profits on the condition that the government gets its money first.
And some believe President Obama should just stick the shares deep into a desk drawer and let the next president worry about an exit strategy. GM and Chrysler will either fail again or become corporate home runs. Only time will tell.
The administration says significant government involvement in GM ends with its efforts to reconstitute the company's board of directors, which would happen as part of an expected bankruptcy filing by Monday.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated Friday that Obama did not want to run auto companies, saying that the president had enough to do without having to "decide when to slash sticker prices."
That's the right approach, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"Our government doesn't have a clue about what manufacturing is or how to manage it," Cole said.
The administration followed the same hands-off investment strategy with Chrysler's board, which recently announced that Robert Kidder, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Borden Chemical and Duracell International, would take over as chairman after the merger with Fiat.
Over the last decade, Kidder has given political contributions exclusively to Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Administration officials say he was chosen for his business credentials, not his political leanings.
