Obama gets tough on USA car industry

　　Barack Obama yesterday condemned “a failure of leadership” from Washington to Detroit for the decline of the US car industry and demanded new sacrifices from debtholders, unions and executives at General Motors and Chrysler in return for fresh bail-out money.

　　The US president, adopting a more interventionist approach, yesterday announced tax incentives for new car purchases and said he would support so-called “cash for clunkers” legislation, which has stimulated the German car market with incentives to trade in old cars.

　　But Mr Obama said that his auto taskforce, which was set up to study the companies' request for an additional $21.6bn of government funds, had decided that neither of them had gone far enough in cutting debt or benefits to workers and that no money would be given without more fundamental reform.

　　GM, whose chief executive Rick Wagoner on Sunday stepped down under pressure from the White House, has 60 days to come up with a tougher restructuring plan in return for more government support. Both companies will receive working capital before the deadlines.

　　Mr Obama extended a 30-day window to Chrysler to reach a partnership deal with Fiat in return for up to $6bn of additional taxpayer money. Chrysler, controlled by Cerberus Capital Management, said yesterday that it had reached a deal with the Italian carmaker although there were still “hurdles”.

　　The increased threat of bankruptcy at GM and Chrysler contributed to a steep fall in US share prices, choking off a rally that had prompted talk that the stock market might be bottoming out and which had helped lift the political fortunes of Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary.

　　参考译文：

　　巴拉克?奥巴马(Barack Obama)昨日就美国汽车业的衰落谴责了从华盛顿到底特律的“领导失败”，并要求通用汽车(General Motors)和克莱斯勒(Chrysler)的债权人、工会以及高管做出新的牺牲，以换取新的纾困资金。

　　这位美国总统采取了更为干涉主义的措施，昨日宣布了购买新车的税收激励措施，并表示，他会支持所谓的“旧车换津贴”立法，这种法规通过鼓励旧车以旧换新，刺激了德国的汽车市场。

　　但奥巴马表示，他的汽车业特别工作组——为了研究通用汽车和克莱斯勒216亿美元额外政府资金的申请而设立——认为，这两家公司在削减债务或工人福利方面做得还不够，如果没有更为根本的改革，政府将不会给它们注资。

　　通用汽车首席执行官里克?瓦格纳(Rick Wagoner)在白宫的施压下于周日辞职。该公司有60天的时间拿出一份更为彻底的重组计划，以换取更多的政府支持。通用汽车和克莱斯勒在最后期限前都会得到营运资金。

　　奥巴马给了克莱斯勒30天的时间与菲亚特(Fiat)达成合作关系，以换取至多60亿美元的额外纳税人资金。由赛伯乐资产管理公司(Cerberus Capital Management)控股的克莱斯勒昨日表示，尽管仍存在一些“障碍”，但它已经与这家意大利汽车制造商达成了交易。

　　通用汽车与克莱斯勒有所上升的破产威胁，导致美股急剧下跌，遏制了本已促使人们讨论股市可能已经触底的反弹，而此次反弹曾经帮助提升了美国财长蒂姆?盖特纳(Tim Geithner)的政治地位。