Congress and the White House buckled down on Saturday to set terms for U.S. automakers to receive up to $17 billion in short-term bailout loans on the condition the companies prove they can compete.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters the assistance would only be considered for companies "willing to make the difficult decisions across the scope of their businesses to be viable and competitive" and in cases where strong taxpayer protections could be guaranteed.

Faced with plummeting sales they blame largely on the credit crunch and recession, General Motors Corp, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co sought $34 billion from Congress this week to forestall possible collapse.

Perino added that discussions had been "constructive" between the White House and leaders of both parties.

The Bush administration and congressional Democrats agreed late on Friday on the size of the planned rescue -- $15 billion to $17 billion in bridge loans to carry them into spring.

They also cleared the biggest stumbling block with an agreement that the funding would come from an Energy Department loan program approved in September to help automakers make more fuel-efficient vehicles.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4B50CL20081206?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

another bailout for the corporate crooks but, no bailout here ….

A record 1.35 million homes were in foreclosure in the third quarter, driving the foreclosure rate up to 2.97%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday.

That's a 76% increase from a year ago, according to the group's National Delinquency Survey.

At the same time, the number of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages rose to a record 6.99%, up from 5.59% a year ago, the association said.

This means that one in 10 borrowers in America are either delinquent or in foreclosure.

Many of those troubled borrowers are in California and Florida, which have among the highest delinquency rates in the nation.

http://www.truthout.org/120608Y

London - World markets fell Friday amid concerns about the future of the U.S. auto industry following the Senate's rejection of a $14 billion rescue deal.

However, the declines on Wall Street were less than futures markets were predicting ahead of the opening bell on indications that the White House is considering diverting money from the Wall Street rescue fund, or TARP, to stave off bankruptcy filings among the automakers.

The Treasury Department said it stands ready to "prevent an imminent failure" of the auto companies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081212/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

Struggling U.S. automakers are launching a round of severe cutbacks as they wait for a government rescue, with Chrysler saying yesterday it will idle all 30 of its U.S. factories for one month.

Chrysler's plants will furlough 46,000 workers beginning Friday, as a planned two-week holiday shutdown is extended to a month and possibly longer. The company, which has told Congress it needed $7 billion to survive the month, also told dealers that it may suspend financing for new cars in a bid to conserve cash.

"No one will return to work any earlier than Jan. 19," Chrysler spokesperson Shawn Morgan said. "I don't want to get into speculating about what may happen after that. . . . We're going to continue to monitor the situation."

"If I were a Chrysler worker, I'd be worried that the plant won't reopen," said Brian Johnson, an industry analyst at Barclays Capital.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/17/AR2008121702780.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR