Because that’s just what happened with the Chrysler bankruptcy, as this article titled Chrysler Lenders Tried Obama’s Patience, Lost Game of Chicken shows.
They are making noises about how unfairly they have been treated:
An anonymous group of 20 Chrysler lenders calling itself the “Committee of Chrysler Non-Tarp Lenders” said in a statement yesterday that they’d been treated worse than junior creditors during negotiations in violation of “long-recognized legal and business principles.” They said they were owed $1 billion.
And they are technically correct that they are secured creditors, but their security is not equal the full value of the loans, more like 10-20% of the outstanding amount, and they are vulture capitalists who intended this shakedown in the first place, as evidence by the fact that they, “paid from 50 cents to 70 cents on the dollar for their Chrysler loans,” (my money is actually on their purchasing this debt for less than 50¢ on the dollar).
Now they are whining, and they are the ones who will be taken into court and have the fingers pointed at them.
This is a very big shot across the bow for creditors for General Motors.
In completely unrelated auto news, the April sales figures are out, and they are bleak, with GM -33%, Ford -32%, Honda -25%, Nissan -38%, Hyundai -14%, Daimler -31%, and Toyota -42% year over year.