They have filed for bankruptcy protection, and while I have no illusions that this will be as smooth or quick as Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the stakes are far larger, and the consequences of a mis-step will be industry wide, it looks like they got their ducks in a row.

They got most of the bond holders on board, they got a deal from the UAW, and a deal was cut to sell Opel, GM’s European division, though the Treasury almost killed that:

For the Magna deal to work, U.S. officials must abandon their opposition to German demands that Opel assets be temporarily placed in a trust to protect them from GM creditors.

I agree with Michael Moore’s take on all this though, it could be the start of something better, but only if the US government takes an active role in the running of the company, and redirect the unused industrial infrastructure into things like mass transit and alternative energy.

Of course, the free market Mousketeers like Larry Summers, co-chair of the auto task force, are determined that this won’t happen, so instead, we will end up with something still dysfunctional, just a bit smaller.