Main Street Bondholders Oppose GM's Offer

The last ditch effort made by GM to come to an an agreement with its bondholders over the $27.2 billion debt has hit a brick wall, at least as far as the Main Street Bondholders are concerned. The group today rejected the offer, citing the "gross unfairness in giving the unions an estimated five times more dollar value per claim than the small bondholders." The group thus joins GM Bondholders Unite in rejecting the offer.

"In this new deal, the U.S. government appears to overtly favor the UAW members over America's seniors and retirees. The Main Street Bondholders intend to seek separate official committee status as allowed in section 1102 of the bankruptcy code. We have a large and growing concern of small bondholders, especially seniors and Baby Boomers who will receive next to nothing under this deal, and we want to ensure that the bankruptcy process is fair to everyone. Thus we are seeking counsel for a separate class of small bondholders," said the group in a release.

Main Street Bondholders met last week with US officials to express their concerns regarding their exclusion in the GM bankruptcy process. As we can see now, those meetings seem to have had little effect.

"Mr. President, we appreciate your attempts to fix our economy, but please don't break us in the process," Catherine Graves, a retiree from Florida said. "The initial proposal had all of us looking into the abyss of despair, any improvement should represent some degree of relief. As an enthusiastic supporter of President Obama, I was hopeful that he would appoint a task force having respect for his ideology. For this reason, I am extremely disappointed by the apparent continued discrimination being shown to GM bondholders."