[danteembermage]

You're right that losing your place in the front of the political line has dire consequences, and certainly investors have lost their place at the front of it, but think really carefully about who was campaigning for government help and even more important, for whose benefit were the auto bailouts in the first place.

I think it would be difficult to claim that the answer to either question is the firms' bondholders. It's true, they may have indirectly benefited if the bailouts had succeeded, but the purpose of the bailout was never to help the holders of GM's debt. I don't really think punishing misbehavior should be pertinent to creditor hierarchy in bankruptcy, but if we intend to punish clamoring then I think this proposed settlement may have things slightly backwards.