Nation: Santa Calls on Chrysler

Congress acts to save the automaker from bankruptcy

It is the most extravagant Christmas gift a bountiful Uncle Sam has ever given a U.S. company. Just before recessing for the holidays, Congress last week agreed to extend an extraordinary $1.5 billion loan guarantee to the ailing Chrysler Corp. and sent the measure to the White House for Jimmy Carter's signature. The gigantic bailout, dwarfing the $250 million Lockheed loan guarantee of 1971, is designed to save from bankruptcy the nation's third largest automaker and tenth ranking manufacturer (1978 sales: $13.6 billion). With Chrysler's losses...

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