And so the bailout continues. Last week, I did a blog entry looking at whether GM and Chrysler will go bust. Now the two companies are begging for more, with GM saying it could need as much as $30 billion and Chrysler saying it needs $5 billion on top of the $4 billion it has borrowed from the government.

In its statement, GM blames it on the banking crisis, rather than its own inept management. "GM's need for government support was driven by the global financial market crisis, dramatically weaker economy and the resulting precipitous decline in vehicle demand. These conditions have impacted the entire auto industry, which in the U.S. is down approximately 40 percent from its peak in 2005, to the lowest per capita sales rate in 50 years. Though the impact has been most severe in the U.S. and Western Europe, automakers around the world are reporting large losses, with many seeking government assistance to weather the downturn. Following the steep decline in U.S. industry sales in December 2008 and January 2009, GM responded by further lowering its forecast for 2009 U.S. industry sales to 10.5 million units (57.5 million units globally) for viability planning purposes. These industry planning volumes are more conservative than those being used by most other industry sources."

Along the way, GM says it will cut thousands of jobs. Incidentally, the company will be taking time to repay the US Government. As Reuters reports, that won't be until 2017. Barack Obama will be long gone by then, and who know which banks will still be around.

The problem for GM and Chrysler is that it doesn't matter how much fat they cut, taxpayers' money won't help if there are no car buyers. And the flow through effect for the rest of the US economy is awful to contemplate with analysts warning that every lost auto job takes 10 more jobs down with it as the impact flows through the system, hurting suppliers, dealers, restaurants, shopping malls and other businesses.