General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler On Brink of Bankruptcy

[pioneer]

The chairman of the Senate committee deciding whether to rescue the Detroit Three carmakers has said the health of the entire US economy is at stake.

Democrat Christopher Dodd said that letting Chrysler, General Motors or Ford fail would be playing "Russian roulette with the entire economy".

Failure would affect "almost every sector of the economy", he said.

He also severely criticised the US Treasury and financial institutions for their handling of the credit crisis.

"This is not about acting to save individual companies. If it were, I would let them fail," said Sen Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee.

With "hundreds of billions in outstanding debt obligations", he said the credit crisis would get a lot worse if the carmakers were not able to repay their debts.