Despite a fine-tuned sales pitch to Congress, the Big Three automakers are going back to Detroit empty-handed. It's becoming less and less likely that General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC will claim a $25-billion chunk of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package. Democrats nixed the idea of voting on the proposal — why help a flawed industry? — to the dismay of the White House and congressional Republicans who believe a quick bailout is the only way to save the cash-hemorrhaging car companies and the estimated 2.5 million jobs at stake should one of Detroit's Big Three break down. GM and Chrysler have said they may not make it to the end of the year. Congress could revisit the proposal in early December.

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Financier Kirk Kerkorian is selling his stake in Ford Motor Co. — another piece of dismal news for the faltering auto industry. Could there be another federal bailout, this time for U.S. carmakers?

The stock price of General Motors Corp. stock took a nosedive Thursday as the company faced the threat of a credit rating downgrade and forecasts for abysmal sales. With credit locked down and consumers likely to avoid major purchases for some time to come, it’s not clear how GM and other automakers will hang on.

Mass produced on an assembly line, with a will of its own, it's 100 years old today: The Ford Model T. The car started a global craze and made Ford Motor Co. one of the world's largest companies.

In General Motors Corp.'s 100th anniversary year, the company has been shedding jobs, closing plants and desperately trying to sell increasingly unpopular Hummers, SUVs and other gas guzzlers. Today, on its official birthday, GM says it will roll out 'the future' in the form of its much-hyped electric hybrid car, The Chevy Volt. In order to survive as a company, analysts say the struggling auto giant must build The Volt and successfully market it. Can they pull it off?

Guest: Matthew Bishop, The Economists' chief business writer

Guest: Mark Duvall, the program manager for The Electric Power Research Institute. He's in San Jose, Calif., for Plug-In 2008, a conference for advances in technology and policy for hybrid-electric vehicles.

In Detroit this morning, General Motors Corp.'s Rick Waggoner is expected to announce another company restructuring "to align the business to current market conditions." Those would be the dwindling cash position, lagging truck and SUV sales, the tanking stock price and increased competition from Japanese carmakers.

Guest: Stephen Dubner, "Freakonomics" author