Since Shinsei and Nippon Credit are both creditors of a number of visibly struggling companies, like the convenience store operator Daiei Inc. and the building contractors Hazama Corporation and Kumagai Gumi, the government will probably face the same tough choice repeatedly -- unless politicians can somehow ban the granting of guarantees against further deterioration in loan values.
The Japanese have balked at granting such a guarantee.
Things that are often taken for granted, like a guaranteed wage, seem anathema to a new wave of companies that need an "on-tap workforce".
In 1979, New York became the first city in America to grant a guaranteed right to shelter.
Ireland, as part of an $111 billion bailout in 2010, granted a blanket guarantee to its depositors and investors who owned the senior bonds of its collapsed banks.
On Jan . 21 the Energy Department, which considers the creditworthiness of a technology when reviewing projects, granted a $967 million loan guarantee to the developer of a 290-megawatt photovoltaic project that will supply electricity to a California utility.
Parker and Bluestone caution that this grant is not a guarantee something will come of it but is a jumping-off point for exploratory research.
It gave Mr. Grant a guarantee that insiders estimated at $20 million.
But courts have also outpaced the American people and their elected legislatures in ways that have never been fully settled, such as by granting the guarantee of abortion rights through Roe v Wade.
Mr. Montgomery said that the board would consider granting the loan guarantee as part of "exit financing" from the bankruptcy proceeding -- after the company presents a business plan to the court and its creditors, a process that will take many months.
Of the four, SoloPower is the only firm to be granted an Energy Department loan guarantee, although representatives of Nanosolar and Stion said their companies had applied.
