Monday, March 30, 2009

On Obama Firing the GM CEO

Mickey Kaus makes a great point at his blog at Slate today:

Rick Wagoner = Ngo Dinh Diem? Discuss. After visibly defenstrating GM CEO RIck Wagoner, and moving to replace the board of directors, won't Obama now "own" the GM problem? If the company shuts down in the near future, costing tens of thousands of blue collar jobs, it will be under executives implicitly or explicitly chosen by Obama. It will be Obama's failure, not simply GM's failure, no?

This marks my first "Mickey Kaus" post. About five years ago, Kaus was probably the most cited blogger. I guess one post doesn't entitle me to call him "The Mickster" or simply "Mickey." Maybe in a few years I'll have the confidence to make the same post, but make it one line:

Wagoner = Diem? Mickey here. or

Obama firing GM CEO a good idea? Not according to the Mickster.

3 comments:

  1. At least the idiots at Chrysler are demanding the UAW/CAW chop $20 an hour off their wages. Wagoner really missed the ball on the wage issue. He should have been toast, as soon as the company asked for bailout money. I also have a problem with Wagoner getting a bonus last year, while GM was in the red.
    I don`t think GM can be fixed. A Chapter 11 turn around may be possible, but the entire management needs to be cleaned out first. They just don`t get it. Last year over 9000 GM managers received a car benefit. Two new cars a year (usually an Escalade),and even the gas is paid for. We all know about the five corporate jets. When you are losing billions of dollars, these sort of programs should have been the first thing on the chopping block. I don`t think Wagoner could run a Mac`s Milk corner store.

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  2. I agree. And he gets a nice retirement package as well.

    I wish they had have gone to Chapter 11 right off. This is going to drag for years.

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  3. BTW: The stock market went down on bad news from GM. Were people expecting good news? Did they think the infusion of cash was all of a sudden going to make it profitable?

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