The Biggest Losers: Us

 

Peter Ferrara, writing at FoxNews hits the nail on the head when he says of the GM bankruptcy:

Do you think any auto executive is going to dare promote production of a big new SUV like the Cadillac Escalade in this political environment?  Forget about it.  What is in now is that hot Fiat “technology” we have heard Washington lusting over.  Have you ever seen a Fiat?  It is what makes Mercedes so legendary in Europe.

American consumers would never choose to buy the tiny, two door, Sierra Club cars we are now going to see out of Detroit.  But the Obama plan is not to allow them a choice.  That is what the new 39 mpg CAFÉ standard is all about.  That doesn’t mean your next SUV is going to get 39 mpg, dummy.  It means your next car will look like it is competing with a John Deere lawnmower.

Nail, meet hammer. According to Mr. Ferrara, the next car you buy may well be a totally emission-free Fred Flintsone special, complete with non-fossil fuel, easy maintenance, and running a module that will get you back in shape. Yabba-dabba-oh spare me.

Can you reconcile yourself to this? Me neither. But that’s what we’ll get, or something like it, unless we the people start requiring our Senators and Representatives (and yes, our President, as well) to listen to us.

Mr. Ferrara prophesies:

Take good care of those big, powerful, luxurious cars you are driving now.  They are going to be worth a lot more on the resale market than you thought.

Expect to see also the eventual rise of a new gold rush business in Americans flocking to Mexico and Canada to buy their new, big, powerful, luxurious cars there from foreign companies that will not produce or sell in America and not be subject to the CAFÉ standards.  Take a vacation, buy a new car, drive it home. Maybe Disney will put its next Magic Kingdom in Toronto, who knows?

We need to wake up and pay some real attention to what the government is doing. We need to demand that they get out of the auto industry and leave the environmental scams to Al Gore and his ilk. And they’d damn well better yabba-dabba-do it… The 2010 elections won’t be pretty.

Stoutcat

Ousted by Obama (And All I Got Was This Lousy Tee Shirt)

 
Bill Dupray at the Patriot Room is of the opinion that ousted-by-Obama GM CEO Rick Wagoner is a sissy:

Let’s just get this out of the way right up front: The former CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, is a spineless, gutless, cupcake. Not only did he run General Motors into the ground (from the time he took the reins as CEO in 2000, until the time he was fired by President Obama at the end of last month, GM stock lost 98% of its value), which means he sucked at his job as a car executive.

But Wagoner is guilty of an even bigger crime than that.

He allowed the United States government to take control of America’s largest privately-owned auto manufacturer. He allowed Barack Obama to kick in the door, and in one fell swoop, nationalize one of America’s oldest and greatest companies.

Dupray goes on to discuss why this happened, and is of the opinion that it’s because Mr. Wagoner took the bailout money from the government rather than making the hard decision to declare bankruptcy. It’s a good article, and well worth reading, especially this:

So Wagoner’s spineless decision to take the bailout not only resulted in a pile of wasted taxpayer dollars, Wagoner also lost his job, the company will file for bankruptcy anyway, and worst of all, Barack Obama is now the CEO of the company. All because Wagoner didn’t have the guts to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

My take, however, is somewhat different. Had Mr. Wagoner taken the hard step in the first place and declared bankruptcy, not only would he have lost his “golden parachute”, but he would also have lost the “reserve chute” he activated when President Obama kicked him to the curb. I think Wagoner’s decision to take the bailout money (and subsequently bail out) was based soley (or in large part) on his own self-interest, rather than spinelessness.

By sticking around as long as he could, he guaranteed himself a long comfortable retirement, thanks to GM, President Obama, and especially we the taxpayers. Or as Ed Morrissy at HotAir put it, “GM gets to pay Wagoner a fortune for not working.”

Ultimately, how many other CEOs will qualify for the “Ousted by Obama” tee-shirt, and what will the final cost to the country be?

Stoutcat

Obama’s Big Promotion: Head of All Industry?

 

As Stoutcat wrote this morning, President Obama has effectively fired GM CEO Rick Wagoner.  

I wonder how many Americans have really given some thought to the precedent set by the President? Today it’s GM. Whom does Obama take over tomorrow? What if you worked for GM and came to work only to find the CEO had been fired… by the President of the United States? Can salary caps be far behind?

Obama has now established that if he decides that he knows how to run a company better than the CEO, he can simply demand the CEO’s resignation. The fact that GM is hoping for more federal funds to get it through its current problems is actually moot. With no promise of funding, Obama demanded (and got) the resignation of the CEO.  Another piece of American democracy falls by the wayside.  

Wake up, folks! It’s happening before our very eyes. Obama has taken another crap on our Constitution, our way of life, and our free enterprise system. As a quick refresher from Wikipedia: “Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled.”

Did Rick Wagoner deserve to be fired? Quite possibly, but that decision should have been made by GM’s Board of Directors, not by the President of the United States.

This is no laughing matter, folks. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention that the President may fire people in private companies. If he wants to withhold government funds that would keep them afloat, fine. He should have done that. Instead he holds our tax dollars in the form of a potential bail-out for GM as if it were a hostage and Wagoner’s scalp was the ransom required.

Wagoner reported to GM’s Board of Directors and Stockholders. Obama has just proclaimed himself to be a part of the executive level structure — at the very top. Above the board of directors. Above the CEO. Above the stockholders. Why? Because he can, and because he knows we have a gutless, impotent Congress that will only praise his every move.  Oh, and also because, in his own mind, it makes him look Presidential. A real “take charge” kinda guy.

Well, allow me to point out that bank robbers are also “take charge” kinda guys. And perhaps they are more honest. You know what their agenda is when they walk through the door. And when they leave, you know who really took your money… and  you probably have a better idea what it’s going to be used for.

Gerry Ashley

Dude, Where’s My Car Company?

 

I guess this means that we the taxpayers own GM now, right? After all, we (in the form of President Obama) fired GM’s CEO.

So as one of the new bosses, here’s what I want from GM:

• A new design for a non-polluting engine to be installed on all GM cars by, oh, say, 2015. Plenty of time to develop that.
• The engine has to run on air, or water, or something plentiful and cheap. And get great milage out of whatever fuel it does use.
• And it has to do 0-80 in 6.5 seconds.
• It has to be able to fly.
• And in order to get it re-fueled, all you have to say is, “I re-fuel thee, I re-fuel thee, I re-fuel thee!”
• Oh, and of course, it has to be safe, so that  in the event of a flying 80 mph head-on collision, the driver and passengers must be able to float down from the aerial wreck on parachutes that feel like goose-down pillows and are scented with sandalwood (or jasmine).
• And the workers who build these autos must work in factories that open onto sunny beaches, where pina coladas are served during break times.
• After the 3 1/2 hour work day is done, workers may receive mandatory double-plus extra overtime if they so choose, by working an extra hour, or by taking a nap.

That’s all I want from my car company. What about you?

Oh, and I only have one question. When do we get to fire the head of the UAW?

Stoutcat

H/T: Riehl World View

Obama, the Big Three, and “Restructuring”

Obviously, it’s too early to tell about how Obama will actually deal with the Big Three, but the rhetoric from yesterday’s “Meet the Press” is interesting to say the least. Catch the following phraseology…

“They’re going to have to restructure … And all their stake holders are going to have to restructure… Labor, management, uh… shareholders, creditors…”

“Restructuring”… Let’s see… Wikipedia defines “restructuring” as:

“… the corporate management term for the act of partially dismantling or otherwise reorganizing a company for the purpose of making it more profitable. Also known as corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and financial restructuring.

Restructuring is often done as part of a bankruptcy or of a strategic takeover by another firm, such as a leveraged buyout by a private equity firm.”

“Lawyer speak” is a creeping thing… If I were the UAW, I’d be watching my back right about now.

Alan Speakman

Some Dare Call It Hubris

 

I understand the occasional need for important people (read CEOs of huge companies and the like) to be able to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, to have face-to-face contact with peers. I really do. Corporate jets are a part of corporate life and will be for some time to come.

But there is a time and a place to use them. And there is most definitely a time and a place not to use them. That time and place would have been Tuesday in Washington DC, where the CEOs of Ford, GM, and Chrysler went begging, hats metaphorically in hand, for $25 billion of our money to keep their failing businesses afloat. All very well and good. But they came begging in high style. Each CEO flew from Detroit to Washington DC in one of their company’s coroprate jets. It has been calculated that these trips cost each company up to $20,000.

Rick Waggoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler all argue that corporate jets are used for security purposes (and are non-negotiable). I’m not sure how dangerous commercial air travel is, but if they were afraid of arriving late for their star turns, they could have caught earlier flights.

If these CEOs can’t see the affront to the taxpayers in their chosen method of travel, if they are still in a “business as usual” mode, then perhaps those businesses need new leadership that can not only run a business effectively, but also have the common sense to think about how their actions will be perceived by the rest of the country.

In the meantime, I say let them fail or succeed on their own. A good first step when they all get home might be to auction off those jets on eBay.

Stoutcat

What’s Gone Wrong With the Economy – Look in the Mirror

With all the talk of bailing out the auto industry (as if the $25 billion that we doled out last Sept wasn’t enough), at some point, the engineer in me starts to ask, “What is the root issue here?”

The answer to that question is too stark and too painful for most I’m afraid…

Here are the simple facts

• Cash flow isn’t the bottom-line issue, and simply throwing money at the problem isn’t the answer (see the link above)… We tried that and it didn’t work – not with this new global economy.
• Surprise! Unions have skyrocketed us completely out of reality. Does a union auto worker really earn $70/hr? I’m an engineer with three degrees and enough experience to choke a horse and I don’t command that kind of money. If this madness wasn’t so pathetic and destructive to our country, it would be funny.
• And speaking of the pathetic… We’ve somehow managed a generate a staggering number of young “Mall Rats”. You can view a sickening trailer here. To get a better glimpse of the numbers, consider “Study Shows China as World Technology Leader“.
• We refuse to live within our means and what our work is really worth.

It all adds up to this… Believe it or not, we’re too fat and too happy – the stars may lie, but the numbers never do.

h/t HotAir

Alan Speakman