Crunchy Con

Obama unfair to Rick Wagoner

Monday March 30, 2009

Categories: Barack Obama, Economics

Actually, I'm fine that Obama's forcing Rick Wagoner to leave as a condition of further Washington aid to GM. But I'm totally with Barry Ritholtz: how come Obama gets tough with GM's management, but does nothing to force out CEOs of banks and other recipients of TARP money, which costs taxpayers vastly more than the auto industry bailouts? Why does Vikram Pandit (or Ken Lewis, or [fill in the blank] still have his job, but Rick Wagoner doesn't?

Tells you who runs the country, doesn't it? Over to you, Simon Johnson.

Advertisement
Comments
Snoozer
March 30, 2009 11:26 AM

You should be FAR more exercised that we're bailing all these companies out, that have no plan to survive on their own, like GM, and the government then trying to micromanage.

Government or politicians looking unfair, unwise, exhibiting poor judgement? Wow, that's like, THE PRECISE NATURE OF GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS. Why be surprised? Focus on what's real... That we've had 4 decades of runamok government, and now that it's destroyed the country, we should... you know, like... UNDO IT. No matter how the lefties whine and cry and scream about the "poor". All this runamok government and its meddling in myriad things brought this calamity upon us... why should we listen or, or even ACKNOWLEDGE the ones who even now insist that more of the same poison is the cure?

Snoozer
March 30, 2009 11:32 AM

Oh, and lest you think that I'm defending Wagoner... Ummm... He can join the soup lines for all I care. As far as I'm concerned, both GM and Ford's management have been rushing for the cliff for years.

Don't let anyone fool you. Ford has been making noises about "not needing a bailout", but the fact that they HAD cash in the bank was due solely to them borrowing like a fiend before the credit crunch hit home. They're in debt up to their eyeballs. And warning they're seeing their cash cushion evaporate, too.

The only one even close to being in a sane position at this moment, is Chrysler, who started re-structuring themselves not quite two years ago, after being split off from Daimler. Neither they, nor their management company Cerberus, saw the credit crunch coming like it did.

Julie
March 30, 2009 7:07 PM

Obama needs to make a direct statement about the "why" because it all the media is talking about.

Maybe Obama is learning from the bank bailout mistakes. A large portion was under Bush and Paulson. For example:

Merrill Lynch Bonuses 22 Times The Size Of AIG

Dennis Kucinich sent letters to top Treasury officials today, questioning how much they knew about bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives that totaled $3.62 billion.

Kucinich points out that unlike AIG, the bonuses were not locked in by preexisting contracts and were performance bonuses, as opposed to retention bonuses.

The Merrill bonuses were the equivalent of 36.2% of TARP monies Treasury allocated to Merrill and awarded to Bank of America after their merger.

The bonuses, awarded mostly as cash, were made only to top management at Merrill. To be eligible for the bonuses, Merrill employees had to have a salary of at least $300,000 and attained the title of Vice President or higher.

BOA did not disclose the details it possessed about the Merrill bonuses and the unusualness of the timing of those bonuses to its shareholders prior to their vote on the merger.

Julie
March 30, 2009 7:11 PM

GM's Rick Wagoner is leaving with $20M Retirement

jaxlady
June 10, 2009 4:29 PM

Well, it should concern us all that Obama is far exceeding his presidential authority in telling a company who can work there and in forcing someone out. And also creating a position for a 'pay czar' his words not mine.. So the government will now dictate to companies what they can pay their employees?? REALLY???
I have a real problem with the government putting its fingers in all the pies--insurance and car companies, banks, etc. This is a huge power grab and it is leaving us without a Republic form of government, but dropping us into socialism and perhaps further into marxist type government. Which by the way, Europe is slowly waking up and moving AWAY from.

Read All Comments

Post a Comment

By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.



Please type the text you see in the box below to verify your post and help us prevent spam. You have a limited time to type - you may wish to compose your comment in a separate document and paste it here upon completion.

Type the characters you see in the picture above.

Advertisement

Search This Blog

About Crunchy Con

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.

feed icon Subscribe

RSS Feed

Receive updates from Crunchy Con

Advertisement

Advertisement


About Beliefnet

Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness. More about Beliefnet.

Legal

Copyright © Beliefnet, Inc. and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. Use of this site is subject to Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. Constructed by Beliefnet.

Advertisement

Report as Inappropriate

You are reporting this content because it violates the Terms of Service.

All reported content is logged for investigation.