Good Bye Rick

[homeonprunehill]

ALL READES , hasn't B.O.done anything yet to warrent charges to have him removed from office I thiink SO. HTH,JIM

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I'm not feeling sorry for the guy -- he's leaving with a $23 million parachute.  But, the fault does not
lie just with him.  His Board Members and their subordinates went along with it and are equally to
"blame" for the situation GM is in now.

However, what do you suggest?  Should the government fire them all and appoint their own political
hacks to run the company?  That, in my opinion, would be a total disaster and the end of GM as
we know it.

Well, we all blame Roger Smith for running down GM.   How come all the Board Members of that era got off scott free?

I don't have a solution, but somewhere along the way, jobs have to be protected, but if the Buying Public won't buy your home-built product, that is really sayingf something towards the patriotism of a lot of people.

Bruce.

[Otto Skorzeny]

Patriotism?

What does that have to do with anything?

When I spend my money on anything, I want to spend it on what I believe will give me the best value for the dollar. I assume most people make purchasing decisions based on similar criteria. Where the product is made is secondary at best.

Rightly or wrongly, many Americans have felt that they get more value for their money by purchasing "foreign" cars. (Most popular foreign models are made in the US anyway)

The brand of vehicle a person drives has little or nothing to do with his love of country.

[Bill Gauch #23121]

I'm not defending the guy, just playing a little "devil's advocate".  He was the CEO during a time when many problems arose and the business was under pressure from all sides -- the government, the UAW,
the environmental "green people", the off shore competition, etc.  You assume since he was CEO
that he had the absolute power to control all of these issues.  He didn't -- there were stockholders, Board of Directors, etc.  He was chosen to have his head axed as a "figurehead" and for political reasons.
I've seen this first hand in industry -- there always has to be a "fall guy" when things go wrong.

I'm not feeling sorry for the guy -- he's leaving with a $23 million parachute.  But, the fault does not
lie just with him.  His Board Members and their subordinates went along with it and are equally to
"blame" for the situation GM is in now.

However, what do you suggest?  Should the government fire them all and appoint their own political
hacks to run the company?  That, in my opinion, would be a total disaster and the end of GM as
we know it.

I say we eliminate the entire executive staff and the board. Re-staff the positions only with long-term, talented members of the CLC who have a proven dedication (addiction) to fine, well built automobiles. 

[David #19063]

I say we eliminate the entire executive staff and the board. Re-staff the positions only with long-term, talented members of the CLC who have a proven dedication (addiction) to fine, well built automobiles. 

I volunteer!

[Brian Daum]

You guys can discuss who is to blame until you turn blue...

My main concern is: who is going to build the cars and trucks in the Western World in the future when we finally have laid down all our industrial capacity?

Are we all going to get jobs at Starbucks?

What happens when the Chinese find out that they are not going to nice anymore?  Oh, that won`t happen?...Yeah, right!

[David King (kz78hy)]

I say we eliminate the entire executive staff and the board. Re-staff the positions only with long-term, talented members of the CLC who have a proven dedication (addiction) to fine, well built automobiles. 

It’s fun to muse about how nice and easy it would be to have CLC members running the show, but rest assured, the people there do want to create “fine, well built automobiles”.  The requirements for cars today are as close to the cars of the 50’s as the 50’s cars were to a horse.  Creating and building a saleable vehicle is about as hard a task as there is.  Doing it globally, even more so.

Rick was as fine a leader as one could hope to work for.  Fritz is also a very capable man.  One of the not to distant slogans used at GM was “a sense of urgency”.  Fritz does this well and there is a specific message to be made now and he is the guy to make it.  Our house will be in order in 60 days, or the cleaning crew will be hired to make it so.

It has been a difficult few days, and unfortunately, there are a few more to come.

No one at GM likes the fact we had to request the governments loans because now they are the majority share holder and CAN exercise policy.  It is a sorry state of affairs.

David - who still has a job at GM

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

David:

Very well stated.  I wish you and GM the best of luck -- our country needs
GM.

[Whit Otis, 1188]

"......I begin to think about the situation that exists in business and industry in this great country of ours - a land of potential promise and opportunity - at least, so it always has been.  As I write, we have millions of people unemployed, who seek an opportunity to work.  Despite the fact that our government has been creating billions of dollars of indebtedness millions remain idle....We have hundreds of millions of dollars lying idle in our banks....  As a country, we are blessed, with out measure, with almost every essential natural resource.  We have the finest producing plants supported by the most progressive manufacturing technique that ever existed anywhere.  As a people, we are willing to work if given the chance.  Yet in a land of such abundance we live in a state of relative scarcity, for too many have much too little.

Some political leaders have tried to convince us that our idle money is a result of a static economy.  They even talk about the desirability of a tax to penalize efficiency, with the objective of reducing unemployment - incomprehensible to anyone familiar with the workings of our industrial system.  Then they develop a scheme of taxation, supposedly for revenue but actually resulting in penalizing business and industrial development, and so confiscatory in character as to prejudice the whole profit motive.  Then they preach the gospel that accomplishment is a crime - the greater the accomplishment, the greater the crime.  They teach the concept of something for nothing.  This, in one form or another, has influenced our national economic thinking for may years.

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr
Chairman and CEO
General Motors Corporation
Above written in 1940 - 1941

Whit Otis

[Jon Riley]

Rick Wagner needed to fall on the sword 6-months ago.  Unfortunately, George Bush was too weak to deal with anything during the twilight of his administration and he kicked the can down the road for the current administration.    Believe me, if anyone in the private sector would have lent GM this amount of money, the removal of Rick Wagner would have been a precondition to receiving it.  To me, it does not seem like a prudent thing to keep the individual who oversaw this collapse (remember, he has been at GM his entire career, since 1977) in charge.  

Although we all like Cadillac cars, we all must admit that GM has built some awful cars in the past.  So awful that, now, twenty to thirty years later they are still feeling the repercussions of their actions.  And it is too bad because now they are building some great cars.  To me, the Cadillac CTS, and especially the CTS-V appear to be world-class cars.  But it looks like it might be too little too late.  I hope not.

[Chris Conklin]

Many have probably already had this e-mailed to them, it was an article from the St. PetersburgTimes Newspaper. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I thought this was the BEST idea. I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr.President,

Patriotic retirement:

There's about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

[Bill Gauch #23121]

Many have probably already had this e-mailed to them, it was an article from the St. PetersburgTimes Newspaper. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I thought this was the BEST idea. I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr.President,

Patriotic retirement:

There's about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

That would certainly be significantly cheaper than the current plan. And it has a hope to work.

[Joe]

I read that too! But the punchline was even better....that the total cost will be less than the multi-TRILLION end result/ cost of all these other bailouts to save the NON-MANUFACTURING businesses (banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms etc.) whose only so called "creation of capital" was all based on speculation, buying and selling, wheeling and dealing, and even dreaming up new financial puffs (derivatives, credit default swaps, mortgage bundles, 2 or 3X futures contracts, currency trading) and other junk. A true free market philosophy would have been to let these "losers" fail; only the strong should survive. Bailing these out was a waste. They weren't producing anything; they were gambling and lost. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. They should hang up their suits and accept it

As a farmer friend remarked a few years ago......" There were 200 million more bushels soybeans sold last year than were grown" when unhappy that the price seemed out of whack.

[Chris Conklin]

That would certainly be significantly cheaper than the current plan. And it has a hope to work.

And it works for the people that are footing the bill under the current plan. But I could only commit to buying a used American car. Well, maybe one new XLR-V and a pre-war project car...

[payton]

I am shocked that someone would link President Obama to Hitler!! Are you kidding me!!! As for Rick I am sad that it came to this. I would think he would have been asked by the board to step down long before this.  If he was coaching a pro sports team with this record he would have been fired long ago. What nobody wants to face is the American auto industry fell asleep at the wheel in the 80's and did not wake up until the Germans and the Japanese were eating their lunch. I think the new product offering from Cadillac is one of the best ever. I have a 2008 STS that is fantastic. I am in the process of buying a 2009. I just hope Cadillac can come out of this intact.  

[homeonprunehill]

 payton, I just got through  reading each post starting with the origional  post and I didn't see HITLER's name anywhere! JIM

[Roger Zimmermann]

payton, I just got through  reading each post starting with the origional  post and I didn't see HITLER's name anywhere! JIM

I saw the name too, but maybe it has been removed.

Roger

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I also saw the reference, and it has since been editted.

Bruce.

[Kevin M. Parkinson]

Doesn't 40 million times $1 million = $40 trillion?

[Jim Salmi #21340]

Yup,

40,000,000 x $1,000,000 = $40,000,000,000,000.

The bailouts are expensive but not THAT expensive (yet)!