Mike Allen and Josh Gerstien at The Politico: [1]
The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.
On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.
The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government’s behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.
General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner’s departure.
“We are anticipating an announcement soon from the Administration regarding the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. We continue to work closely with members of the Task Force and it would not be appropriate for us to speculate on the content of any announcement,” the company said
If GM’s stock wasn’t worth absolutely nothing last Friday, it will be certainly worth nothing this morning. Then again, when the Kremlin asks you to resign your position, you do so and hope they don’t take anything else.
We have now entered an age when private companies are under the file an unquestioned control of the all powerful Federal government. Certainly, we have come quite a distance and 60 days of Mr. Obama’s presidency. Then again, I’ve already allowed that Obama and his people probably and correctly perceive that they will not be able to achieve their agenda if they wait very long. The resistance is already ramping up, and this situation certainly is not going to help matters. What we see here is the words of Rahm Emmanuel Writ large… Never let a good crisis go to waste.
The chances of this working out in the long-term are very small indeed, particularly given who’s running the show in the white house these days. If you don’t have an extraordinary mistrust for Obama and his plans for the auto industry, if you haven’t been watching as he has been totally flummoxed by the comparatively simple act of constructing a cabinet.
We have remarked here in the past that the real locus of the problems within the auto industry is the unions. Given Obama’s political loyalties, this problem will remain unsolved. Witness; Obama didn’t demand the resignation of the Union heads.
Of course, all of this is hipshot, and I’ll have far more tommrow, as will, doubtless, everyone else on the planet.