GM/Chrysler Declared "Non-Viable;" CEO Rick Wagoner Forced Out
Wagoner Handed His Walking Papers as CEO of GM After Planning to Ask for Another $16.6 Billion; Given 60 Days to Restructure
So far, the ailing auto industry has received $17.4 billion in federal bailout money. General Motors wants another $16.6 billion and Chrysler has asked for an additional $5 million.
Meanwhile, on the troubled auto industry front, GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagner was handed his walking papers. His statement to the Huffington Post was this: "On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they (the Obama Administration) requested that I step aside as CEO of General Motors, and so I have."
It is widely speculated that Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson will be Wagner's replacement, although the man the Obama administration has appointed to oversee the troubled auto industry task force, Steve Rattner, will oversee this decision.
University of Maryland economist, Peter Morici, made this statement, according to the Huffington Post: "They are bailing out just about anybody who shows up and says they need cash. The public has grown weary of it. Instead of throwing a banker to the wolves, they have decided to throw Wagoner to the wolves."
All of this information on GM, Chrysler and the auto industry mess, in general, follows on the heels of the news that Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country, at 12%, (and the hits just keep on coming.)
Sources:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20642.html; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/29/cnbc-gm-ceo-rick-wagoner_n_180516.html
Published by Connie Wilson
Connie Wilson has written for five newspapers and taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois colleges. She has published nine books and lives in the Iowa/Illinois Quad Cities and in Chicago. www.weeklywilson.com; w... View profile
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- General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was asked to step down by the Obama administration and will do so.
3 Comments
Post a CommentNice writing, Connie. It wouldn't surprise me if the government gets tougher and tougher with companies and banks coming begging for cssh. The general public seems to be fed up with government largesse. Perhaps it would have been more palatable had not the very institutions taking public money turned around and immediately gave out large bonuses to the very individuals responsible for our economic hard times in the first place.
Great write up.
Quick reporting! I just saw this on tv. Interesting times in the auto industry.