Mar 29 2009
Wagoner gets the axe
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has resigned from his position. However, the real interesting part of this story is not the what but the why. Wagoner stepped down because Barack Obama asked him to.
The White House confirmed the story earlier today.
“I can confirm that [General Motor’s CEO Rick] Wagoner was asked to and agreed to step down,” said a White House official through e-mail.
The announcement comes a day before President Barack Obama unveils his new plan for the automobile industry. Apparently Wagoner did not fit the bill for those plans. The CEO has come under fire from the Obama camp before for two reasons.
The first, his company has had to receive more federal aid ($26 billion) than either Ford Motor Company or Chrysler. Secondly, Wagoner has been the CEO since 2000 and was directly in charge of GM’s decision to produce more trucks and SUV’s rather than Hybrids or fuel-efficient cars.
Interesting, maybe Obama will appoint someone; I would love to see the conformation hearings. But I jest, seriously though, where should we draw the line? Now the Right can say this is socialism and the Left will say fascism. If Obama has say over who doesn’t run the company should he therefore have say over who does? This picture begs a lot of questions.
Obviously, if it is true that wagoner made those stupid decisions, then he deserves to go. However, notice that Obama didn’t “fire” him, he has no authority to do so. H e asked him to step down.
I think that the stockholders need to have more of a voice and I heard that there was some kind of congressional movement towards that.
@ dsent ya maybe he’ll see if Blago is up for it! LOL
All kidding aside it should be interesting to see what the markets will do.
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
–Albert Einstein
Sounds like the right move to me.
How great would it be if Obama could ask the head of the Union for GM employees to step down and appoint someone who isn’t asking for RIDICULOUS wages from a dying company.