I forgot all about that, got rid of our cable so I couldn’t see it anyway. Does anyone know if there is a copy floating on the web so I can see it?

This assumes though that the details of a bailout haven’t already been worked out privately. Would you bet against that possibility? I wouldn’t.

First time I’ve seen Rick talk; he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you’d want for a crisis. He talks like a lawyer.

As I write this, there’s a program on CNBC called “Saving GM.” More of an infomercial for GM really…

Takes GM too long to make new models or revise current ones or adjust to changing market conditions. Plus, the cash from the sale to China or India might just be too irresistible. Who’s going to get all that money?

Considering it’s GM NA operations that lose all the money, why not close down the NA part and keep the money making portion going? Build the cars in those places and ship them back to the states? The good ones that sell well or are guaranteed to sell well.

Does GM have plants in Europe that pump out full size trucks day and night when there is no market for them but they build them anyways because the union says they must?

Is GM still building Hummers even though the dealer lots are full of them?

In the late 1990’s; no one even talked about or was concerned about what type of MPG’s these vehicles got.

The Ford Explorer used to be an absolute quintessential ubiquitous vehicle. They were thick in the streets. So many of them everywhere. All gone now. Where did they all go?

Mr. Wagoner has positioned himself perfectly to never be required to take responsibility for his amazingly outstanding horribleness. If he really cared about the company and the employees that he’s responsible to, he would realize that he’s not the best man for the job currently, and would take steps to turn over the company to somebody who he believes can save GM and the thousands of American citizens who depend upon his company for their way of life. I’m now disgusted.

Only now am I beginning to appreciate Farago’s “bankruptcy proof pension” question to Lutz and all GM execs.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Symbol=GM

Really? It looks to me as if Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai, at the very least, are doing better coping with high gas prices and a declining truck market.

We, the taxpayers, will be loaning money to these incompetent leaders at a reduced interest rate in the hopes that they have “seen the light” or are now somehow going to make better decisions.

Somebody call me when the shuttle lands.

With a reorganization, you DO NOT want to be broke; you want to have enough cash to get back on track if you get a bit of relief from the court. GM is clearly already in the C11 zone; the longer it waits the lower the chance they will emerge. They will have to deal with a massive drop in sales from loss of consumer confidence, nobody wanting to finance their cars, etc… so they will have to have a lot of the bank to survive. Possibly much more than they have. Certainly less likely to emerge in a way remotely pleasing to Rabid Ricks ego. There is no reason to wait and every reason to get this done while they still have a few billion in the bank.

This isn’t some master plan; they are either in Russians-at-the-Reichstag level of denial or just spinning wheels until the the feds arrive with wheelbarrows of cash to stave of the day of reckoning.

I DON’T want the gov’t to bail these guys out b/c their troubles are the result of crummy business practices.

I guess I want them to be a stronger, leaner company than builds products I want to buy (see Toyota, Fiat, Honda, Renault, Nissan, Opel, Ford of Europe). I really doubt Detroit is going to try to satisify me very much but if they can recover from this and be a leaner company then great.

On the downsides I have witnessed a big company go broke and never pay a $10K bill for industrial supplies delivered from our family business.

Alot of businesses big and small besides just redundant union members and dealers are going to really get hurt by GM’s lack of initiative in trimming the fat internally without going broke. The ripple effect is going to have a serious effect on the supplier industry. Glad I got out back in February – just in case.

As these smaller businesses take it on the chin new rules will be written that governs how the survivors do business with the big three.

What should happen is a a corporate weed trimming getting out everybody that hinders the company rather than helping it. I’m not sure though that the top level people’s egos will let them make the right choices of who to let go and in what order. It’s going to be more like controlling kudzu than anything easy.

And does the captain go down with his ship if he intentionally breaches the hull himself?

The intentional bankruptcy looks like it was the idea all along right now, I almost agree with you guys, except what is to be gained by doing that for those in charge. I can’t see them running foreign ops after they said, “oops we did all we could and it just couldn’t be saved, lets go and run China or Brazil, we have the management skills.”

Protecting and restoring what you have would be better then flushing it down the toilet.

After Lutz’s admission that they’re out of money, I can only believe the latter. Why would anyone continue to hold the stock at all now?

When people who are not actually stupid do apparently stupid things there is a reason.

Perhaps Rick and Bob are doing exactly what the BOD wants and are laughing at are calling them stupid-note parachute size.

Bunter

He’s lucky he’s not running GM from China they would have drug him out back of HQ and put a bullet in his head by now, or allowed a public stoning.

I often take the path less travelled in my thinking and personal analysis of issues of the day. As a result, not a lot of things surprise or shock me.

So, the thought has indeed occurred to me that people (not necessarily the government) would consider violence.

The damage done (by so many incompetent executives and BOD members) will be so wide and so deep, I think that visceral and even violent anger is inevitable, especially if Chapter 7 must be resorted to.

I hope Rick goes to jail before innocent people are hurt or killed. That would be best for law and order, and for an orderly society.

Now that the cupboard is bare, firing Wagoner would only be an admission that the BOD have all been sleeping at the wheel for years, and nothing positive will come out of a change in CEOs at this late date anyway. GM is like an airliner whose engines have all flamed out — the destination is certain. Might as well let Rick finish the journey.

Its too bad that Wagoner and the entire Board of Directors can’t be prosecuted together.