GM Chairman Ed Whitacre: Fitting In Already

GM’s government-appointed Chairman of the Board was out and about last night, speechifying at Texas Lutheran University. Ed Whitacre used the occasion to plea for the “modification” of Pay Czar Kenneth’s Feinberg’s pay caps. To recap the caps, the nationalized automaker’s top 25 executives took a 31 percent hair cut since joining the federal payroll. Aside from CEO Fritz “Opel Eyes” Henderson, that is, who had his cash compensation trimmed by just 25 percent (from $1.26 million to a paltry $950,000). Leaving only one other unnamed GM executive—cough, transparency, cough—who will “earn” more than $500,000 cash money for 2009. ‘Cause $500,000’s the new limit. And Ed’s not happy about that. “To find top-level people where you need them, that’s a more difficult thing to do at that salary level,” Whitacre said. “I don’t think [the caps] will be lifted, but hopefully they’ll be modified.” Now there’s a man who knows the value of politics. As for the value of GM stock, same deal. Or, in this case, no deal.

Whitacre shot down his own not-so-highly-paid executives’ promises of a 2010 GM stock offering—the planned method for returning U.S. taxpayer’s $52 billion (plus) investment in GM. “It depends on how quickly we become profitable. I think we can see that on the horizon, but I can’t promise a date.”

Now that’s what I call GM speak! Lots of promises, no firm targets and zero accountability. Looks like Ed’s fitting right in.

Oh, and don’t worry about that dropped IPO. Ed’s gonna maybe kinda sorta ensure that GM makes an unspecified payment to the feds at some unspecified date (ahead of the 2010 mid-term elections, presumably). “It’s conceivable we could pay back some of the loans before the end of the year,” he kinda sorta maybe promised.

Now that’s what I call GM speak! Lots of promises, no firm targets and zero accountability. Looks like Ed’s fitting right in.

Oh, and don’t worry about that cultural change thing. Whitacre said GM isn’t “rushing” to hire outside executives. “GM has made several inside changes recently,” the Detroit News paraphrases, “and the move to bring in new blood will be meted out slowly, he said, without giving timing.”

Now that’s what I call GM speak! Lots of promises, no firm targets and zero accountability. Looks like Ed’s fitting right in.

Oh, and don’t worry about all that talk about increasing market share. Despite his insistence upon protecting GM’s piece of the American new car sales pie, Ed says GM hasn’t set a specific market share goal and doesn’t want to add significantly to incentives. “We are just looking at ways to sell more vehicles, and it’s a very competitive market. We need to strike a balance.

Now that’s what I call GM speak! Lots of promises, no firm targets and zero accountability. Looks like Ed’s fitting right in.