Let GM go Bankrupt

We can't let capitalism function because too many citizens will get hurt so badly that they will take revenge out on the politicians.

exactly. if all else was going along strong and growing, then the country would most likely be able to moderate, or at least withstand the ensuing domino effect. but with banking, real estate and other industries taking gas simultaneously?

i'm sorry that you see revenge on the politicians being the only fallout from a greater economic collapse.

GM could still flop, and the concept of "too big to fail" lives on. I'm inclined to think it was a big mistake, but what might have been is a hard thing to prove.

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i'm sorry that you see revenge on the politicians being the only fallout from a greater economic collapse.

I never said that, I gave the reason why capitalism is not allowed to function. Pain is a part of life, and so is death, if you are living focusing on trying prevent pain and death then you are a fool, you will make very bad choices that will hurt you in the long run.

What I do does for work does not alter the truth of what I say.

We can't let capitalism function because too many citizens will get hurt so badly that they will take revenge out on the politicians.

DontTreadOnMe wrote:

exactly. if all else was going along strong and growing, then the country would most likely be able to moderate, or at least withstand the ensuing domino effect. but with banking, real estate and other industries taking gas simultaneously?

That's where I was going, so we may just disagreeing on likelyhood and degree. Problem is, the people we like to call speculators are going to be more cautious in how they allocate capital, GM could still flop, and the concept of "too big to fail" lives on. I'm inclined to think it was a big mistake, but what might have been is a hard thing to prove.

the reason i was asking about your field of work is simply because it would be interesting to see if you would be sufficiently insulated from damage in the event that a company the size of gm totally fell apart.

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the reason i was asking about your field of work is simply because it would be interesting to see if you would be sufficiently insulated from damage in the event that a company the size of gm totally fell apart.

I am, but this does not cloud my judgment. I would say the same thing even if the pain could get to me. I happen to think that being 47 y.o. and very insulated from economic conditions is a sign of smart choices.

Reinventing” GM would require massive and sustained root and branch reform; from the top down and the bottom up. Howes [rightly] seizes on Uncle Sam’s pay cap as the central impediment to GM hiring the kind of management that could even begin to refashion its dysfunctional corporate culture. But the curmudgeon fails to connect the dots. The automaker doesn’t want a shake-up.

More specifically, the idea that GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s hands are tied by the Troubled Asset Relief Program’s pay and bonus restrictions is ridiculous. Henderson is a GM lifer. The former Chief Financial Officer. Fellow GM lifer, fellow former Chief Financial Officer, and Ex-CEO Rick Wagoner’s hand-picked successor. Henderson owes his livelihood to the GM status quo. In other words, if Henderson was dedicated to upending the GM’s ossified apple cart, he’d start by firing himself. Since he hasn’t, we must assume that reshuffling GM’s motley crew of proven losers is a labor of love. An ennobling endeavor.

No joke. By convincing the feds to keep GM out of the garbage disposal of a real C11, Fritz has protected the paychecks, pensions and benefits of hundreds of white collar compatriots. Top executives like Gary Cowger and Troy Clarke must have kissed Fritz’s feet when he knocked on their door with the “bad” news. In a genuine bankruptcy, these proven losers would have been ejected from the Renaissance Center without so much as a fare-thee-well (excluding any monies they may have stashed away during decades of serious rooting). You can hear failed Car Czar Bob Lutz’s gleeful cackles echoing through the automaker’s increasingly empty cubicles, as New GM’s new marketing maven tries (and fails) to assimilate his reversal of fortune.
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There is only one way GM can truly “reinvent” itself: surrender to the creative destruction inherent in genuine capitalism. It’s an answer that Howes and GM and many, many others find too horrible to contemplate. But it’s the truth.