Let’s get one thing straight: Bob Lutz is the Car Czar. The GM Veep’s claim on the title is as absolute as his inability to revamp GM’s product lineup to avoid bankruptcy. TTAC’s respect for Maximum Bob is such that we created the Bob Lutz Award, given to the automotive executive who’s made the most outrageous, politically incorrect or just plain dumb public pronouncements of the year. OK, that piece of business done, Politico reports that president-elect Barack Obama is considering appointing a car czar to oversee the U.S. government’s widely anticipated “investment” in Detroit’s failed automakers. “Specifics about the proposal remain unclear. But the transition team says Obama suggested to President Bush on Monday that aid to the auto industry could be coupled with the appointment of ‘someone in charge of the auto issue who would have the authority’ to push for reforms. The details came from a more extended readout of the White House meeting provided Tuesday. The person would assist in efforts to create an ‘economically viable auto industry,’ a transition aide said – a move that could alleviate concerns about protecting taxpayer interests if more money is directed to assist automakers.” Combine this with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s call for an equity stake in exchange for bailout billions and you have a perfect recipe for The Mother of All Automotive Failures. [thanks to KixStart for the link]
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Not a bad idea, but if they have any sense, they’ll just send Delta Force extract Katsuaki Watanabe or Fujio Cho.
Yes, we can!
For the sake of our country I hope O-Presidente has some commons sense in addition to campaign rhetoric and his rock star qualities. If not, we’ll be much poorer in 4 years and 2008 will look like good ol’ days. G.W. will be nice sweet memories for most and endless excuses for some.
Please no American Leyland…
NO bailout, no way, no how!
Can somebody set “American Leyland” to the tune of “American Woman” by the Guess Who?
“NO bailout, no way, no how!” Interesting. Would that that sentiment would catch fire.
Please note that since the inception of the Republic, Michigan has always paid more into the Federal treasury than it has ever gotten out. We are and always have been a “Creditor” state, versus places like Alabama and South Carolina, which have been Debtor states.
So, how about this? LOAN Michigan the funds necessary to right the ship of manufacturing, in lieu of us demanding that “right-to-work” states such as South Carolina and Mississippi (always debtor states) pay us back for paving their own roads and funding their own schools?
Or, in the alternative, we in Michigan could always petition to become the 10th province of Canada. WE always pay our own freight.
Canada may be looking for another Province,I hear they have one that wants to leave.Good luck.
I guess we’ll have new CAFE-numbers soon.
Canada may be looking for another Province,I hear they have one that wants to leave.Good luck.
Who? Alberta? I’m surprised they haven’t been “liberated” for their oil yet. (j/k)
Cool! Car Czar! They have a job application form at Pres elect Obama’s web site. Lets all go over there and apply to be the Car Czar!
Job number 1 – Fire Waggoner! no, first, eliminate any pensions for GM upper management. second, fire their asses! yeah, got it now, I am going to apply.
Jerome York doesn’t seem to have much to do these days. Alternatively, I think Ross Perot is still alive, and he tried to kick GM’s ass into the new world way back in Orwell’s Year 1984.
Come to think of it, many pieces of what Orwell warned us about have come to pass, though Newspeak was refined more in the private sector than in the public.
FYI, Canada already has 10 provinces and Michigan isn’t likely on our list of ‘states we’d like to acquire tomorrow’. We’ve got the snow thing covered already.
Also, government is an unwieldly thing and democrats do love them some intervention, so don’t be surprised if they try to ‘help’ all sorts of industries. If they do, Wolfgang Bernhard is the guy. He is tough enough and knows the cost side of the industry around the globe better than almost anyone. Would he take the job if he got the call?
I am sympathetic Michigan plus 1. I agree with a bailout, if the auto industry goes, it ain’t comin back. More likely, the Japanese transplants will pull out to move to low wage countries like China, so they can compete against future imports from China. Total Japanese employment in US is small compared to total jobs lost.
The key is to have a bailout which works. Management goes, maybe Chapter 11 is necessary to reduce debt, all retiree health care goes to Medicare.
Interesting idea to leave though, maybe we in Indiana can join you.
I’ve said it before, and at the danger of repeating myself, I repeat myself:
I don’t understand America’s infatuation with that Czar business. We had a drug Czar, an intelligence Czar, an energy Czar, apparently a climate Czar, GM has Bob Lutz as a car Czar. Obama wants a car Czar also. Czars rule! If this continues, we’ll be ruled by Czars.
Reminder:
The Czar was Russia’s Emperor. An autocratic, absolute ruler. The peasants were indentured slaves. The last one started a war with Japan, lost most miserably. His closest adviser was a mad monk, Rasputin, a holy man with a ravenous sexual appetite, who had to get shot and drowned for good measure. The Czar’s pastime were pogroms. He was stupid enough to REALLY start WW I. He was killed by communists.
And we like that?
It figures Obama wants to not only do a bailout but also create a new position (“more government!”).
First I think the bailout is wrong. Detroit had their chance to clean up their act. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that gas prices would eventually go up.
If I make a bad financial decision in my personal life, does the government give me my money back? I think not.
I am absolutely against rewarding irresponsible private businesses with my tax dollars. We’d be better of spending that money retraining employees or giving them the money.
2ndly, what is this sole person he wants to appoint, supposed to accomplish? What powers does he/she have? What restrictions?
What penalties are there if this person fails at their job? What if GM fails to give the government this money back or keep jobs?
Too many questions remain to have justification in creating this new government position.
The Czar was Russia’s Emperor. An autocratic, absolute ruler. The peasants were indentured slaves. The last one started a war with Japan, lost most miserably. His closest adviser was a mad monk, Rasputin, a holy man with a ravenous sexual appetite, who had to get shot and drowned for good measure. The Czar’s pastime were pogroms. He was stupid enough to REALLY start WW I. He was killed by communists.
Yeah, but by 1921, those hardy peasants were beginning to remember old Nick rather fondly. And BTW the czar himself was not so enamored of the weirdo, Rasputin. It was the “Tsaritsa” who thought he was way cool.
Bertel, I’ve always thought this fascination with Czars was weird as well. Plus, I can’t think of a case where appointing one worked.
The war on drugs, for example, is an ongoing failure. Prior to the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act of 1932, drug abuse was a relatively rare problem in the US. But, with Prohibition about to fall, some personal demons needed stopping! Prohibition gave us the mob and the war on drugs gave us modern drug gangs. Czars haven’t fixed any of it.
10-4, Horner. And don’t even get me going on my most favorite topic: Prostitution. We need a Prostitution Czar! If only to decrease the amount of PR-pimping ……
Hey Bertel, I, for one, appreciate your repeating the Czar history lesson. Like you, I can’t imagine what it is that some people find so fascinating about one of the most failed countries of the last 100 years.
I would specifically like someone not from inside the US car industry. I think they are all toxic and inbred to the point where they can’t fix anything.
Regardless of what you think about the bailout, this will probably happen as the economy can’t soak up a hit in its industrial sector in the shape it is. This is not the tech bust of 2001, this is staving off a depression.
Michigan1: Please note that since the inception of the Republic, Michigan has always paid more into the Federal treasury than it has ever gotten out.
To get the wealth transfer, you’d have to include social security payments. Since warm southern states and rural states have a higher proportion of elderly, they receive more social security payments.
Matt51: I agree with a bailout, if the auto industry goes, it ain’t comin back. More likely, the Japanese transplants will pull out to move to low wage countries like China, so they can compete against future imports from China.
Not all of the Big Three will go under.
And please note that Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai will still build cars here. If anything, their presence in the U.S. will only increase in the coming years.
The Japanese automakers don’t think like their American counterparts. (This, everyone should note, is why they aren’t in deep doo-doo right now.)
They don’t let short-term thinking rule their outlook. They aren’t in the American market for the short term. They want to build cars where they sell them, and right now, even with the recession, they still sell lots of vehicles in North America.
What GM needs is a thorough restructuring – either an outright Chapter 11 filing, or a quasi-Chapter 11 filing under government protection. Rewrite the labor contracts, can Pontiac, Saturn, GMC, Buick and HUMMER, get rid of those dealer networks, and start closing the factories to bring production in line with a roughly 15 percent market share.
Matt51: Total Japanese employment in US is small compared to total jobs lost. The key is to have a bailout which works.
The only way ANY plan will work is if GM shuts down sufficient divisions and factories – which, in turn, will put the dealers selling those vehicles out of business – until it is sized for about 15 percent of the market.
Any effort to “preserve jobs” is a waste of taxpayer money, as those jobs are already redundant. Not enough people want what they are making to ensure a profit (which, please note, is the reason for a corporation’s existence – to make money for shareholders by making products that people want to buy at a price that makes a profit).
GM is already too big for its real market share (the one not artificially puffed up by incentives and sales to rental car companies); it will have to SHRINK if it wants to be a sustainable concern for the long term. And that shrinkage means lots of UAW and management jobs are going to be lost.
A government bailout just delays the inevitable while wasting lots of taxpayer money, mainly because the Democrats aren’t going to tell the UAW that a fair chunk of members who work for GM should be updating their resumes…
Bertell,
You are looking at mostly irrelevant historical details of the Czarist past.
Czar is an absolute ruler over his domain. He is apolitical (above politics), somebody with enormous power who gets things done; done the way he sees fit. The proper figure to emulate here is Peter The Great or Catherine The Great.
The history of czars in the US has been quite the opposite of their title. They have been political and impotent mostly.
Cool! Car Czar! They have a job application form at Pres elect Obama’s web site. Lets all go over there and apply to be the Car Czar!
Does the job come with a cool hat of some kind, maybe some young, chubby interns?
Probable list:
Ralph Nader
Jay Leno
Al Gore
Give it to Wagoner & Lutz. They would be totally ineffective (which is something I desire in government bureaucracy) and it would get them out of GM finally.