Obama: "We Have No Intention of Running GM"

So let me get this straight: we'll pour endless money into the banks with zero accountability, zero strings attached, and no concern at all about chief executives. On the other hand, for the auto industry we'll subsidize non-American competitors, side with unions demanding unrealistic compensation, enforce franchise laws that don't allow businesses to adapt to changing markets, and target fuel economy through the twisted, backwards logic of CAFE requirements and a cheap gas policy, pushing consumers into inefficient cars and SUVs. And Wagoner is to blame for all of this? He's held the company together for years despite all the government and media's attempts to destroy it in favor of foreign competition. He deserves credit for that.

I agree, it seems hypocritical that Wagoner is the fall guy, when he has been busting a** making changes at GM, for problems that started decades ago. Finally, GM has some very compelling products. Yet, the securities banking executives who invented something of destructive value and brought our economy to ruin are somehow indespensable to the Administrations goals? Excuse me, this is a face-saving gesture by the Administration to the huddled masses of taxpayers angry with the banking situation.

This is just one more bad incentive for college-bound kids to pursue banking, policy-wonkdom, etc. rather than actually building or engineering something. Kids are learning the sad reality of what our society values and protects. Thanks, Washington!

I'm not for government intervention either, but let's at least hear the details first.

I'm glad Wagoner is gone. Yes he's been more of a scapegoat than a real problem, but when you have such significant problems such as this, scapegoating is one of the tenets of chairmanship. Henderson has the power to either make or break the company. He's got the skills for it, too.

GM should have declared bankruptcy.

I do agree that Henderson is at least very capable and in fact will probably do an even better job than Wagoner. I think Jederino hit the nail on the head. We're bending over backwards to make life easy for people who just push money around, while discouraging people from careers that involve actually creating something of value. We've taken the next step, going from an industrial economy to a service economy and now we're strictly a consumption economy. Lets see how long we can sustain this.

Tax break for a new car purchase? So when I buy my new BMW later this year, I can get a tax break? Great news!

Those Tax breaks may only be for American purchases only...or at least the tax breaks will be much LAGER than the ones for foreign autos...

I agree with the posters above. Wagoner, who had nothing to do with the economy taking a dive, loses his job.
The CEOs of the banks, who are THE cause of all this, keep their jobs.
That is seriously uncool.

"GM should have declared bankruptcy."

Bingo. While there are other economic consequences if they were to declare bankruptcy, it would have given GM full freedom to reorganize and stir up investor interest. The reality is that a corporation like GM is not going to disappear overnight.

In theory, yes, bankruptcy would be a useful, if painful, solution. However, the media, in their unending quest to destroy GM, is completely misrepresenting what bankruptcy means. They keep passing it off as though bankruptcy would mean GM disappears overnight and your warranty is void and you'll never find parts again. That kind of deception is killing sales, and that would indeed turn a Chapter 11 into a liquidation. If only we could end this irrational hatred of GM, some real progress could be made, but sadly Americans have no love for their own manufacturers. As long as they get their starbucks and ipods, they just don't care.

GM is as much to blame for the vilification of bankruptcy as anyone.

The touted it as an end-of-the-world last resort type of option. Now that it's their best option, they're awfully quiet. It's like a child who wants ice cream but his mom is only offering cookies. The child cries and wails that he only wants ice cream and that cookies are the devil until he realizes that he really won't get ice cream. Then suddenly he wants cookies.