Does Anyone feel like Bailing

[sugarpop]

Well, click on the link I posted. There is a very interesting interview there between Rachel Maddow and Senator Byron Dorgan. Apparently he did.

[Undertoad]

But so what?

One of Limbaugh's favorite tricks is to play an old tape where he has predicted something years ago, and what he has predicted, has come true. This makes Rush seem like an amazingly brilliant analyst and prognosticator. Is it the case?

No. However it IS the case that if you speculate for hours every day, on air, that some of your speculations will come true. Bound to happen.

Senators are generally blowhards who love to hear the sound of their own voice. On any issue you can find Senators who blow hard one way about it, and others who blow hard the other way about it. And they're often on air.

Was Dorgan right about the policy matter, absolutely. Is he an amazingly brilliant analyst and prognosticator, no. He's a politician.

[sugarpop]

whatever.

[TheMercenary]

The Big Takeover... A RollingStone review.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...takeover/print

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

The Big Takeover... A RollingStone review.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...takeover/print

Shit Merc, you just want to piss me off more than I already am don'tcha? Well, at least this article gives me some satisfaction in knowing there are still people out there who agree with me about rich pricks on Wall Street.

[ZenGum]

: eyes glazing :

FTR, I agree with ... well, not quite 85%, but ... more than half of what TW posts. When I can be bothered to read it all. Learn to edit, bro.

[tw]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Learn to edit, bro.

Which sentences would you remove?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by tw

Which sentences would you remove?

These...

A benchmark for GM was posted what - more than a decade ago when a majority were in denial? The 70 Horsepower per liter engine. So many disagreed only because they *felt* it was wrong.

... because it's still bullshit.

But you did a good job on the rest of the post.

[ZenGum]

Actually, that post was pretty good, but various refinements in the form of rearranging, rephrasing, signposting... crap, this is what happens to teachers.

Now I have to make myself stay after class and write on the blackboard "I must not edit TW's posts" over and over.

[Undertoad]

Good: Wagoner out

Bad: New guy is a Harvard MBA and was never a "car guy"

[xoxoxoBruce]

As he was already the heir apparent, he's suspect.
And as the current CFO he had to know the the shenanigans were going on.

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

While I'm glad Wagoner is out, it's just a political public perception move on Obama's part. That said, I suppose Obama dictating Wagoner's replacement would have been too much. sigh

[classicman]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

While I'm glad Wagoner is out, it's just a political public perception move on Obama's part. That said, I suppose Obama dictating Wagoner's replacement would have been too much. sigh

What makes you think he didn't? Oh and he is there on an "interim basis." Careful he may get a retention payment at the end of a certain period of time too. (serious)

[tw]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Good: Wagoner out

Also interesting is what that firing did in GM. Shock. GM management still believed what Wagoner said. First he said GM had no problems other than a bad economy. Then he gets his ass handed back by Congress when he cannot even say how many $billions GM really needs. So he says GM has some problems and he is going to fix it. Well those solutions must be on the scale of closing whole divisions – Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, Saab, GMC . GM’s attitude is Wagoner's decree - they will simply seek concessions from employees and suppliers. 85% of all problems ….

Finally Obama put into the management, stock holders, bond holders, and BoDs the seriousness of their plight. First he had to remove a person who was optimistic and who foolishly insisted GM had good products. When Obama forced him out, news reports suggested it shocked everyone in GM management back to reality. Good. Their attitude is directly traceable to Wagoner’s decades of lying.

The new guy is only a transition. (More interesting – who will take the Iacocca job?) Even the BoDs need wholesale replacement. GM bonds are now selling for 17 cents on the dollar - $64 billion in outstanding debts - and bond holders still were not demanding change. Under Wagoner, everyone even foolishly believed GM was too big to fail; that bankruptcy was not an option.

Obama gave them time to fix themselves. They did nothing. They pretended GM was OK. 30 years earlier, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter made the situation obvious to Chrysler and Ford who in turn immediately fired their only problems - top management. But the White House for most of the past few years has all but promised protection everywhere. Remember George Jr's protection of anti-American steel companies? The protection of 40% higher prices for prescriptions? Finally Obama has (hopefully) put the fear of economic forces into GM and Chrysler management.

Meanwhile Nardelli is negotiating with Fiat as if he has options. Cerebus Capital (private investors) believed they ‘deserve’ government protection. Under Nardelli, Chrysler does not even have one new product in development. Fiat probably only wants Chrysler dealers anyway. Remember how Iacocca saved Chrysler? K-car. Mini-van. New product after new product because the threat of bankruptcy was galloping right behind Chrysler. Today, neither Wagoner nor Nardelli heard that threat (Ford did). So Nardelli will not even sell off his disaster to Fiat. Instead, both are rich and overpaid men who also believe in corporate welfare from the government.

Hopefully, Obama just sent a message to all American corporations that have been stifling innovation for so long in the name of cost controls, money games, and greater profits. Protection of the rich and anti-innovative has ended. How many heard it today? Finally, someone may have stood up for free market capitalism when it is most necessary.

[TheMercenary]

Those damm Anglo-Saxons!

Mr Sarkozy, who blames the “Anglo-Saxons” for causing the economic crisis, told his ministers last week that he would leave Mr Brown’s summit “if it does not work out”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6005810.ece

[sugarpop]

Yea, he sent a message to all corporations tw, except financial ones. So the workers and unions will have to give up more, yet again, while banks keep getting more and more and more money, and the execs are still in place. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Wagoner is gone, but putting the next in line may not be all that smart, if he's been there a long time.

I'm not feeling the love anymore.

I hope, at this G20 (or whatever it's called), that obscene executive pay is addressed, because there are certainly people there protesting that.