Management changes:

[jrittenhouse]

Personally, I have no trouble with the CEO of GM getting ‘laid off’, forced out, or what have you.  His mismanagement helped get the place where it is now…where no-kidding-GM sorts like me and Susan, who own a Buick SUV and a Chevy Van, are talking favorably of getting a Ford or Toyota to replace them.

My auto mechanic Dad called Fords Fix-Or-

Comments

[jrittenhouse]

See also:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/labor/in-wake-of-gm-ouster-unions-demand-obama-fire-bank-of-america-ceo/?ref=fp4

[jrittenhouse]

Note as always that the information these guys have on how GM will be sliced and diced is theirs and not mine. It fits earlier stuff that I've heard on the subject, though.

I keep saying too that the real stuff that the Big Auto people are going to have to deal with is not the union contracts, but the contracts with a myriad of dealerships, suppliers and so on. The one thing that Obama said that surprised me but makes sense is that the Government is going to back up the manufacturer's warranties - though in practice, how that's going to be done and paid for (let alone the whole supply process, recalls and whatnot) is going to be interesting.

[klutch_kargo]

Apparently, China is willing to keep buying more and more American debt as our federal government keeps providing the billions of dollars. Let's face it, if our economy takes off again, their economy takes off again.

All of these CEO's were supposed to make money. During the economic boom, if they took action with the future in mind - for example, start to build more fuel efficient cars - their company would not have made as much money and the stock market would have reflected less profit TOO much. The future did not matter, making money did.

[jrittenhouse]

Basically. The light trucks and SUVs were cookie-cutter stuff they could make in their sleep, and people got sold those things because there was more profit in them.