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How The Heck Did GM Pay Back That Loan?

Great new Government Motors spoof of GM’s claim they’ve paid taxpayers back. You will enjoy this.

Hat tip to George [...]

The DC Kids

This is a startling article (Hat Tip to Lloyd G.) about who’s in charge in Washington and Detroit. I don’t need to say much about this; the article speaks for itself.

The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M.

WASHINGTON — It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.

Brian Deese, who interrupted his law school career, is the little-seen force behind the revamping of the American auto industry.

But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.

Nor, for that matter, had he given much thought to what ailed an industry that had been in decline ever since he was born. A bit laconic and looking every bit the just-out-of-graduate-school student adjusting to life in the West Wing — “he’s got this beard that appears and disappears,” says Steven Rattner, one of the leaders of President Obama’s automotive task force — Mr. Deese was thrown into the auto industry’s maelstrom as soon the election-night parties ended.

“There was a time between Nov. 4 and mid-February when I was the only full-time member of the auto task force,” Mr. Deese, a special assistant to the president for economic policy, acknowledged recently as he hurried between his desk at the White House and the Treasury building next door. “It was a little scary.”

But now, according to those who joined him in the middle of his crash course about the automakers’ downward spiral, he has emerged as one of the most influential voices in what may become President Obama’s biggest experiment yet in federal economic intervention.

While far more prominent members of the administration are making the big decisions about Detroit, it is Mr. Deese who is often narrowing their options.

A month ago, when the administration was divided over whether to support Fiat’s bid to take over much of Chrysler, it was Mr. Deese who spoke out strongly against simply letting the company go into liquidation, according to several people who were present for the debate. … Continue reading The DC Kids

Flash: GM Headed for Bankruptcy

By Jeff Harding

General Motors Corp. doesn’t plan to make a $1 billion payment due June 1 to bondholders since by that point it expects either to have cut its debt through an exchange for shares, or to have decided to seek bankruptcy-court protection, GM Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said.

Mr. Young, speaking to [...]

The White House: Your New GM Dealer

This didn’t take long.

Newest GM Dealership

Barack Obama: GM’s New Chairman of the Board

By Jeff Harding

It is happening here.

“We can’t theorize about the future,” cried Wesley Mouch, “when there’s an immediate national collapse to avoid! We’ve got to save the country’s economy! We’ve got to do something!” …

“You’ve been making temporary adjustments for years. Don’t you see that you’ve run out of time?” said Rearden…

“We can’t afford any theories!” cried Mouch. “We’ve got to act!”

“Well, then, I’ll offer you another solution. Why don’t you take over my mills and be done with it?” said Rearden. …

“Oh no!” gasped Mouch.

“We wouldn’t think of it!” cried Holloway.

“We stand for free enterprise!” cried Dr. Ferris.

“We don’t want to harm you!” cried Lawson. “We’re your friends, Mr. Rearden. Can’t we all work together? We’re you friends.” …

“We don’t want to seize your mills!” cried Mouch

“We don’t want to deprive you of your property!” cried Dr. Ferris. “You don’t understand us!”

“I’m beginning to,” said Rearden.

Before you jump out of your chair, let me give you one more quote from Atlas Shrugged:

“I wouldn’t exaggerate the importance of Buzzy Watts of the National Shippers Council. He’s been making a lot of noise and giving a lot of expensive dinners in Washington, but I wouldn’t advise taking it too seriously.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Mr. Weatherby.

“Listen, Clem, I do know that Wesley refused to see him last week.”

“That’s true. Wesley is a pretty busy man.”

“And I know that when Gene Lawson gave that big party ten days ago, practically everybody was there, but Buzzy Watts was not invited.”

“That’s so,” said Mr. Weatherby peaceably.

“So I wouldn’t bet on Mr. Buzzy Watts, Clem. And I wouldn’t let it worry me.”

“Wesley’s an impartial man,” said Mr. Weatherby. “A man devoted to public duty. It’s the interest of the country as a whole that he’s got to consider above everything else.” Taggart sat up; of all the danger signs he knew, this line of talk was the worst. “Nobody can deny it, Jim, that Wesley feels a high regard for you as an enlightened businessman, a valuable advisor and one of his closest personal friends. Taggart’s eyes shot to him swiftly: this was still worse. “But nobody can say that Wesley would hesitate to sacrifice his personal feelings and friendships—where the welfare of the public is concerned.”

The above quotes come from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a masterpiece of political philosophy and a powerful defense of individualism, freedom, and free markets. Please spare me the lecture about her shortcomings or her writing style. Fifty years after it was first published she still sells 200,000 copies a year.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the novel, its premise is that world needs entrepreneurs, their brains, their drive, and capitalism to create wealth and make a better life for all of us. In the novel, increasing state control of the economy causes these doers to go on strike and let the world collapse until they can come back on their own terms. They see that being controlled by the State is just another version of slavery.

… Continue reading Barack Obama: GM’s New Chairman of the Board