GM IPO: WILL "GOVERNMENT MOTORS" BECOME THE "PEOPLES' REPUBLIC OF GM?"

By Cammie

Stock market wonks and bargain-hunting investors are anticipating the "initial public offering" for the new stock in "Government Motors" (nee General Motors). And according to one report, one of the most interested potential investors is another "government motors" outfit -- China's SAIC.

So now we've "saved" GM just so a cadre of "godless communists" can get their mitts on what's left. We're a long way from the days of "Better dead than Red!"

To be fair, GM and SAIC have been "fellow travelers" for a while now.

And undoubtedly every one of GM's revolving chain of recent bosses, from Rick Wagoner to "Dial Tone" Ed to boastful IPO wonk Dan Akerson, realizes that the Peoples' Republic of China is the growth market for the future, as well as America's main financier these days. (What was that quote about "capitalists selling the commies the rope they'll hang us with?" Apparently the capitalists will make that rope on "red" credit.)

So, the "Government Motors" bureaucrats likely see an equity tie-in with a Red Chinese government carmaker as a "win/win." And neither they, nor our CINC are going to miss a tee time worrying about any negative implications.

What a mess! Isn't globalization (a/k/a the looting of America) fun?

And it just keeps getting worse and worse. Autoextremist is reporting that Chip Ganassi has blown off Ford's courtship in favor of a deal with "Government Motors" that will include a GM-badged twin-turbo V6 for Indy Car racing.

Oh joy. The Indianapolis 500 is about to become a contest between Japanese and Sino-American carmakers, fought with the horrible noise of "buzzin' half-dozen" engines.

Oh for the days when the hallowed confines of the Brickyard reverberated with the sound of turbocharged Ford V8s! How the mighty have fallen!

At least Ford will have its utter domination of NASCAR (losing) to console itself.

OBAMA AND THE KNOWNOTHINGS SACK WAGONER

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

After Rick Wagoner's tone-deaf jet trip to Washington D.C. last November, it became clear that GM's CEO would probably be thrown overboard at some point in the "Beg 2" financial crisis.

In fact, Truth With Speedzzter then opined:

Wagoner is the last of the traditional "Detroit insider" CEOs. The popular canard that it will take brilliant folks who have not grown up in inside the auto industry to save it is a career-flattening steamroller for company men like Wagoner.

He may not have made the mess and he may have been fighting for restructuring long before anyone in Congress ever even heard of the concept, but he's most likely to take the fall for generations of GM managers that are long gone.

It maybe totally unfair and divorced from the actual facts, but Wagoner might just be one of the sacrificial lambs in the titanic struggle to save GM.

That day came just a handful of days before GM's Congressionally-mandated restructuring plan was due. And the call to the bullpen apparently came from the highest levels of the Government.

CNBC's Phil LeBeau said

In one full swoop, the White House has made it clear it will re-make America's largest auto maker from the top down.

This goes way beyond dumping the CEO of a company gasping for air.

This is the start of the Treasury Department actively changing who and how GM operates.

Nothing suggests that Rick Wagoner was unable or unwilling to carry out the whims of Obama's Central Committee of Car Czars. Moreover, no one could reasonably question Wagoner's commitment to a company he'd spent over three decades of his life serving in various capacities.

So why did Rick get the "death penalty?" Was it that he failed to impress Obama's automotive know-nothings? Was he too strong for Obama's committee of fly-weights, environmental activists, and non-vehicle owners to manage? Was Wagoner's apparent inability to work a deal with the U.A.W. his downfall?

No. It was old-fashioned scapegoat symbolism, plain and simple. It was a trophy for the wall of GM's legion of critics. It was badge-engineered to buy Obama and his clueless band of Car Czars more time and a larger blank check.

Obama served up Wagoner's head to attempt to squelch vapid "experts," such as the near-brain-dead Alabama Senator Richard Shelby and a host of chauffeured politicians and appliance motorists who pretend to know how to "fix" GM.


Obama's sacking of Wagoner was rooted in cynical realpolitik, not justice or fairness.

It was meant to soften the criticism of inevitably borrowing more money from the Chinese and our grandchildren to give Obama's loyal supporters in the U.A.W. a softer landing in the GM collapse.

(Of course, dumping Wagoner will do nothing to win over the hard-core "Tokyo Roses" in the "Let 'em die/Let Toyota take over America" camp. But it might give Obama a little more "cover" among free-spending moderates, big labor, and disgruntled environmentalists)

To be fair, Rick Wagoner will not be remembered in the Pantheon of great Detroit automobile executives. He was little more than a journeyman corporate bureaucrat who was faced with a mess even some of the legends couldn't have unwound. He was a product of GM's system of homogenisation, notwithstanding the fact that he actually sometimes listened to Maximum Bob Lutz and John Heinricy. And it cannot be ignored that GM's collapse happened on Wagoner's watch.

But Rick Wagoner probably deserved a lot better than being shown the door by a group of hyperpartisan opportunists who are even less capable at their jobs than Wagoner was at his.

IS RICK WAGONER WASHED UP AT GM?

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

It looks like Congress will adjourn for 2008 without doing anything to douse the economic firestorm that is consuming what's left of General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler.

Monday, November 17, 2008, the New York Times asserted that:

"DETROIT — Rick Wagoner cannot afford to leave Washington this week without at least $10 billion in federal aid to keep General Motors in business."


"Rick Wagoner, G.M.'s chief for the last eight years, has to convince Congress that the automakers need federal loans."

"But a major question for Mr. Wagoner, G.M.’s chief executive for the last eight years, is whether he will return to Detroit with his job as well."

Wagoner jetted into town on a "luxury corporate jet," got brutally punished in a sadly typical U.S. Senate "show trial" "photo op" joke of a "hearing," and did not even obtain so much as cab fare for GM.

Wagoner failed to "circle the wagons" when it mattered most. Now GM will be forced to either file for bankruptcy or go into a "starvation mode" in order to hang on until President-Elect Obama and a larger Democratic majority takes over in late January 2009.

This will likely be the longest sixty days of Rick Wagoner's life.

However the inescapable question is: Will Wagoner even survive that long as GM's CEO? Or was Wagoner's infamous begging trip to Washington D.C. in the GM executive jet one of his last?

Wagoner basically has put all of his clout and reputation on the line. His "bet" came up empty. He struck out in the bottom of the ninth with the whole World Series on the line. He missed the "Hail Mary" shot at the buzzer that would have prevented a certain loss and put the contest into overtime.

Moreover, some have undoubtedly concluded that how he has mishandled this has actually HURT GM's cause. A near universal chorus in the halls of Congress and the lazy, sycophantic media is that GM's management is to blame for the crisis. And that "buck" stops with the guy who failed to "close the sale" by not bringing home the bucks this week.

High-profile management upheaval will likely be necessary window-dressing to any future deal as well.

Wagoner is the last of the traditional "Detroit insider" CEOs. The popular canard that it will take brilliant folks who have not grown up in inside the auto industry to save it is a career-flattening steamroller for company men like Wagoner.

He may not have made the mess and he may have been fighting for restructuring long before anyone in Congress ever even heard of the concept, but he's most likely to take the fall for generations of GM managers that are long gone.

It maybe totally unfair and divorced from the actual facts, but Wagoner might just be one of the sacrificial lambs in the titanic struggle to save GM.

Of course, Mitt Romney is tuning up in the green room . . . .