Two developments affecting the US auto industry in this morning's papers:(1) GM CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner is being forced to resign by the Obama administration, because of dissatisfaction with (a) his leadership of the company and/or (b) his level of cooperation with the federal government in coming up with a restructuring plan.
(2) The administration has given Chrysler a deadline, 30 days from now, prior to which it must reach a merger deal with Fiat (Fiat will obtain a 35% stake) in order to receive an additional $6 billion in loans.
From 2005 until the end of last year, GM lost $73 billion. Wagoner's critics say that he focused too much on trucks and SUV's rather than fuel-efficient cars.
I'm trying to think through the specific people who are receiving the brunt of public/media criticism for the economic crisis and/or their inadequate responses to it:
- Dick Fuld (the head of Lehman)
- Alan Greenspan (to some extent)
- Barney Frank (among conservatives (for pushing too hard to facilitate Fannie Mae loans to poorer people))
- Robert Rubin (among certain editorialists, including Paul Krugman)
- Bernie Madoff
- Henry Paulson/Timothy Geithner
- Maurice Greenberg (founder of AIG)
- Jim Cramer and other CNBC personalities (by Jon Stewart)
- Rick Wagoner
- Ron Gettelfinger (for negotiating overly-generous deals for United Auto Workers members)
