Being General Motors

According to the New York Times "G.M. reported first-quarter earnings of $865 million as its revenue surged 40 percent, to $31.5 billion. It broke a long string of losses in North America even though industry sales remain near multidecade lows. The results show that G.M. is on track to become a public company again as soon as the fourth quarter, allowing the government to recover more of the billions of dollars it spent preventing the company’s collapse. After nearly running out of money at the end of 2008, G.M. had positive cash flow of $1 billion in the first quarter." This is encouraging news. While taxpayers still own a majority stake in GM, continued profitability will ensure our payback while an estimated one million jobs during this Great Recession were saved. Go GM!

Being General Motors

Although many Republicans were against the bailout of the U.S. auto companies, GM has repaid the $8.1 billion dollars it received nine months ago from the American and Canadian governments and saved some one million jobs according to analysts if GM and Chrysler were allowed to fail. During this time a management guru wrote on his blog that GM should be allowed to fail and that we should move on, investing instead in technology and service. I was vehemently opposed to this. Technology and service, whether produced by big or small businesses or sole proprietors, will not create enough jobs alone. We need to make things again. Our concentration on technology and service has created this debt economy by diluting the middle and excluding many from viable jobs. The AP reports that "GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced the repayments Wednesday at GM's Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kan., where he said GM is investing $257 million in that factory and the Detroit-Hamtramck plant." Oh, Detroit so desperately needs this investment and America needs to regain its status as a great industrial nation. We need to re-evaluate our sense of capital. Let's wish GM and Chrysler well.

Being GM VI

The White House and Congress can both look like a big sad joke at times, whether under the past or present administrations. (Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers still don't sit well with me, even after Geithner's appearance on various talks shows today. In fact, he has caused me to wonder even more. I know he can't be stupid; so, he's probably not trustworthy.) How can they be taken seriously with the best interest of the people at heart with such double standards? Excuse me, I'm livid!

According to the Associated Press, the CEO of GM, Rick Wagoner, has been asked by the White House to step down. He will do so immediately. Now, I wonder how many in the White House administration and Congress will do the honorable thing and step down before we allow them to issue one more brown cent?

GM, Chrysler and the UAW have been asked to make major concessions before receiving a bailout. OK. But what annoys me is that there seems to be a double standard when it comes to companies that make products and those that merely shuffle paper.

Hundreds of billions were given to Wall Street banks and AIG which siphoned billions, to the likes of Goldman Sachs which received $12.9 billion and some 30 plus billion to Barclays in London and Deutsche Bank in Germany. Some $168 billion went to AIG alone. A total of about $17.4 billion went to GM and Chrysler.

Yeah, don't mention to me that AIG has a new CEO, the hand picked former board member of Goldman Sachs, Edward Liddy.

Being GM V

Over the past few weeks I have been noticing a variety of GM cars on the road that have caught my attention. From sports cars to family vehicles to SUV's, I'm really liking what I see.

Being from Detroit and having seven brothers some things grab my attention in ways that some might not think typical. I have always loved cars. Check these out, ranging in division, style and price.












Cadillac CT Coupe 2009












Chevy Impala 2009













Saturn Vue Hybrid 2009












Chevrolet Camaro 2009

I can only imagine that GM sales will increase.

Being GM IV

When my mother was very sick, my friend Linda, a red-haired fiery middle-aged woman, picked my mother up in her Viper and took her for a ride. My mother loved convertibles. As kids, she would tell us stories of the mystery people who visited her family during the holidays and over the summers in the 40's driving convertibles and wearing fine apparel. They were elegant and refine. But who were these people?

These men and women were, in fact, her aunts and uncles; they were also the relatives of Richard Pryor. He was my mom's cousin. If you ever heard his stories over the years you can imagine what colorful people they were. But her father had little contact with them, as her mother died at her birth and her father was too "righteous" to assoicate with them, although his thriving construction business was largely due to his mother-in-law's untoward businesses during a time during The Great Depression where most had very little.

To this day I can see my mom in her white linen jacket with her hair wrapped in a silk scarf getting into that Viper. Vrooom! I can also see her triumphant return with joy in her eyes as she climbed out, her hand in mine.

General Motors has to come up with a plan for its longevity which will include cost cuts and the selling off of some brands. While the Viper is a luxury car, I still hope that General Motors plans will not include selling off this brand that once gave a beloved dying dignified single-mother of 12 rapture and joy, an escape from the pain and mundane, if only for a few miles.

Being General Motors III

Rick Wagoner, and his Big Three counterparts, drove to Washington in hybrid cars yesterday and much attention was paid to their arrival. (We all know what happened a few weeks ago when they arrived in Washington, all three, in their respective private jets.) Will this gesture make a difference? It may soften the public outrage, but will it change how business is done daily?

While I thought that these executives should have considered public image in their Washington arrival, I was more concerned with what would be done in moving forward. Perhaps the executives who have had a hand in the mismanagement of their businesses should be released. But to consider and expect that these executives or any executive of a major company or organization of any kind, including the archbishop and mega pastor, will fly commercial after the single gesture is not likely.

Gestures matter, but ongoing ways of doing things far more.

Being General Motors II

I wrote a post Being General Motors nearly two weeks ago. There seems to be more pressing reasons for a bailout. But when will it end? This year $25 billion is needed. Next year $100 billion may be needed. Being in Michigan, a state already struggling, I well understand the necessity of GM here and even beyond state borders.

Here are some general questions:

1. Can we sustain a loss of 3 million jobs?
2. Can we continue to borrow money, increasing the deficit?
3. Is the playing field fair with foreign companies getting major tax breaks that perhaps allow for greater innovation?
4. Will the lack of a bailout affect national security?

GM CEO, Rick Wagoner, makes his case on youtube:



Would Mr. Wagoner's case get your vote? (I must admit to finding it slightly strange to see such a one on youtube making such a case. What does this say about our current time? For one, it looks like CEOs can no longer sit in glass offices out of view of their customers. This is good. But while there are nearly 4100 views there are no comments at the time of this post. I wonder why?)

Being General Motors

Listening to a clip of Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors, explain that the fate of Lehman Brother cannot be that of General Motors, I thought of the possibility of further job losses in my state and throughout the country. Wagoner insists that GM cannot share the fate of Lehman Brothers and a financial rescue package is necessary. Not too many would disagree that GM cannot fail; a failure would be far too systemic.

Being from Michigan and seeing the effects of plant closings and the impact on many other ancillary businesses, including suppliers of all kind, it seems critical that General Motors can't fail. It seems surreal that we are talking about the possible failure of GM. Such a failure would be both immensely systemic and emotionally devastating. The latter cannot be understated.

General Motors can't fail. But in thinking about a financial rescue package, how are we assured that the rescue will be used properly? (Banks were given a bailout which was suppose to stimulate the economy and they're not lending.) How are we assured that more jobs will be created here in the US to include perhaps green initiatives? How are we assured that there will be productive engineering and not merely the financial kind. For example, Cerberus Capital Management's buyout of Chrysler may indicate more of the latter. This firm also owns 49 percent of GMAC, GM's financial arm.

In considerations of a financial rescue package, how are are we assured that management and production will run more effectively, even more so in booming times as preparation for leaner ones? How do we know that this is not a Band-Aid? How are we assured that there will not be one bailout after another? How are we assured that the massive red tape that goes into production will be replaced with a better streamlined system?

I don't have the answers but I have plenty of questions. Any insight?