Hubris

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Meet The New Boss:

"President Obama said Monday, 'my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan.'

To that confident assertion he added these stern sentiments:

'They must ask themselves: Have they consolidated enough unprofitable brands? Have they cleaned up their balance sheets, or are they still saddled with so much debt that they can't make future investments? Above all, have they created a credible model for how not only to survive, but to succeed in this competitive global market?'"

It's frightening to contemplate the fact that the President can make a statement like this with a straight face. The work audacity was not in one of his book titles for naught. What does the President's team know about running an auto company? It's too bad Barack Obama couldn't have taken a few days off the campaign trail two years ago to visit the executives in Detroit and set them straight. If he had confronted them with these inciteful questions two years ago, perhaps they could have course-corrected and spared themselves this whole crisis.

The best thing "his team" could do is get out of the way and let these companies reorganize under the bankruptcy laws. It is clear that the unions aren't willing to do what is necessary to save these companies. And the bondholders, who who know the proposed reforms are half measures, aren't willing to be paid off in equity. We are just throwing more good taxpayer money after bad. We'll be bailing them out again in a couple of months. The FIAT merger is just a way to kick the can down the road for a while. The last thing an ailing car company needs is to merge with another ailing car company. Too bad the anti-special interests President is too beholden to organized labor to act in the best interest of all the American people.