Ex-Car Czar’s First Pick to Run GM Was Not an American
- Posted on September 4, 2010 at 2:04pm by
Scott Baker
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Among the revelations in the new book by former auto czar Steve Rattner — the first person he turned to for the top at General Motors was Carlos Ghosn. Ghosn is the CEO of Nissan-Renault. Ghosn is French (born in Brazil) and of Lebanese descent.
The Detroit News obtained a draft of the book.
He asked Ghosn: “Would you be interested in becoming CEO of GM?”
Ghosn declined.
“I knew it was a long shot and was not surprised when he deftly demurred,” Rattner recalled.
Fox News notes Rattner’s revelations about the firing of the original CEO Rick Wagoner:
When Wagoner was ousted, Obama expressed concern about allowing Wagoner to collect $7.1 million of the $22.1 million he was owed in accrued pension benefits, Rattner said.
Obama had difficulty with the “notion of writing a check that was about 100 times the annual income of a GM worker to the CEO who had brought the company down.”
Obama “grimaced and reluctantly acquiesced,” Rattner wrote. “I found it striking that the president of the United States had spent more time on an issue of executive pay than on the question of whether to dismiss a major CEO in the first place.”
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Comments (62)
Brandoneous
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 1:22pmWow + Ouch = Wouch
Report Post »piperdoc
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 1:12pmRattner said. “Obama had difficulty with the “notion of writing a check that was about 100 times the annual income of a GM worker to the CEO who had brought the company down.”
I have problems with paying Obama $400k a year plus millions in perks, to bring the country down.
Report Post »Alessandre
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 2:23pmAmen!
Report Post »jmm1966
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 12:28pmThe USA has lost the rule of law, democracy, capitalism, the right to vote, and the pursuit of happiness. Since the USA was the last Country to have all these ideas and ideals, there is no where left to go. Shana Tovah
Report Post »Hisemiester
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 12:23pmI don’t think you would want me to speak my mind. Ha.
Report Post »Obama will get all he wants, until God, thats our creator, is finished with him. When the people of this country (Christian Community) is on its knees and turns back to the true faith and not some faith some man has introduced, You may see the Creator intervening. However, when you look at the Country of Israel today compared with the Israel of yesteryear, then compare it with the US. The US may be downsized to the size of Vermont. Obama is the spawn of Satan, nothing else. He is doing what he said he would do. Fundamentally Change the USA. He is doing a good job of it too.
He does not need to know anything about anything. Only needs to open his mouth and the chip comes out. Satan’s minions do the rest.
glennsacutie
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 3:11pmYou’re spot on, Hisemiester! The heart of the king is in the hands of the Lord. The powers that be are ordained of God. For whatever reasons, God permitted this country to have what the majority wanted — this un-American non-American in the White House — for this time. We are commanded to pray for him so that it will be better for us. I have no respect for the man, just for the office, and that only because the Bible commands me to respect the office. When we turn back to Him, He then can turn our captivity into rejoicing again. We may even need to be praying for some of these progressives. Even Job’s troubles did not begin to turn around until he began to pray for those “friends” who had been ignorantly accusing him.
Report Post »ALFRED E. NEUMAN
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 12:20pmWhen are you people going to come to your senses? This OBAMA is a MUSLIM MARXIST and HATES AMERICA and all it STANDS FOR! He is capable of only community organizing and not very good at that. He needs to go back to his native KENYA and rule that THIRD WORLD country where most of the people have been subjugated for centuries, and THUGS like OBAMA get away with literal MURDER, because that is only what uneducated PEASANTS know!
Report Post »How this “COMMANDER IN THIEF” WAS ELECTED TO THE HIGHEST OFFICE IN THIS LAND, AND HAS DRAGGED EVERY COMMUNIST, SOCIALIST, NAZI, MISFIT ALONG WITH HIM, IS BEYOND ANY THINKING PERSONS BELIEF!
Gonzo
Posted on September 6, 2010 at 9:11amObama had trouble paying “the CEO who had brought the company down”? I bet he had no problem paying the union that brought the company down!
Report Post »ducmark
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 11:31pmIt is just par for the course I would say for this administration. They are here to totally change this country and it will take a generation to pull out these devastating policies. Obama is not interested in the free market and wants everyone to be dependant on the government. I say a emphatically “NO” to that and will go down fighting for our freedom. Voting for a republican is just not the answer either, have to vote for the person who stands for what the founding fathers stood for.
In my opinion everyone should have a fair wage and these CEO’s need to be paid based on performance and nothing else. If the company goes down like GM then that CEO needs to see his wage cut to next to nothing until properous times are back to that company. If we based most things by performance we would see quality come back to this country and pride. Teachers is a very good example, get rid of tenure and start paying them by their performance. Stop passing students when they cannot do the work. This country needs to take pride in doing a job well done.
Lets vote them out in November and cannot wait until 2012 to get Obama out and a new begining to retoring this nation!!
Report Post »Alessandre
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 2:20pmWe must be very careful. What a private company pays its CEO is up to that private company. They must be left to succeed or fail. If the quality of the product & the ability to sell it is such that they & their shareholders make money, then the CEO can make a huge salary – who cares. If the company fails, then the CEO will fail with it. Only bankruptcy laws need to be equitable & enforced so that officers of a company don’t walk away with the profits leaving the shareholders & creditors with nothing.
And in terms of teachers — we must leave amounts to those who actually pay the salaries. We must also understand there are many other reasons students fail, bad teachers are responsible for only a portion of the problem. The effect of school administration policies has an enormous impact on student performance. Three examples: 1) In some states, students face no consequences for their actions. Detentions aren’t enforced, there are no time outs, nothing may be done that makes a student “feel bad” in front of his peers. Classroom discipline is impossible because disruptive students cannot be removed. 2) In some states, students are administratively passed to the next grade regardless the # of absences or the actual performance on classwork/tests & then when they face mandated tests, those students fail because they are not prepared. 3) In many states, students at various levels are placed in the same classrooms so that the lowest performing students won’t “feel badly about themselves.” Instruction is dumbed down so that the dumbest can understand (it often fails). More intelligent students are bored & no one learns because no one is challenged — learning is & must be hard work.
Oversight of education must be returned to parents & those who pay for the schools, through taxes or other schemes. By & large, public education has failed just like most other public (govt) undertakings. The Constitution outlines what the federal govt is to do & we must stay within those limits & stop trying to have govt fix everything. When we are outraged by some failure or problem, we must learn to address our own problems & stop shouting: “There ought to be a law against _____!” We don’t need more laws. We need to be more involved in our communities.
Report Post »NHABE64
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 9:20pmI think a better word for Obama’s Czars is COCHROACH! Glen Beck has helped wake up America and America is pissed. Watch what happens to these cochroaches after 2 November. Hooyah!
Report Post »Joseph
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 8:26pmA year ago I was actually thinking of getting a GM Truck once I could afford to put half down for it. Actually I had 3 Saturns where 95% of the parts were U.S. made. Great car… After reading his and other articles and such Im beginnig to think that the indusrialist of this country may be managing things on their side to keep progressivism at bay by failing…Perverse over the top enviromentalism, union perks, over regulation by the government, ect…Let the powers to be fail by having industry fail and how do the people see this???
November!
Report Post »November!
November!
The vote Kiddies. Capitalism isn’t perfect, but it keeps you supplied with your needs and a job. Communism however, as Bishop Fulton Sheen said, “ Is a death into slow obscurity”
KentuckyGentleman
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 3:47pmWhen a lefty thinks… “I found it striking that the president of the United States had spent more time on an issue of executive pay than on the question of whether to dismiss a major CEO in the first place.”… wow guys. Think about that. Apparently Mr. Obama didn’t dwell on if it was legit to fire someone in the private sector, what was important was the amount of money he would “steal” from the company as a result of his requested exit. Presidents and elected officials don’t just assume they can oust anyone in the private sector. Left or Right; they simply don’t think that way. Men like Castro and Chavez do though… just sayin’. (something about a walking duck…)
Report Post »hempstead1944
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 1:40pmDid anyone ever find out how the “bond holders” faired following the Obama GM bankruptcy?
Report Post »batfartrs
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 4:47pmI think they got $0.04 on the dollar, or some equally ridiculously low number.
Report Post »FoxRules
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 9:54amDon‘t it just wanna make you break out it a couple of versus from the White House’s favorites list: “We Are The World”? Too bad they just never got it… America’s newest favorite jingle, and poetically a Chicago favorite: “Nah, nah, nah, Hey, hey hey – Goodbye!”
(God Bless that wonderful 60′s Steam song.)
Report Post »Powow
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 9:49amI hate that we even gave any bailouts. It’s just so wrong. Flat tax baby all the way.
Report Post »Jim Ed
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 9:17amIt’s funny that the liberals question Bush for taking Saddam out of Iraq but they have absolutely no problem at all with taking over an AMERICAN company and throwing out the legally-hired CEO. I’m not saying the CEO did a great job but that is the job of the Board of Directors not some liberal Socialist in DC
Report Post »iceman35
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 12:25amWhat few Americans know about Obama is his agenda.He hides it very well when he speaks in public and on TV,however deep in Obama ‘s mind is a scheme to change our country,and it’s being done behind closed doors of the White House with Obama; radical advisors.The public whould never have known if the economy started to pick up with better employment numbers,but it hasn’t and the folks are worried that the promises Obama made were nothing but lies.Now Obama is in a damage control mode to fix the blinders,but it’s too late.The American people were fooled once and have no confidence in him now or ever.Obams is dishonest to the American people,so this term will be his last.
Report Post »Jynnipher
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 1:16amThat’s transparency for you!
Personally I can’t stand to hear the man speak anymore, I feel as though he’s talking at me and not to me. But I’ve stopped watching him talk over a year ago…I know when his speeches are and I wait for them to be over before turning to Fox News so they can debate it. I have tried, and most recently with his last “chat” about the war…I can’t listen to him. I really can’t. How he talks down to us, his eyes are the only thing that moves as he reads his teleprompter and how he says the letter “s” – all of it is like nails on a chalk board now.
van
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 1:16pmJYNNIPHER, I thought my wife and I were the only ones who turned him off. We started do that during the campaign, back when we thought the American voters were smart enough not to believe anything he said. But we under estimated the power of the LMS and the fact that most voters didn’t really pay any attention to the election until the last few weeks. Can’t wait for 2012.
Report Post »Alessandre
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 1:37pmI’ve also been unable t listen to him since before the election. He tells lie after lie after lie and tells them so badly it’s just embarrassing and sick making. I‘ve tried to listen to him once or twice since and can’t – the nails on a chalk board analogy is apt – it’s excruciating. I think we’re having a normal reaction to wickedness and evil. He and his ilk are wicked and they choose to do evil. If we love God and follow Him, we naturally turn away from wickedness.
Report Post »VegasGuy
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 9:30pmQuote: Rattner wrote. “I found it striking that the president of the United States had spent more time on an issue of executive pay than on the question of whether to dismiss a major CEO in the first place.”
The Good: The first black man is elected President of the United States.
The Bad: The press was so in love with the idea of a black president they fail to investigate Obama’s background, not that it would have made a difference.
The Ugly: The first black president turns out to be a liberation theologist with a socialist/Marxist agenda. What remains to be seen is how much executive power has already been passed to Obama so he can continue to press the Cloward and Piven strategy of totally collapsing America.
Report Post »alkmetro
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 7:19pmIt is time to get the enemies out of our govt and out of our schools and put Soros where he belongs..before he makes a bunch of money when we go to hyperinflation!
Report Post »satman40
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 5:29pmUS /GM is now selling stock, not many are buying, they know how fast the US can take it back, kind of like lowering the cost of a home….
Best deal is raising G workers wages and retiring them at 55 while making the taxpayers work till they are 70. Most towns are spending 80% of the F&P budget on retired F&P’s..
Time to Bail out Union Pension Funds….
Report Post »Dianagrace
Posted on September 11, 2010 at 11:38amI think at one time the unions may have played a critical role in seeing that “the people” received fair wages. But that was a long time ago. The unions have come a long way in destroying our economy. The pensions that union members receive are outrageous and states are going broke paying them. Same goes for all of the government workers. We are paying the salaries of people like Nancy Pelosi that say, pass the healthcare bill and we will find out what is in it. Well, we need to put all of them on the unemployment line and redesign their pension plans!!!
Report Post »smartypoop
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 5:09pmAnd, yet he wrote the check.
Report Post »Yep, I feel more secure each time the government takes over another industry.
DocPain
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 3:24pmSeriously! Does our Commander in Thief know any “normal” Americans?
Report Post »alkmetro
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 7:21pmNo, His entire life he has been surrounded by Communists..it is all he knows..He is following the play book almost to the letter.
Rickfromillinois
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 3:07pmNow the American taxpayer owns 62% of GM. Just who well is the new Government Motors going to do under the control of politicians. I suppose a good preview is the $41,000 new Volt, and electric care with a range of 40 miles. I bet people will be standing in long lines to get one…not.
Report Post »blessings
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 3:23pmAnd Rick, from beautiful Illinois, the battery for the Volt ‘Golfcar’ is made in South Korea.
It’s going to plug into our ELECTRIC BILL. I’m in Florida and our electric bills are already huge!
Can anyone calculate the cost of recharging compared to the cost of real fuel?
I’m working on that one…. checking my Florida Power‘less’ Light Company bill!
SheriS
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 4:16pmInteresting you mentioned 41 miles to one charge. In my entire life, I’ve never lived where I could have used a car with that limited usage! I might be able to currently go to the grocery store and home, but wouldn’t be able to go to church and home! This is a ridiculous limitation for probably 99% of Americans!
Report Post »saneromeo
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 6:05pm41 mpg? Wow! But what of the extra environmental pollution caused by using massive amounts of electricity? This isn’t about going green or saving the planet but about limiting our ability to move freely. If you can control the information that an area receives as well as ensure that the people cannot leave their area, then you effectively have control of what people can know or think…
Report Post »KatherineFL2010
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 1:40pmBlessing, I am from Florida as well and I know exactly what you mean about the already high electric bill and so all I have to say is if things get to the point of forcing an electric car, then I guess, my feet and legs will be the electric by means of the pedals on my bike!! I won’t succumb to the bureaucracy and mandates put down by the very people whose paychecks come from us, WE THE PEOPLE!!
blessings
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 3:06pmBailouts have consequences….
Report Post »The Obama Boyz GM should have no authority over a private company.
Carlos Ghosn was smart to not be involved with Government Motors.
suzeqz
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 2:51pmNot surprising. What is surprising is that GM isn’t made in China. Not yet anyway.
Report Post »sccm52
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 5:26pmNot China, But it could be moved to Mexico!!!
Doc_Slammin
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 8:45pmIt’s coming… and when it does, another 250,000+ people will join the ranks of the unemployed in America. But it doesn’t stop there. My friend is an electrical engineer, highly skilled, with a major’s degree in his field and still can not find a job that will lift him from a five figure middle class salary. So this phenomenon is NOT tied solely to ‘unskilled labor’.
What I fail to understand is how this is good for America? While goods may be cheaper, half the nations we are dealing with are human right violators. They don’t practice capitalism as we do in America (sink or swim).
Minimum wage in America is $7.10 per hour. In Mexico, $7.10 per day may be a legal salary, it may elevate your living conditions and provide food for your family, but what does it do for America?
Simple math : $7.10 per day > $7.10 per hour for 8 hours, this = 8 American jobs lost to every Mexican worker employed.
Is it possible to live in America on $7.10 per day? How about holding two jobs working 16 hours a day making $14.20 per day?
The only way *I* see this working out is either we recognize we are in a trade war that we’ve (so far) refused to recognize, or ALL of America will experience a national deflation the likes for which this nation has never seen.
ericgt
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 8:58pmIn 2007 330,000 Buicks sold in China, twice the number that were sold in US.
Report Post »-history channel
BECKELICIOUS
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 9:30pm( Where GM is located in the World )
Perhaps it doesn’t matter to Obama,
or George Soros, or any number
of his radical minions, including Service Employee “INTERNATIONAL” Union,
as long as the money involved is REDISTRIBUTED
to their anti-American, anti-capitalist, “International Order,” LEFTIST GLOBAL Causes.
Ryan Santos
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 6:02pmCould be, the Cartels are looking for a new Laundering operation. Might Work…Blessed Be. Rfyan Santos, American.
Carnivor
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 1:32pmsccm52: Look under the hood, they’re already Hencho de Mehico.
iatoala
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 2:28pmMan this bring up a whole new range of emotions from the past. Obama is truly a disaster how can people actually support this puppet?
Report Post »on.second.thought
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 5:24amNancy Pelosi ~ “The day after the election, we do not want to have any regrets.”
SEFORMOLAGUANAJERA
Posted on September 7, 2010 at 4:12pmThe word “disaster” has too powerful a connotation for what he actually is or is doing. In matter of executive prowess, he is a simple ideology driven “guanajo”. Ask any fellow free cuban…
Report Post »Justme22
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 2:15pmnothing this administration does supports anyone or anything American.
Report Post »no surprise here.
it must be above their pay grade.
Ryan Santos
Posted on September 5, 2010 at 6:00pmCould be our Commander In CHEF, is not an American, he is like my neighgbor down the Street, Just happy to drive a Cadillac (or in this case a 757, or something similar, and the Great Thing is they have a His and Hers). Thanks to some of the voting Morons in the USA…Blessed Be. Ryan Santos, American
Jeff in Miami
Posted on September 8, 2010 at 4:33amI still am in shock about the closing of dealerships. Those idiots pushed their agenda by closing conservative dealerships without realizing that dealerships are the true customers of the car companies. Those idiots thought the public was the customer but the public are customers of the dealerships. So by closing 2,000 dealerships they closed 2,000 customers that were forced to buy their product.
I guess adding to the unemployment numbers is the real goal of the Obama “Group”. Closing profitable dealerships put over 100,000 out of work. The ban of drilling in the Gulf added another 100,000 to the unemployment rolls. This guy is a one man wrecking crew, but it looks like he knows how to party!