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Fifth Avenue, New York is a particular delight during spring, filled as it is in midtown with tourists and - the recession aside, or perhaps because of the recession - all manner of pleasing triviality.
How much more portentous then to walk away from all of that, and shuffle through an American corporate brutalist lobbies, all decked out in marble as white as dried bone, and to lay out your bona fides, and - after some security nonsense - find yourself transported high into in the sky, to the 25th floor of the General Motors Building to witness the end of a transport era.
General Motors, which thanks to a 60% stake from the US has become Government Motors , had borrowed a room from its bankruptcy lawyer (the dining room, appropriately) to make the announcement it was declaring Chapter Eleven.
Chapter Eleven , by the way, isn't like bankruptcy in New Zealand, it's a version of receivership. The one you really want to watch out for is Chapter Seven, or liquidation.
In that legal dining room made over for the event, everyone was present: Mexican telly, who were worried about car plants located in Mexico; David Muir, the anchor from ABC, present in the midst of a glowering huddle of producers because, well, there are still car plants in the US. Bankruptcy lawyers stood around, and tried their very best not look happy and prosperous.
I was present out of professional curiosity, but also, just a little, because my first car was a Holden Special, and because I'd once thought that owning a Cadillac would be nifty.
So what happens when Uncle Sam buys a car company? Well, first he says it's a good deal. For a while, we lounged around and watched the press conference in Washington coming though the live feed, courtesy of C-Span. The arguments that Barack Obama made were reasonable and, when you've seen this mode before, familiar.
When bailing out banks/insurance giants/car companies, President Obama has a mantra. He offers TINA (there is no alternative). He promises this situation is temporary. He insists the government doesn't want to get involved in the daily affairs of the company.
An aside. The latter may be news to Rick Wagoner, the previous GM CEO who was shunted out to make way for Fritz Henderson.
We watched Obama do his jiujitsu, and then some GM logos came up on the plasma screens, and a clock counting down the time until when Henderson would appear.
How choreographed it all was, a ballet of insolvency.
Three seconds late, as per the countdown, Fritz materialised. He was a chummy sensible can-do sort of fellow. He strode to a podium and began to mirror the arguments given by President Obama 10 minutes before in Washington - GM is better off now; It will focus; There will be pain, but also gain; There may even be better cars.
Having made his spiel, Henderson then called on journalists for questions, using their first names. For a moment I felt I'd been admitted to a private club.
Another journalist remarked to me there were no analysts present, i.e. no one with an intimate knowledge of the business who could grill Henderson on specifics. On reflection I doubt if any conspiracy was evolving. It was simply another piece of business being transacted in a curtained eyrie above Fifth Avenue - one that was a necessarily long way away from the pain that would be experienced by the 21,000 plant workers expected to be laid off, the fourteen plants that will be closed or idled, and the 2,600 dealerships that will be closed.
Goodbye General Motors, hello Government Motors.
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Post new commentNewzgal said on 2010-01-03 @ 15:46 NZDT: Report abusive post
Hi Tim, great blog. I agree right wingers have a Hobbesian view of existence, and like many I welcomed Obama’s presidency. However I always watched Fox News just to see how they were framing up the news (which far too many people rely on). I now find it more useful than ever to tune into the right just incase there is a kernel of truth in their rants as it seems the media and world have been far too soft on the new president and democrats, perfect recipe to slip things in!
jackdoitcrawford said on 2009-09-11 @ 23:24 NZDT: Report abusive post
Please don't label all people you disagree with, and put them in the same camp. Ayn Rand was pro abortion, achievement, reason, freedom, capitalism and happiness. She was definitely neither a conservative nor a libertarian. She also didn't want to live under a dictatorship. I see nothing wrong with this at all.
Kiwi in USA said on 2009-09-11 @ 17:58 NZDT: Report abusive post
I would have to disagree with Tim saying Bill ORielly is a right wing loon as if it were. He is defintly a independet and he always tells his viewers that. I know that there is plenty of loons like rush but come on, Obama is really turning America in the wrong direction. He has spent more money than all the presidents have combined. America is in trillions of dollars worth of debt.