But when it comes to big, splashy firings it looks like Pres. Obama has his Donald Trump shtick down, very publicly handing GM CEO Rick Wagoner his walking papers.
On Morning Joe just now, Richard Haas of the Council on Foreign Relations chillingly called the phenomenon in which presidents fire private-sector CEOs a “brave new world.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What do you think of the President of the United States ordering a CEO to quit?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, I think that the same should apply for other companies that haven’t done well, so I’m a little concerned about the car companies getting so nit-picked while we send money to other companies with no strings attached an plenty of bonuses.
RICHARD HAAS: This is the Brave New World. What we have are public-private partnerships across the US economy. What used to be called the private sector is now the public-private sector. And this is not the last of this sort of thing we’re going to see. There’s no way the United States gives tens of billions of dollars to what used to be called private firms and doesn’t have strings attached. Get used to this.
This is ominous. The implications of DC politicians substituting their judgment for that of the market and of private sector execs bode badly for our economy.
But perhaps even more are the implications of a political sort that run right to the fabric of our democracy. A week or so I wrote about the chilling phenomenon of Rachel Maddow complaining that the CEO of a company taking bail-out funds had the audacity to oppose Pres. Obama on a political issue [the misnomered Employee Free Choice Act.] What are the odds the new CEO of GM will oppose card check or any other policy that the man who put him in his job favors? Brave New World, indeed.
3 Comments
There is no free lunch. These companies are doing exactly what the government wants. They take the money. In doing so, the government now says we have the say, not you.
I noticed Bush did the same thing to AIG evidently. Bush never was a conservative to me. He had a few conservative tendencies thats it.
We have an overtly socialist, maybe even communist administration and majority party, and a somewhat socialist minority party. Not much for us to choose from any more.
Not good.
The Brave New World alright…
Straight into complete socialism at break-neck speed with this admnistration.
I am just shaking my head…I have been so disgusted lately I can’t even watch congress this week.
“MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, [I think that the same should apply] for other companies that haven’t done well.”
Figures.
I wonder how the Mikas of the world are going to take it when the federal government gets around to telling private companies how much they can pay each and every one of their employees.
This is getting beyond merely scary.
-Dave
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[...] Richard Haas said on yesterday’s Morning Joe: “What we have are public-private partnerships across the US [...]
[...] Richard Haass had it right when he explained: This is the Brave New World. What we have are public-private partnerships across the US economy. What used to be called the private sector is now the public-private sector. And this is not the last of this sort of thing we’re going to see. There’s no way the United States gives tens of billions of dollars to what used to be called private firms and doesn’t have strings attached. Get used to this. [...]