Obama creating auto industry panel - Geithner to lead, page 1
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Topic started on 16-2-2009 @ 12:20 AM by redhatty
This is a combination of 2 news articles. 1st...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to appoint senior administration officials — rather than a single "car czar," as had been discussed — to oversee a restructuring of the auto industry.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers will oversee the across-the-government panel, a senior administration official said Sunday on the condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.

Obama also plans to name restructuring expert Ron Bloom a senior adviser to Geithner. He will not be the "car czar" pointman many labor and business leaders expected. Bloom, a former consultant to the United Steelworkers of America, will be doing much of the financial analysis for the administration.

Geithner is expected to be the only Cabinet secretary to be part of the panel, the senior administration official said. Deputy secretaries, however, would be involved.

Obama "felt it was important to have the treasury secretary as his official designee to oversee these loans," the senior administration official said.

Source

So it began as overseeing, then it becomes...

An administration official said members of the task force would be drawn from several Cabinet agencies and offices, including the departments of Treasury, Labor, Transportation, Commerce and Energy; the National Economic Council; the White House Office of Energy and Environment; the Council of Economic Advisers; and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The White House had been expected to appoint a single individual, a car czar, to oversee the industry's restructuring. But the Obama administration decided to leave the Treasury Department in charge, as the previous administration had done.

Geithner and Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, will oversee the task force. Geithner will have authority, as the president's designee, to enforce the loan agreements and decide whether to call back billions in loans to GM and Chrysler if the companies haven't made sufficient progress by March 31.

Source

So call me crazy, but shouldn't Geithner be focusing on the financial system that hangs in the balance based on his decisions? While the Auto Industry is suffering also, won't heading this up be a distraction in the end?

Congressional Motors, New for 2012 (btw, that link is HUMOR)


reply posted on 16-2-2009 @ 12:38 AM by redhatty
This Article from Dec. 10, 2008 discusses the potential impact to the financial markets from (at that time) the creation of a "Car-Czar"

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The creation of a "car czar" to oversee the federal bailout of Detroit's automakers might trigger what's known as an event in the vast market for credit-default swaps, prompting holders of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. credit protection to demand payouts, Banc of America Securities said.

Such an event is also likely if a federal bailout falls flat and either company files for bankruptcy, as many investors fear.


Heh, I should be glad they dropped the "Czar" title - those were really starting to scare me, but...

The UAW cut off talks with GM

Then went back to the table

If these guys don't get it right, John Rich does


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