About The GM Punditry

Having read my GM-related posts of yesterday, here and here, a friend emailed me the following message late last night,

"Morning Joe on MSNBC this morning, Donny Deutsch was one of the pundits ... and when talk of GM came up, he was obliged to disclose that his firm has taken a contract to "rebrand" GM ... Joe dragged out of him that the contract is funded with government bail out money."

In answer to my question about Deutsch's comments about the 'new' GM, he replied,

"Yes, Donny was very bullish ... the new GM is agile, nimble, responsive (???) .... being small is an inherent advantage."

I guess my friend was thinking of this passage in the second linked post, with Deutsch behaving as a federal government-sponsored shill,

"Do you honestly think any of the representatives from these three groups will admit to anything but the rosiest of futures for GM today?"

After all, Donny's comment about being small as an inherent advantage is precisely wrong in the auto sector. In fact, executives of the leading firms have been worrying, publicly, for years about how to remain one of the largest two or three producers, so important are economies of scale.

This means one of two things. Either Deutsch is so clueless about the product he's pitching that he has zero credibility. Or, he knows about the industry structure implications, but is ignoring the obvious and doing what everyone believes ad men do anyway- lie to consumers to induce them to buy whatever it is the ad man is pitching.

See what I mean about pundits in the case of GM?

Later yesterday, and again this morning, I heard more pointless blathering from GM's CEO, Fritz Henderson.

Now, he's going on about how they are 'open for business,' and have signed all the papers and been given all the go-aheads to 'start from scratch.'

Yeah. Right. Are you going to trust a failed auto maker with $30,000 for 'another chance?'

Do you believe that 95% of GM's workers are showing up today feeling any different about their job than they did last week?

Not on your life!

It's the same failed team of managers and workers producing the same crappy cars that few people will freely buy with their own money.

Note my qualifiers- 'freely' and 'with their own money.'

Nobody says that Americans who are lent or given government cash and ordered to buy, say, electric cars, won't buy a Volt. But that's hardly an example of a private company receiving market acceptance and share in a competitive manner.

Every time I see Henderson now, I see an incredible pitchman desperately hoping to put his company's sordid and failed past behind him. His denial of reality is simply stunning!

For example, he sidestepped questions regarding the president's statement that the federal government wants to be 'out' of GM ASAP, while everyone with a brain knows that GM can't earn it's way off the federal dole for over half a decade.

Henderson also ducked questions regarding Congress' role in overseeing and politically skewing his mismanagement team's decisions regarding plant closings, negotiations with the UAW, our government's new favorite charity, and outsourcing jobs or parts overseas.

With so much deceit and dishonesty already evident in Henderson's, and the government's remarks about the 'new' GM, how can anyone seriously desire to buy a GM car?

Or believe anything that any of the self-interested parties to this travesty express about GM?