why did the white house remove the #1 at gm?

Because our " Czar ", his holiness Obama, deemed it so.

If he any balls, he's also let go another responsible party, the leader of the UAW.

However, since our benevolent dictator received millions from the unions, I doubt that will happen.

Good job America, we know have a man who never had even changed his own oil, running American car companies.

Wagoner failed to deliver a business plan and model that would ensure GM's future viability. Congress decided months ago that GM and Chrysler would not receive more federal financial assistance unless they could demonstrate their companies' viability.

Obama has given GM another 60 days to get it right, but he has made the calculation that Wagoner can't get it right. So Wagoner is out and GM's President is in as CEO. If this guy cannot develop the plan/model for GM's viability, then GM will be forced into a Chapter 11 reorganization.

Chrysler's future is dark and uncertain. It looks like a Chapter 11 bankruptcy for them within weeks if Fiat plays hard to get. It's likely that a Chrysler Chapter 11 reorganization will become a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding without D.I.P. financing.

Obama wants GM and Chrysler to prove they can survive on their own without having to rely on billions and billions of federal financial assistance for the foreseeable future. How is that outrageous?

How is "industrial policy" for 30 and 60 days, respectively, dangerous? And I use the term "industrial policy" only for the sake of argument.

GM and Chrysler have enjoyed unprecedented federal assistance because it was too dangerous for the American economy to let either of them go under three or months ago. The economy is now gaining strength, and Chrysler is now expendable. GM is not expendable, but GM will not go forward more than 60 days as currently constituted.

As for the financial economy bail outs, their salad days are winding down too. I have no doubt and every hope that AIG will be broken up and sold off in 2009. But I know what you mean.

It seems like the banks/AIG have received unwarranted most favored nation treatment from Congress and the Bush administration and the Obama administration. Part of it can be explained by the need to avoid a run on the banks hysteria. Part of it is a cultural-political bias towards protecting white collar wealth managers who we mistakenly assume must be geniuses for dreaming up an alphabet soup of financial derivatives. Part of it is cultural-political disdain for those who make something as real as a car, or as blue collar as a truck, products with which we are all overly familiar and, as the saying goes, for which we have some measure of contempt.

GM will survive and be a leaner, meaner company one way or the other. But I hear "Dandy" Don Meredith's voice singing a sad tune for Chrysler. Then on to AIG!

First, let's be clear on this: the White House suggested Wagoner step down; it did not demand or order it. So the question SHOULD be why did the White House ask that he step down?

Could it perhaps be due to the gross mismanagement of the company over the past 30 years, punctuated by enormous buyouts and bonuses for its incompetent executive apparatchiks (far higher than at Chrysler and Ford)? Could it be that this company, more than any other auto manufacturer, has been particularly resistant to change and has behaved more egregiously than its other American counterparts?

It may be that Wagoner was a sacrificial lamb. As sacrifices go, he seems be pretty darned appropriate.

Cheers.

According to white house sources, the CEO resigned at White House request because they believed that GM needed new leadership in order to go in a new direction. What this really means is that the guy disagreed with the new policies now being put into place by the administration.

To make bail-out deals sound palatable to voters, there has to be an illusion of change that accompanies them. This is part of that. Maybe things will change for GM, but there's no real question this move is a highly political one.

Pretty sad though that when the most of us fail at our jobs, we end up struggling financially, and when they do, they get $20,000,000 severance packages. Gotta love corporatocracy.

At American International Group (AIG) and at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, chief executives WERE removed in September 2008 as part of agreements to accept government aid.

Because banks are way more important for economy than automobile manufacture. Only very few people in US can buy a car without financing.

ISOCERTIFIED - "Cuz Obama knows more than Mr. Wagoner about running a major car company"

I know you are being sarcastic, but have you looked GM's products.

the #1 at AIG is a gman. The CEO of GM failed, I don't agree with Obama being involved, but the stock owners should of booted him already

Cuz Obama knows more than Mr. Wagoner about running a major car company