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President Barack Obama on Monday will reject requests for almost $22 billion in new taxpayer bailout money for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, saying the car makers have failed to take steps to ensure their viability. The government sought the departure of GM chief Rick Wagoner and said the company needed to be widely restructured if it had any hope of survival. It said it would provide the company with 60 days operating capital to give it time to undertake reforms. The government will grant Chrysler 30 days operating funds, but said it must merge with another carmaker in order...

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said. On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department. The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason. General Motors issued a vague statement...

General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will step down immediately at the request of the White House, administration officials said Sunday. The news comes as President Obama prepares to unveil additional restructuring efforts designed to save the domestic auto industry. The officials asked not to be identified because details of the restructuring plan have not yet been made public. On Monday, Obama is to announce measures to restructure GM and Chrysler LLC in exchange for additional government loans. The companies have been living on $17.4 billion in government aid and have requested $21.6 billion more. Wagoner's departure indicates...

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General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will resign as part of the federal government's plan to bail out the struggling automaker, White House and GM sources told CNN Sunday.

Look, I've been against the auto industry bailout since the beginning. These companies DO NOT deserve tax payer money. These bailouts are nothing but attempts at nationalization which ooze socialism. Politicians have benefited from Unions for decades. Placating union bosses has been a windfall campaign finance tactic for a number of members of Capitol Hill. And that is the real motivation behind trying to "save" Detroit. Indeed, the economy has seen better times but Honda, Nissan and Toyota are not panhandling on the steps of the Capitol. Somehow, they are managing to build, sell and profit from selling cars in...

DETROIT — The chairman and chief executive of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, is resigning, just as President Obama prepares to unveil his rescue plans on Monday for G.M. and the ailing American auto industry, a person close to the decision said Sunday. Skip to next paragraph Add to Portfolio Mr. Wagoner was asked to, and agreed to, step down as part of G.M.’s restructuring agreement with the Obama administration, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement has not been made yet. The unexpected move by Mr. Wagoner, who has been at the...

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said. On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. Wagoner’s resignation was one of the remarkable strings attached to the new aid package the administration is offering GM, based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department. The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated...

Please read this disclaimer before proceeding: I don't have a diploma from Harvard like John Thain, Rick Wagoner, Barney Frank, Jamie Gorelick, Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy and Eliot Spitzer. I don't have any high-level executive experience at rock-solid enterprises like Lehman Brothers, Pan American World Airways or Studebaker. Most importantly, I do not have any special insight or intuition regarding arcane, high-yield investment opportunities like Bernard Madoff, Ivan Boesky and Carlo Ponzi. No, I'm merely a poor, starving writer with a degree in theater arts from a humble municipal institution of slightly higher learning. However, I do know that a...

As the federal government keeps promising to come up with $14 billion or so to help the domestic auto industry keep one foot out of the grave, talk has swirled that there would have to be changes at the top. A federal "car czar" is on tap to sweat the details, like which people and products stay and which go, so the CEOs have been in the crosshairs – with the bull's eye squarely on General Motors' Rick Wagoner. Wagoner has headed what's soon to be the world's No. 2 automaker since 2000, closing down Oldsmobile, pumping up SUV sales...

CEOs for the Big Three auto makers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- came to Capitol Hill today with an urgent appeal. Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, the Big Three sent a clear message to lawmakers: Either pay now, or pay much more later if and when the industry collapses. "The societal costs would be catastrophic," said General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner. "Three million jobs lost within the first year, U.S. personal income reduced by $150 billion, and a government tax loss of more than $156 billion." Chrysler chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli said that the ramifications of...

DETROIT — The rapidly deteriorating finances of General Motors are forcing the federal government to decide whether to bail out the largest American automaker or face the prospect that it might go bankrupt. G.M. said Friday that its cash cushion had been dwindling by more than $2 billion a month recently and that it could run short of money by mid-2009 unless it got emergency federal assistance. It also said it had suspended merger talks with Chrysler to focus on its own increasingly urgent problems, brought on by higher gas prices, a weakening economy and tight credit — a combination...

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Excerpt - NEW YORK - Porter Wagoner looks right at home in the marble lobby of Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel. He wears a dark Western suit and tie and holds a shiny black cane. The glare from the crystal chandelier reflects off his eyeglasses as he tilts his head back, trying to remember the last time he played Madison Square Garden. Sometime in the '70s ... one of those package tours ... Little Jimmie Dickens and Faron Young were there ... some others he can't recall ... Back then, "The Thin Man from West Plains" was still the grand showman of...