Not Pleased

I have to admit that I was troubled when I saw this headline the other day:

GM CEO Wagoner to step down at White House request

In other words, the head of one of America's largest and oldest private corporations was effectively just fired by the Federal government.

I don't like this. I don't like this a lot.

Agreed, GM is in a lot of trouble, and granted, changes needed to be made. And yes, GM is taking a lot of federal bailout money, and that effectively makes the government a shareholder in the company.

But for the Head of State (or his office, anyway) to fire a corporate CEO?

If that's not nationalization of business, I don't know what is.

Now, I'm not inclined to believe, like some talk show hosts and bloggers seem to be, that this signifies "the end of American capitalism as we know it". But it is definitely a step in a direction that I don't like.

Of course, I suppose former GM CEO Rick Wagoner asked for it when he agreed to accept the bailout. It would have been nice if he—and the rest of the company—had known this would be the price beforehand.

You can't get government assistance without inviting government interference, I suppose.