Start Putting Our Mouth Where Our Money Is...

Anyone who makes an investment, whether personally or professionally, will usually, at least at the onset of the investment, be very positive about the company receiving the investment and the prospects for the future. Now that the U.S. Government has become an investor in the financial, automobile and insurance industries it is time to start hearing that these are good investments and build some confidence that those of us who have paid for those investments will see a return. It seems totally nonsensical to me that we will on one day send taxpayer dollars into an institution and the next day publicly slam those who are receiving the investment. What is going on? If Washington wants to make a difference then they need to go into these investments wholeheartedly and with the same excitement and vigor that any one of who writes a check would do. Let's put our best minds and people to help the banks, the car companies and the insurance companies to not just survive but to grow and prosper. Let's start publicizing the good things that these institutions do and can do and celebrate wins and successes, no matter how small those would be. Let's have the CEO's of bailed out companies post a monthly report on Rescue.gov detailing the successes that they are seeing. Let's start putting our mouth where we put our money and talk the same talk out of both sides of our mouths. President Obama is a great motivator and could bring about the confidence change we need. But, he won't do that if he thinks that it is better to bring Congress to their feet by continually beating down the companies and people where he just invested our dollars. I want to hear that we are with them win, lose or tie...not just win or tie. If we aren't then we are wasting precious taxpayer money and our projection of failure will become a reality.

Did Mitt Romney just apply for the “Car Czar” job?

I read with interest this morning’s NY Times editorial from Mitt Romney regarding the auto industry bailout. I must admit that I share many of his sentiments and concerns. The most foundational is the fear that putting more money into the same old system would only result in the same old output. GM’s open letter advertisement, saying, “People don’t think GM has done enough” (which they go on to try and refute) is absolutely true. GM, Chrysler and Ford have not done enough. The people are correct. Romney’s cry that there needs to be more innovation in R&D, Marketing and Labor Relations is dead on. I have always been fascinated with the Labor Relations approach and attitude of Detroit on both the company and union sides. Growing up professionally and learning labor relations strategies and tactics and having negotiated a Teamster’s contract, I can tell you that if Labor and Capital see themselves, as Detroit has for too many years, as adversaries or at the least, mistrusting co-workers, then there will be no innovation or progress to be made. The trigger word “concessions” is what we continue to hear that workers must make. What is lost is where are the “concessions” that the automakers are making on the other side of the equation? It appears that the years of lack of concessions from the automakers to change their ways and thinking, has finally caught up with them. And now they want to be “bailed out”. I like what Mitt had to say. His open professed love of cars, being from Detroit, his history with his father as the CEO of American Motors, and his broad view of corporate structuring and restructuring, makes him the ideal candidate to shake things up. I somehow think that Chrysler might have been in a better place had they hired Mitt away from the campaign trail vs. Bob Nardelli from his unsuccessful run at Home Depot. So, if we put government money into Detroit, which I believe we will end up doing, then let’s be sure and have a caretaker over that money and let’s put Mitt’s hat in the ring to be that person. How about it Mitt? Could you take $25B and turn it into $250B and set the course for an American car industry resurgence that returns to be an international powerhouse? You’d get my, if we could choose, vote.