Big Three CEOs Grilled

Watched the live telecast on Bloomberg last night where the CEOs of the Big Three automakers were being grilled by the senators…

The CEOs of the Big Three automakers in US, namely General Motors, Ford & Chrysler came to Washington to plead for an $25 billion federal bailout of the auto industry. Their reason? The economic crisis has driven down car sales significantly due to slow down in demand and the difficulty in getting consumer financing due to the credit squeeze. They argued that if the requested bridging finance does not come in time and cause any of them to fall into bankruptcy, thousands of jobs will be lost and this would trigger a disaster for the industry and the broader economy.

First, you have the bail out for the banks. Now, the auto industry. What’s next? Property companies? Retailers? When profit is good, it’s privatisation. When in trouble, it becomes nationalization. Talk about capitalism?

And the laughing stock here is that all the Big Three CEOs flew to Washington on their multi-million dollar corporate jets costing about $20,000 per roundtrip (compared to a mere hundreds of dollars for commercial flights) despite their companies’ financial hardship. And when asked if they are willing to give up their corporate jets to fly commercial, all rejected.

Is it fair to ask taxpayers for money when the CEOs are still arrogant not even showing any frugality in their spending?

Some say that the grilling session is merely to pacify the taxpayers while some believe that the congress is really tired of bail outs. Whichever the case, we simply need more accountability and control…