Obama's Administration Forces GM CEO to Step Down

Rick Wagoner resignation (firing) is effective immediately.

On Monday, President Obama will unveil his plan 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 plan will most likely give GM a 60-day and Chrysler a 30-day lifeline to get their restructuring plan together, since they won't be able to meet the Tuesday deadline given to them when they received their first bailout.

Chrysler is more likely to be left alone if its tentative deal with Italian automaker Fiat fails. Compared to GM, Chrysler is a much smaller company and it's not tagged as "too big to fail" like CitiGroup or AIG. The White House didn't even bother to fire Chrysler's CEO Robert Nardelli, which tells you a lot where their focus is. Besides, Chrysler is owned by a private equity firm called Cerberus Capital Management. That firm has presumably billions of dollars in cash available but refuses to provide some financing to its own company. If they don't believe in their own portfolio why should taxpayers?