"The F Word: Who’s Dismantling GM?" (the 31 Year Old Kid?)

[KoKo]

The F Word: Who’s Dismantling GM?
By: Laura Flanders Tuesday June 2, 2009 4:30 pm

Call me crazy, but I don't find this cute. As the news was breaking of General Motors going bankrupt, The New York Times business section ran a front page article about the 31-year-old in charge of “dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.”

The 31-year-old in question, one Brian Deese it turns out, was, for the first few months of Barack Obama’s administration the only full time member of the auto task force. Now he's risen to become "one of the most influential voices in what may become President Obama's biggest experiment in federal intervention."

"Mr. Deese’s role is unusual for someone who is neither a formally trained economist nor a business school graduate, and who never spent much time flipping through the endless studies about the future of the American and Japanese auto industries,” writes the Times about the 31 year old from Yale. Unusual? One can only hope so.

Deese has high-level support. Steven Rattner and Lawrence Summers give him accolades. Rattner a private equity investor who has managed Mayor Bloomberg’s money among others is now heading the automotive task force. Summers, of course, one of the great deregulators, is head of the National Economic Council.

There's no need to worry, Sanger seems to believe -- a guy who's given little thought to the auto industry and the problems it faced and had never set foot in an auto assembly plant is designing the future for GM and its staff.

It gives you a sense of where the paper of record's priorities are. While he's ho hum about the auto industry's fate, David Sanger seems to be obsessed with the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran. In fact, in an article on Barack Obama’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sanger was fixated on just “how much time remains to stop Iran from gaining a nuclear weapons capability.” He led with that supposed difference of opinion between the two camps before acknowledging that, “Their most obvious public differences were not over Iran at all.”

Yet the Timhttp://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/es is hyping it. From the glib to the deadly serious the NYT just can't seem to get it right.

http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/

[jody]

1. Not to worry, "destruction" requires practically no brains compared to "construction". n/t

[izzybeans]

9. What do you know about Brian Deese other than his age?

[jody]

10. Like most others, only what the msm reports and what people with biases post on left and right

political forums.

My point is the process of disposing of a company's assets through bankruptcy proceedings requires zero knowledge about creating and operating a multinational corporation. Such little things as science and engineering critical to production, logistics, and marketing.

[nichomachus]

11. Well, don't keep us in suspense

Please list his credentials for rewriting the rules of American capitalism. I'll go make some tea, while you prepare the list.

[Igel]

15. His credentials are obvious.

He graduated with a bachelor's in political science and worked for "progressive causes". He went for his law degree at Yale (not quite finishing because he was pulled into political campaigns). He worked on the correct political campaigns and on the only-and-only correct economic policy transition team.

To say he's not qualified to redo GM is to say that somebody with few additional qualifications isn't qualified to redo the US economy. Turning it around, if you believe that somebody with a few additional qualifications is qualified to redo the US economy, surely Deese is qualified to redo GM.

[JDPriestly]

2. Deese is there to act as caretaker while the company is dismantled

the machinery transported to China and whatever is left is sold off to the highest bidder -- probably also China.

How long will it be until China owns us, lock, stock and barrel?

Obama needs to be up front with the American people about the extent of American debt to China at the time he took office. Obama needs to be a lot more up front with the American people about what is really going on in the American economy.

Face it. The mixed economy, mixed with free business, fair taxation, a basic, no frills, social net and a strong labor movement -- is gone.

What does the economy of China look like really? Because China now appears to have the upper hand. Usually the party with the money calls the shots and determines how things will be organized.

How long do you think the "American way of life" with at least a semblance of private ownership, home ownership, etc. will last?

I have never liked the idea of living in a Communist state. Obama needs to be more honest with us about what is really going on. Americans will make sacrifices if they are asked to do so for the sake of saving our way of life, our fundamental belief in individual freedom. I don't think those are the values that the Chinese government shares. So, it's getting time for us to ask whether we really hold them to be dear to us.

There is no free speech without a basic economic freedom. The Republican free markets, survival of the fittest is not what I mean by economic freedom. But we do need to have certain basic economic rights and to allow our neighbors to have those same rights. To what extent is our self-determination with regard to the economy endangered at this moment? And what can we do about it if anything?

[KoKo]

3. I think he's a politician and he will do what he has to to win re-election and

if that means going along with what went before in other administrations and picking off lots of Repuglicans to get them on his side to be assured of a big win...he will do it. It's no skin off him either way. He's set for life with big bucks after he leaves the WH and he's a young man with many years ahead of him. Why should he care?

I had hoped for better...but every day there's some new evidence of some other reason he can't honor any progressive policies.

[The Traveler]

4. I'm not ready to say that yet

But I think it is clear we better remain alert to the very real possibility that we have been had, and have been sold out again.

Damn.

Trav

[tomreedtoon]

5. Well, an amateur could hardly do worse...

...than the "professionals" that crashed GM. Hell, a Denny's manager knows more about what sells than any of the auto CEO's.

[Abq_Sarah]

6. At least a Denny's manager

Has more business experience than Deese.

This really is an inexplicable choice.

[n2doc]

7. Just a little to similar to the story of Iraq's "reconstruction"

At least he isn't from Liberty University.

[izzybeans]

8. Is there actually anything about his background in the piece other than the ageist crap

about him being a kid?

Frankly, there are too many economists and business school grads. fucking up the economy right now for some of us to give a shit that he is neither of those things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Deese

[nichomachus]

12. Why is mentioning his age "ageist?"

31 seems awfully young for such a monumental task -- unless there is some countervailing wealth of training and experience that would offset it. I don't think being a law-school dropout counts as that experience.

[izzybeans]

13. Does 31 equal a child?

That link does not say he is a drop out.

And the article never referenced anything but his age. Nothing about who he actually is.

I want to know more. is all. Otherwise this is an ignorant hit piece. He's a 31 year old man. Other than that and what's in this link no one has any knowledge of what his capabilities are. But somehow his only his age is relevant. Assuming he's incapable based on that lone piece of information is a form of ageism. It's not illegal because he is not yet 40, but it is what it is.

[digidigido]

14. Miles Davis recorded Birth of The Cool in his 20's Monk wrote Round Midnight at 28