Although Rick Wagoner should have been gone years ago, Barack Obama has exceeded presidential authority in firing the CEO of a major corporation. Of course, the justification is that GM is accepting government money, but Congress has not authorized money for an auto bailout.
The money has come from the TARP, which was supposed to used to buy the toxic assets of banks. The Constitution is being shredded. This concentration of power in the hands of the President, a small circle of advisors, and financiers is dangerous.
General Motors has recently disclosed on more than one occasion that "we have determined that our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting are currently not effective." It remains to be seen how this warning affects future earnings reports, but we can review GM's past to see how previous financial reporting internal control flaws played out.
