First 100 days: Unhitching Wagoner

The Wall Street Journal writes, “The Obama administration used the threat of withholding more bailout money to force out General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, marking one of the most dramatic government interventions in private industry since the economic crisis began last year.”  The Washington Post : “The White House's insistence that Wagoner step down is an extraordinary intervention of the federal government into the management of a private company. A senior administration official said Wagoner's resignation was required because the company needs a ‘clean sheet.’ ‘We felt that having a change of leadership would be consistent with the clean-sheet approach,’ said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.” “Before the federal government extends more financial aid to the U.S. automakers, the industry must offer a plan that makes it ‘much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is,’ Obama said yesterday on CBS's ... (link)