The Wall Street Journal was good enough to humiliate General Motors (NYSE: GM) CEO Rick Wagoner by pointing out that he still has his job. The company's share price is down almost 85% since he took over. The newspaper writes that Mr. "Wagoner's decision a few years ago to tilt GM's product mix more toward trucks and SUVs isn't looking good."

Fair enough. But there are two critical elements to Wagoner still having his corner office. One is that the rest of the US car industry is as bad off as GM, maybe worse. The other is that no CEO in his right mind would leave a good job to take over GM. Boeing (NYSE: BA) exec, Alan Mulally, moved to Ford (NYSE: F) as the head man and he must regret the decision every day.

Wagoner is part of the "dumbing down" of the American CEO. If the man can't do well, blame it on the industry. That makes it seem that individual companies are powerless to make decisions that will put them ahead of the competition, even in tough markets.

Tell that to the guys at Honda (NYSE: HMC).

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

General Motors' (NYSE: GM) CEO Rick Wagoner has been kicked upstairs [subscription required], according to the Wall Street Journal. He will focus on international expansion and advanced technology. Not much of a job for a chief executive. Frederick Henderson will take over as COO and run the company's daily operation.

Wagoner's sin was that he could not launch products that would get GM back some of its market share in the U.S. He was able to cut costs and get an improved deal with the UAW, but GM's January sales were down over 12% in its home market. Its share in America is only about 25%. Toyota (NYSE: TM) has muscled GM out of its lead in small and mid-sized cars.

At this point, it does not matter who GM puts at the top of the company. There is a race between the company's growing sales overseas and its falling prospects in the U.S. But multi-billion annual losses in North America cannot be offset by the rest of GM's operations.

GM's stock is back near a multi-year low. The company began losing its war in the U.S. a decade ago and that can't be reversed by new management.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), continues to batten down the hatches at the world's largest automaker. Sales in 2008 are predicted to be fairly weak, and this isn't helped by the fact that the automaker's dealer network could be compared to McDonalds Corp. (NYSE: MCD): so many locations that they seem to be on every corner.

Wagoner needs to fix that, and the CEO said this week that its U.S. consumer sales network was not shrinking enough to correlate with the sales slowdown and product mix shift it's been experiencing. Hence, many dealers will need to consolidate faster than they have been, with the focus on combining Pontiac, Buick and GMC dealerships into one channel.

Although facing a slowdown in U.S. vehicle sales this year, General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) appears to have enough money to keep operating during the first half of 2008 without reaching into deep credit to finance itself. In fact, it has eliminated a $4.1 billion credit line because it has enough money to stay afloat through June of this year.

GM never borrowed money under the credit line it canceled. Even so, eliminating $4 billion in credit does not mean everything will be rosy for the automaker in 2008. GM Chief Rick Wagoner said this week that the largest automaker in the world does not expect to generate more money than it uses in 2008. That means that the company will probably not see a profit this year, though there is the possibility of a few small quarterly profits if sales outpace predictions.

GM has about $30 billion in cash, so the automaker is not hurting for money to fund itself even as it tries to increase its growth presence in markets outside the U.S. and make more fuel-efficient vehicles that customers will snap up (or so it hopes). Mark Altherr from Credit Suisse said that "GM put this in place in the summer as additional liquidity, if needed, in the event of a longer-term work stoppage during the UAW negotiations." This is most likely true -- and now that those UAW negotiations are complete, access to outside capital funding through credit can safely go away.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE: DCX) and the United Auto Workers just can't stop complaining about new, tougher fuel-efficiency standards that the U.S. Congress likely will pass.

The companies and union are taking their case to Capital Hill today at a private luncheon with leaders of the U.S. Senate to convince them to reconsider an overhaul of Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards, according to the Associated Press.

Let's hope that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed has the guts to tell them to pound sand. The public is fed up with high gas prices and the growing problem caused by global warming. Even GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has acknowleged this reality, though the AP quotes him cryptically saying "let's make sure that we also fix the real problems while we're doing that."

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM)'s CEO Rick Wagoner underscored Tuesday that the company is making "major progress" toward the goal of returning to profitability.

In comments delivered at GM's annual meeting, Wagoner highlighted GM's $9 billion in cost cuts over the past two years, including plant closures, workforce reductions and efforts to contain the company's above-average legacy costs for pensions and health care.

Those initial efforts drew cautiously favorable reviews from Wall Street in 2006, as GM's shares appreciated by better than 50%. More recently, the perspective has reached the "even harsher light of day stage": elevated gasoline costs, concomitant belt-tightening by the U.S. consumer, and continued strong competition from foreign manufacturers have created an even tougher revenue environment, which has prompted a pullback in GM's shares to around $30 today from about $37 in March 2007.

The emerging consensus on Wall Street is that GM has made structural strides -- its has lowered costs and its cash flow has improved, but that market conditions have only toughened since the start of GM's restructuring. Those market conditions will make it harder for GM to commit capital to new cars, including alternative fuel / higher gas mileage vehicles, and fund marketing campaigns to build consumer awareness of GM's new offerings. Nevertheless, despite the rough seas, the company must forge ahead with these plans if it hopes to regain market share across mission-critical product lines.

Investment Category: GM remains a high-risk stock not suitable for low- and moderate-risk investors. Further, low-risk investors should be prepared for a long-term position in GM, with an investment horizon of at least three years.

Top executives from General Motors, Daimler-Chrysler and Ford met with President Bush to discuss the state of the American auto industry in light of all the recent financial mishaps and pension situations that continue to drain cash from the industry and starve it of profits, while foreign competition -- without all this baggage -- continues to design better-looking vehicles and sell their image of reliability more effectively than ever.

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other administration officials met in the Oval Office for just over an hour with top executives of Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group yesterday to talk about what to do as U.S. automakers continue to face obstacles that don't make for a level playing field in a global automobile selling and manufacturing economy.

Execs from the "Big Three" told reporters they'd had a good meeting. Newly minted Ford CEO Alan Mulally stated "The president clearly understands the importance of the business to the United States and the global economy." The auto executives heavily emphasized their concerns on health care and trade issues but also stated that the troubled American auto industry does not want a federal bailout like what has happened in the airline industry recently. If not, big solutions should be just around the corner.

With Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn possibly becoming impatient with GM after GM CEO Rick Wagoner reported asked Ghosn to pony up billions for a possible GM-Nissan allaince, could Ghosn move over to Ford?

Possibly -- the enigmatic Ghosn, who has been credited with "saving" Nissan, runs that company along with France's Renault. He's a hot property these days because he knows how to get things done and turn floundering businesses around. Nissan's proof of that beyond any doubts.

Why is Ghosn so eager to make an alliance with a struggling U.S. automaker? Don't think it's coming out of nowhere -- an alliance, if structured properly, would be -- above all -- meant to give great returns to Nissan shareholders above all. Otherwise, why strike an alliance at all?

Bill Ford, Jr., the former CEO of Ford Motor, reported contacted Ghosn a year ago to solicit his interest in possibly running the company, but Ghosn declined. However, Ghosn apparently sees quite a bit of locked-up value in the North American market, some of which he would like to tap into through an alliance. Said Ghosn at the Paris Auto Show, happening this week, "I said from the beginning that the expansion of the alliance in North America makes sense ... there is a lot of value there."

Looks like GM is starting to try its hand at correcting its ship, which has lost its course in every possible way recently. General Motor's CEO, Rick Wagoner, confirmed that GM is indeed bringing back the Chevy Camaro, a muscle car that defined a generation along with the Ford Mustang, which has never missed a beat and has been a great seller for Ford.

In a quote that personifies just how GM is being perceived these days, Wagoner said this: "As evidence that we're not completely brain-dead, GM will build the Chevy Camaro". That's good to know, Rick. I, for one, thought GM was brain-dead myself. Actually, just suffering from "how do we get out of this mess" syndrome. Our friends at Autoblog were on tap and in person for the annual Management Briefing Seminars this week that take place in the auto industry, where this Camaro news was reported on Thursday.

With Chevy having a long-lasting relationship with a good portion of the American public, will the resurrected Camaro help GM out of its funk? Well, if it was coming out today, perhaps, but in 2009? That's a lifetime away, and the fervor will have died down (for many) at that time. Gasoline prices will probably be $3.50 a gallon by then, so be sure to race to your Chevy dealer for that V8 when it comes!

Jokes aside, GM needs a few hits with consumers to get its game back (if that is possible), and this is a great step in that direction.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.