mortgage refinance The GM bankruptcy sent shockwaves throughout the entire United States. General Motors was the symbol of American economic domestic power and innovation. Unfortunately, times change and so does market demands. GM had slowly fallen on hard times over recent years and the mismanagement of its executives also contributed greatly to the problems.

GM Fritz Henderson is the current CEO of General Motors. He assumed his position in March of 2009 after previous CEO Rick Wagoner went down in American business infamy when the President of the Unites States ordered he be fired from his position after GM filed for bankruptcy. Wagoner had attempted to restructure the company in the aftermath of receiving several bailouts and loans. It didn’t work and the task moved to GM Fritz Henderson. Henderson, however, could not reverse the downward spiral and this should come as no surprise. The management of the company had been questionable for years. GM Fritz Henderson previous worked for the company as Vice President so it is curious why someone so linked to the GM bankruptcy would be tapped to run the company.

juegos It seems quite amazing that such a simple scheme launched a single, small scale, five and dime store into a worldwide, multi billion dollar company. As of July 2009, the number of stores in the United States alone consisted of:

• 2,630 Wal-Mart Supercenters
• 883 Wal-Mart Discount Stores
• 591 Sam’s Club Warehouses (as of January 2008)
• 150 Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets

The above does not even take into account the somewhat 2,980 international stores in 14 countries, and of course these figures are subject to change at anytime.

The “little” guy held the top spot for the largest company in the world for four years. Talk about the little engine that could! I believe this was the only time that a company that actually manufactured nothing was “numero uno,” especially four years in a row. In more recent years, Wal-Mart has still managed to top the lists as the biggest corporation in the world more than once.

Sure, many people hiss at the mere mention of the Wal-Mart name. It has become synonymous with low-price and cut-throat tactics to make them the “low price leader.” The top dog is always perceived by the masses to be unfeeling and less than human. That’s the normal reaction of our society. Many of the ones who hiss and complain still shop there. They want the lowest price!

homes for sale For most of us, what we have experienced is something that we have never been through in our lifetime. The events we went through in 2009 are like the floods that Georgia experienced a week ago. Interstate highways closed, 2,000 or more homes destroyed, school cancelled, bridges out and 10 people lost their lives. The people who track these types of flood events say that the level of the water far exceeded any 100 year flood maps that existed for this area of Georgia. Unprecedented is how they put it.

Unprecedented!

Think about the events in the world that were unprecedented when they occurred. The assassination of JFK; the Columbia space shuttle disaster; Chernobyl ’s nuclear meltdown; the stock market crash; the great depression; sub-prime mortgages. I am sure there are others you could think of. The question is: What did we, or should we have, learned from these things? Were changes made, policies revised, standards increased, or precautions taken?

How did GM Fritz Henderson, Wagoner, and others handle the problems? The answer to this is shrouded in mystery. A clear plan to reverse the problems with General Motors was never truly instituted. Attempts to sell the European wing of the company proved fruitless and further losses piled up. Eventually, the strategy arrived at was to accept a bailout loan from the federal government to avoid heading into bankruptcy court. The plan didn’t work and GM could not avoid bankruptcy filing. This essentially ended General Motors as far as it had previously existed and, ironically, it was also the start of GM Fritz Henderson as CEO.

The end of General Motors proved bittersweet. The GM bankruptcy allows the company to exist albeit in a radically different form. It has now been dubbed Government Motors and the name change truly is an end of an era You can be published without charge. You can to republish this article in your website or blog. Please provide links Active.