Are We Stimulated Yet?

Somewhere between stimulating and bailing is an abyss that we should not enter.

Two and a half days after the search began for four missing men in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard came to the sobering conclusion it was time to end the search.

“We’re extremely confident that if there are any survivors on the surface of the water that we would have found them,” Coast Guard Captain Timothy Close said at a news conference.

No one wanted to give up.  And some family members and friends are still out there looking for their loved ones.  But there are simply times when it makes sense to abandon hope and accept the inevitable.
Unless you are a giant corporation like GM.
After blowing through $13 billion like it was nose candy, GM is letting the nation know that it may be shutting its doors.  Either the $13 billion was not enough stimulation or it was just a game that corporate America plays with government money.
If they are incapable of figuring out the global marketplace and unwilling to make the necessary changes to produce products that the world is willing to buy, then perhaps it is time to abandon the effort.  GM can blame the economy all day long.  They can blame whoever they want.  But at the end of the day, they are responsible for the position they are in.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post:  What ever happened to personal responsibility?
 
That jerkoff Madoff, as one prime example, defrauded investors to the tune of $50 billion, and he has the audacity to make demands on the courts to keep $69 million for himself, claiming these assets are in his wife’s name.
Flaunting a similar attitude, GM chief operating officer Fritz Henderson recently told BBC News: “governments should step in immediately to ensure GM Europe does not run out of money by April or May.”
My dad used to have a couple of sayings for situations like this.  One was: You made the mess, you clean it up.  As always, dad was right.

Jim Sweeney

CEO & COO

Jim is a veteran of the agency industry and the founder of Sweeney. He is uncommonly passionate about the idea of creating and implementing insanely great marketing campaigns that achieve insanely great results. He pioneered the full-service, full-circle agency model and continues to forge new ideas in an ever-changing industry. And he is accessible to everyone about anything, seemingly all the time, serving as a mentor to all agency personnel and clients.