Yakety yak

“Take out the papers and the trash/Or you don't get no spendin' cash/ … /Yakety yak (don't talk back)” (The Coasters, 1958).

This is fitting for wayward teenagers, but I also think for the overpaid and rigid-minded top managers of the Detroit carmakers. For years, their attitude has been, “We’ll make them our way and make the customers buy ‘em.” (If everyone is in lightweight, fuel-efficient cars then you don’t need an SUV to be and feel safe.) Now it’s “The taxpayers are stupid—they’ll just give us the money.” Ain’t gonna happen.

Well I say these companies need to take out the papers—bad labor agreements that promised more for retires than could be delivered—and the trash—the shortsighted managers and Board members. They need lean and mean management that looks forward into the 21st century, not back to the 20th. Or they don’t rock and roll with spending cash from American taxpayers.

The best way is probably through a pre-pack bankruptcy, GM first, rewriting the labor agreements, replacing management and Boards. With their lawyers driving to court in Toyota hybrids.