Murderers And Cheats

DOW + 74 = 16,532
SPX + 13 = 1885
NAS + 69 = 4268
10 YR YLD + .04 = 2.76%
OIL – 1.99 = 99.59
GOLD – 5. 00 = 1280.80
SILV un = 19,86

Congratulations Mary Barra, you’ve been named CEO of General Motors, one of the biggest companies in America; now head on over to Capitol Hill to take the blame for the people who used to run the company.

Barra’s appearance before a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee represented a significant new phase in the company’s crisis since it issued recalls that began in February for 2.6 million Cobalts and other vehicles. The problems with the cars involve faulty ignition switches; GM repeatedly failed to fix faulty ignition switches, despite conducting multiple internal studies of the problem since 2001, and 13 people died in the defective vehicles.

Members of Congress and the families of people killed in GM cars are urging Barra to declare the cars unsafe to drive until new ignition switches are installed. So far, GM has said the vehicles are safe to operate as long as there are no objects attached to the ignition key.  GM conducted several internal investigations of the switch problems, dating back as far as 2001. Company engineers learned that the key in the ignition could be inadvertently bumped into the off or accessory position, causing the engine to lose power and disabling air bags.

Documents show that GM approved the switch for installation in its compact cars in 2002, despite data from its supplier, Delphi that the key turned too easily in the ignition. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration knew of problems but did not order earlier recalls. The automaker rejected changes to the switch in 2004 and 2005 despite becoming aware of consumer complaints. In July 2005, the company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration learned of a fatal accident in Maryland that killed a young woman. It was the first of what would become a series of incidents in which vehicles suddenly lost power and air bags failed to deploy in a crash.

GM and Delphi changed the switches in 2007, but the new switches were also defective. Federal safety regulators made an internal recommendation to open a formal defect investigation in 2007 after receiving information about four fatal crashes involving air bags that failed to deploy, but the agency declined to pursue a formal investigation because, it said, it “did not identify any discernible trend.”