Dope on the new dopes at GM, Chrysler

The biggest hoax ever foisted upon the American...hell, world...public is that an asshole with a master's of business administration, MBA, knows everything there is to know that is humanly possible about successfully running a business and a national economy.

From their recent track record one would think that MBA's would be getting run out of every town, hamlet and Middlesex on a rail. But no.

Writes Steve Parker at The Huffington Post.com

[Y]ou'd have thought Detroit and Washington might have learned the past few years, the Harvard MBAs in the auto executive suites wouldn't know a good car if they got run over by one.

Robert Kidder will be the new chairman of Chrysler and Al Koch will be "chief restructuring officer" at that's left of The General.

Kidder's résumé includes a stint as CEO of Duracell. He currently is a lead director at investment firm Morgan Stanley and CEO of 3Stone Advisors of Columbus, Ohio, which manages a private equity fund focused on investing in water-quality testing. Great -- Nardelli did such a wonderful job at Chrysler after his hiring by private equity fund Cerberus.

Koch, a managing director with AlixPartners LLP, is a veteran turnaround specialist who helped Kmart Corp. through its bankruptcy protection reorganization. He will lead the separation of the automaker's assets into a "New GM" and the remaining parts of the company that will form "Old GM." Koch will lead the management team that winds down the "Old GM" company once the automaker emerges from bankruptcy.

Another finance guy from another private equity firm.

The problem is that in this country we tend to worship the ground any moron from any of the Ivy League universities walks upon, especially Harvard. Our current president is an Ivy League product, Columbia University and Harvard law. Likewise the former resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue received his "gentleman's C" from Yale then an MBA from the Harvard School of Business.

Karl Rove's observation, "I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools," meant to disparage Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, may just be closer to the mark than we are willing to admit.