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Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry Hardcover – September 20, 2010

4.2 out of 5 stars 81

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“Steven Rattner shows a journalist's eye for detail . . . Overhaul is a feast of political and financial intrigue.†— Detroit Free PressIn Overhaul , Steven Rattner delivers an inside account of the Obama administration's bold bid to save the auto industry. From his vantage point at the helm of the intervention, Rattner crafts a tightly plotted narrative of political brinksmanship, corporate incompetence, and personalities under pressure in a high-stakes drama of Washington and Detroit. He also explains the tough choices he and his team made to keep Chrysler and GM in operation—while working against the clock in the face of intense lobbying from staunch Democratic allies and vocal opposition from free-market partisans. Overhaul is a candid, gripping story of one of the most difficult crises of President Obama's first year in office, with lessons relevant for all managers and executives.“[An] exhaustive, detailed account . . . Overhaul will certainly be on the bookshelf of every bankruptcy attorney in the country, and become required reading for public policy and law students.†— New York Times“Unquestionably the best book so far about the Obama presidency.†— SlateWith a new epilogue

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The first real look inside Team Obama due just before the 2010 elections mixes political warfare and big business shakeups in equal proportions, and comes from a uniquely informed source. Steve Rattner is not just the man brought in by the president to save the auto industry, he is a former New York Times financial reporter who also earned a place among the top tier of Wall Street s most informed investment bankers and corporate experts. Now, from his vantage point at the helm of the historic auto-industry intervention, Rattner crafts a tightly plotted narrative of political brinkmanship, corporate mismanagement, and personalities under pressure in a high-stakes clash between Washington and Detroit. He also explains the tough choices he and his team made, working against a ticking clock and facing vocal opposition from free market champions, to keep Chrysler and General Motors in operation.

As the economy faced free fall, Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and economic advisor Larry Summers all revealingly described faced the possibility of more than a million lost jobs and the astonishing wreckage of GM (a nightmare of huge proportions, caused by terrible management) and Chrysler (a company so close to death it was nearly sacrificed). Rattner s book which will take the story up to the fall of 2010 is a gripping account of one of the severest crises of President Obama s first year in office, with lessons relevant for all managers and executives.

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Author Steven Rattner

Q: Why did you write this book?

A: I am exceptionally proud of the leadership that President Obama and his senior advisers showed in insisting that we do the right thing, as opposed to the expedient thing, and felt that that story deserved to be told.

Q: Most Washington memoirs tend to be either dry policy books or centered on the author’s recollections. How does yours differ?

A: I did not want to write either an unreadable quasi-academic tome or a book about me! So I decided to use my background as a journalist to "report out" the story, extending it to include events before and after my time at the Treasury. I interviewed more than 150 people, covering a period that began with the decision by the Bush administration to provide GM and Chrysler with bridge financing and ended with GM’s filing of its initial public offering and its naming of Dan Akerson as CEO. And I also tried to use my journalistic training to write the book in a lively, engaging manner.

Q: Are there any particular ways that you tried to make the book readable?

A: I tried to bring to life the many interesting characters who were part of this extraordinary restructuring. I came away from my time in Washington with enormous respect for President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and many others, and I thought readers would be interested in human portraits of these exceptional people. I also got to know the CEOs and other key players in the auto industry and worked hard to also bring them to life for readers.

Q: Most Americans these days have a low opinion of Washington and what goes on there. As a newcomer to government, how did you find your experience?

A: It was eye-opening. On the one hand, because of President Obama’s leadership and because of the existence of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (better known as "TARP"), we were able to successfully restructure these companies using the bankruptcy process and $82 billion of TARP money. But I also learned that the success of the auto effort was quite unusual by Washington standards because almost any other initiative would require congressional approval, and Congress is every bit as dysfunctional as polls suggest Americans believe that it is. If we had had to secure congressional approval of the auto bailout, I have no doubt that at least one or both of the automakers would have ended up running out of money, going into an uncontrolled bankruptcy, and liquidating, possibly putting a million more Americans out of work and causing a depression in the Midwest.

Q: Some commentators say that the government should not be making these kinds of interventions. They argue that the market should be allowed to work.

A: I agree that wherever possible, the market should be allowed to work. But in this case, we had no alternative. GM and Chrysler were running out of money, financial markets were frozen and there was no possibility of them raising additional funds, either in or outside of bankruptcy. So without government help, the entire auto sector would have collapsed, with disastrous economic consequences.

Q: What was it like to work in Washington on a day-to-day basis?

A: It’s certainly different from my previous positions in the private sector. In writing the book, I tried to paint a picture of what working in the world’s largest and most powerful bureaucracy is really like, with revealing, sometimes humorous anecdotes. For example, I ended up paying for beverages and lunch every time we had visitors; the Treasury had no budget for such things. Even getting visitors cleared for entry into the Treasury building could be challenging—one guest who had flown in from Detroit ended up having to speak to us from a nearby Starbucks. On the other hand, when you call and say you are from the U.S. Treasury, you get a very different response from when you call from a private investment firm!

Q: What is your outlook for the auto companies?

A: It’s too early to say for sure, but the preliminary indications suggest that both GM and Chrysler are on a path to sustained viability. GM has now reported two quarters of significant net income, and with luck it will complete its initial public offering in November. Chrysler still needs to successfully fill out its product line, but its financial results to date are also well ahead of our expectations. The new management teams at GM and Chrysler have already made a huge difference—management matters!

From Publishers Weekly

"A team of professionals who come together to do a job, execute it seamlessly, and then just as quickly go their separate ways" is Rattner's characterization of the people who oversaw the rescue of GM and Chrysler. He also says they're akin to "soldiers in wartime," and defends both descriptions. Rattner emphasizes how this team (which involved the Treasury, White House, and Detroit) saw their work as a public service, though staggeringly complex and potentially devastating to the economy. Beginning with the Bush Administration's decision to help the industry, and ending with the automakers emerging from forced bankruptcy, former New York Times journalist Rattner adeptly conveys the depth of the challenge, the hazards and pitfalls they faced, and their ultimate success. He keeps the narrative essentially factual, with few forays into the personalities around him; he eschews gossip and is admirably fair to all involved. Most surprising is his lively tone, clear narrative, and the skill with which he skirts minutia. Rattner believes in doing a good job and admires those who share this quality; his effort is a testament to people who do their best when called upon. Photos. (Oct.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0547443218
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st edition (September 20, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780547443218
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0547443218
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 81

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Steven Rattner
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As Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Rattner led the Administration's efforts to restructure the auto industry. Prior to that, he was Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group, LLC. At Lazard Freres & Co. he was Deputy Chairman/Deputy Chief Executive Officer, after tenures at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. He was also employed by the New York Times for nearly nine years, principally as an economic correspondent. He continues to write for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Financial Times. He lives in New York.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
81 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2019
As euphoric as I felt in 2008 at Obama's presidential win, I felt much of his presidency was littered with half-baked (Obamacare) and ineffective (Iran) policies. It seemed he dithered and shied away from tough decisions (the Keystone pipeline delay, the theater of the Bowles-Simpson Commission). So how, I always wondered, had he managed to save the US auto sector? I remember thinking in 2009 that (a) Chrysler and GM were in such bad shape they could not be saved, (b) any attempt to save them could backfire terribly if it failed and (c) even if they were saved, they would still find a way to disappoint down the line. I am an investor, and although I do not follow the industry closely, I was nevertheless struck by how different GM performed pre-2008 crisis vs. post-crisis.

This book decisively answered my curiosity. Steve Rattner, as the head of Team Auto in Obama's administration, provides a scintillating, detailed and fast-moving account of the bailout effort. I am stunned that this team achieved the restructuring of both GM and Chrysler in such short time (about 6 months). He literally had people, most with no auto experience, joining one day and then a month later these very same people were meeting senior executives and board members of Chrysler and GM. Many of these hires were in their 20s and 30s! Rattner structures the plot, personalities and financial data (it helps to have an introductory understanding of assets, liabilities and financial instruments) fluidly and at times humorously, navigating back-and-forth between the trees-and-the-forest view without losing or confusing us.

Apart from questions of Rattner's personality and the merits of the bailout itself, I think the negative reviews I've read seriously discount how intrepidly Rattner furnishes the telling details, side conversations, phone calls .... the "Color" .... that all outstanding writing shares. He does this while maintaining a firm hold of the high-level themes that run throughout the book. Bankruptcies are not easy events to explain or go through. I am perplexed that many reviewers found Rattner to be arrogant. Really? Try reading memoirs of other people who worked in Washington. They quote reporters quoting them. Dick Cheney refers to himself as President of the United States Senate (which he is but ....). Rattner, in my view at least, was refreshingly candid in his doubts about taking the job, admitting when he didn't know what to say for example when cornered by a Congressman, and expressing his surprise at things he and the team overlooked given the fast pace of events. He even does us the favor of "second-guessing" himself at the end by asking, "What could we have done better?" and providing thoughtful ripostes for decisions they voted against. When was the last time you heard someone who worked in Washington pose hypotheticals against himself? When he does criticize or complain about people, which again is refreshingly honest (I read some other Washington memoirs which were so vanilla it seemed like a joke), he does not do it in a mean-spirited way and provides examples of what prompts the criticism so that we can form our own views. I was also struck at how gracious he was, in both writing the book and managing the bailout, in giving scope, credit and support to others, especially junior staff who did much of the work. He actually seemed to enjoy their energy and commitment. You will notice how much of the book he spends describing what people in his team did, as opposed to focusing on himself, which would have been easy to do. Such a leader, I suspect, was working tirelessly and collegially in the background to set-up others to succeed. He rarely mentions Obama since they did not interact much, and highlights how he did not even make the cut as a "potted plant" in one of the first speeches Obama gave about the auto bailout effort.

Whether you agree with or like Steve Rattner or not, I applaud his journalist-trained ability to weave politics, autos and financial restructuring into a compelling story, incorporating multiple players, complex events and his own commentary to help explain. If you enjoyed the Flash Boys or Liar's Poker, or other business books such as Warren Buffet biographies, you will definitely enjoy this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2010
Rattner, as one might expect from a former reporter, writes well and keeps the reader's interest. Through his eyes you get a glimpse of work in the Government at a high level and see that many individuals are hard working and self sacrificing and labor under tough working conditions. Team auto had to wade through many decisions in short order and after reading this book, one has to wonder if all the right decisions were made. To my eye, it really is too early to make good judgements about all of this. Rattner, of course, thinks that they have, but it took years to create the auto problems in this country and the US buyer may be reluctant to return and purchase such an expensive item from so weak an organization that just may not be around to service it. And resale value has yet to be determined. These issues are are dicussed in detail in the book, especially with respect the usual forms of bankruptcy but good cars are built by many these days and one wonders how all of this will work out.

In many ways, this type of book will probably become required reading in business schools around the country. What happens when companies get too cocky, give too many concessions to labor in good times, are partially government regulated and where the product is no longer cutting edge. Yes cars have a lot of new technology in them but they have been around for a hundred years and others have mastered the art of making them as you would expect.

I'm sure that working with these powerful people would produce a powerful high, especially when in the Oval office. Many years ago on a Whitehouse tour I was in the Oval Office and even with only typical citizens present I could feel the power. The book helped me relive this experience somewhat as Rattner talks about the decisions and people there trying the get "facetime" with the president. I only hope that Rattner is right, they made the correct decisions in rapid time.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2010
As a former business reporter for the New York Times, Rattner knows how to write. He does an excellent job of explaining how the Obama administration dealt with the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler with a small staff. The most frightening information was how he had to go outside the government to get people with the skills needed to to do what had to be done and how he had to avoid the permanent bureaucracy by buying food with his own money to feed a staff that was working 18 hour days. No wonder government can't govern. His writing also shows how he was able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time by giving most of the credit to those who worked with him and downplaying his personal contributions. Well worth reading now that we face a period of political gridlock when the economy is undergoing great strains.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Jeff MacFarlane
5.0 out of 5 stars engaging
Reviewed in Canada on March 19, 2014
A look into the auto crisis by an insider is very interesting, great writing, lots of interesting story lines and first hand impressions of the major players.
O.K.
5.0 out of 5 stars TOP
Reviewed in Germany on December 13, 2011
War für meine Mutter als Geschenk, da Sie aus der Wirtschaft kommt, hat ihr das Buch sehr gefallen.
Würde es jederzeit wieder kaufen und verschenken.
Mr. R. M. Harding
5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsive Reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2010
Excellent insider's book. Timely release just before the successful Stock Market flotation of the 'New General Motors'. Good luck to them!