GMAC CEO Hesitant to Ask Treasury for Pony

With public opinion strongly against government handouts for corporations, GMAC CEO Michael Carpenter finds himself in the precarious position of rebuilding a company while remaining conscious of the public's view of his actions. When word leaked that some of the companies that were taking bailout money from the government were distributing lavish bonuses, confidence plummeted while stock in pitchforks soared. Therefore, when a GMAC senior executive asked for a pony for his daughter, Carpenter was placed in a tough position.

[caption id="attachment_661" align="alignright" width="300" caption="See, look how much smaller that is than a pony"][/caption]

"We just received 3.79 Billion dollars from the government, or as it's being described, from the taxpayers, even though the checks say United States Treasury, Carpenter said."That is different, that is something we needed.  A pony is going to be looked at as an extravagance. We can't afford the public backlash if this story gets out."

Part of the problem with the pony requisition is that, unlike the billions of dollars from the government, you can't pay back a pony. "Even though it's only $1000, everyone can imagine a pony. People can't really imagine 3 Billion dollars, so it's much easier to make it sound like no big deal."

At GMAC, bonuses for the fourth quarter of 2008 fell from 28 million to 10 million, a more reasonable number for a company whose executives steered into a position in which it needed billions of dollars of federal money to avoid bankruptcy.

When the executive's daughter learned of the pony holdup, she was distraught. "All my friends have ponies, I don't see why this is such a big deal, she said."Isn't that why your father becomes top-level executive at a major financial company?"

For the daughter, all is not lost. She has a backup plan. As of yesterday, her Facebook group "If 1,000,000 People Join This Group, My Dad Will Get Me a Pony" had 534,984 members.