From the pinnacles of power by Fortune editor at large Patricia Sellers
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December 19, 2008, 6:39 pm

Power Point: Sacrifice and hang on

“You think I would have gone through what I did the last two months if I didn’t want to stay?”

– General Motors (GM) chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, reiterating today that he’s determined to keep his job. In exchange for a $13.4 billion rescue package (which will come from the government’s $700 bllion TARP fund aimed at banks and Wall Street firms), executives at GM and Chrysler agreed to limits on pay and perks. No more corporate jets. Wagoner earns $1 a year.

Maybe saving GM — and his reputation — will be worth the sacrifices. GM stock popped 23% today to $4.49. Ford (F), which has more cash on hand, isn’t taking bailout dollars, at least yet. Its shares rose 4% today to $2.95. Even as Ford’s stock-market value has shrunk to $6.8 billion, it’s more than twice that of GM’s.

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Pattie SellersPatricia Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Can Meg Whitman Save California?", Melinda Gates ("The $100 Billion Woman"), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). And she has broken ground with insightful pieces on career management issues such as ego ("Get Over Yourself!"), and "Charisma: Do You Need It? Can You Get It?" Pattie chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. And she has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women in Business" cover package since its launch in 1998. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big consumer brand companies.
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