It means you stay with where youre at and buy risk assets. French wine, joe. Italian parm. All the good things. Cheaper for us if this works. Its 1. 35, give me 1. 29 and were calling the travel agent. Your car is made overseas . Yeah. Going to ask me if it runs on diesel like andrew. I wasnt going to ask you. Im about relative price if it goes down. Its harkening back to a previous. 129 and were getting the travel agent and taking squawk. Where are we going, joe . 130 is the you know what i think, andrew, you make the call, you know him, probably have his number, lets go game of throwns to bravnick. Call up ben. Game of thrones tour you can take. I bet there is. I dont think those people are actually there, though. You want to sit on the iron throne, dont you, joe . One thing i promised i would never discuss on squawk was me sitting on the throne. You violated that in the past. I think i have, yeah. Is there anything andrew, come back. I will. Im going to go to napa and bring back some wine and then you should know its cougar night at the Rosewood Hotel in the valley where i stayed last night but thats tonight. Im going to miss that unfortunately. Wait a minute. Did you say cougar . I did. I thought it was a kind of wine. Famous in silicon valley. You meant cougar. They go searching for billionaires at this hotel called the Rosewood Hotel. And he left . All right. Thanks, pal. Well see you tomorrow. See you in the morning. Tomorrow morning. Join us tomorrow. Squawk on the street coming up next. Thanks. Good thursday morning welcome to squawk on the street. Im Carl Quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber at the new york stock exchange. A busy morning. The ecb has cut rates and introduced some new policy measures, but first in just moments, gm will announce results of that internal probe into faulty ignition switches that has been linked to at least 13 deaths. Ceo mary barra is about to address employees and dealers in michigan. Mean time, cnbc has learned the top executives will be cleared of wrongdoing, but that at least a dozen employees in the engineering and legal departments will be dismissed, including gm engineer ray de giorgio. He engineered those ignition switches and approved a change on the switch without following protocol. The journal has additional details, namely that barra, the board, heard all of their direct reports and former ceo dan akerson did not know about this prior to december of 2013. Here comes mary barra now. Thank you very much. Well, thank you and welcome to our global town hall meeting. I have a lot to cover today, so i want to go ahead and get started. On monday, former u. S. Attorney anton valieukez presented the findings from his investigation into our ignition switch recall. He shared those findings with the board of directors. As promised, we have also shared his report with the appropriate government officials. And this morning, i want to discuss it with you. I also want to update you on the companys commitment to create a Compensation Program for victims. But before i address the valieucas report, i want to take an opportunity to again express my deepest sympathy to the families that lost loved ones and to those who were injured. I realize there are no words of mine that can ease their grief or their pain. But as i lead through this crisis, i want everyone to know i am guided by two clear principles. First, we will do the right thing for those who were harmed and second, well accept responsibility for our mistakes and commit to doing everything within our power to make sure this never happens again. With respect to the valucas report, you should know he and his team had complete independence. The investigation covered more than 350 interviews with 230 individuals, and they reviewed more than 41 million documents. Mr. Valucas has confirmed that he and his investigators were provided unlimited access to interview any General Motors employee, and every request was granted. In addition, a number of former gm employees as well as third parties were part of the investigation. Today, i would like to share my perspective and announce some of the actions in response to the report. My understanding is nhtsa, our regulator, will post the report on their website, which will be available for anyone to review. I can tell you this report is extremely thorough, brutally tough, and deeply troubling. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to this company, it is enormously painful to see our shortcomings laid out so vividly. As i read the report, i was deeply saddened and disturbed. But this isnt about our feelings and its not about our egos. This is about our responsibility to act with integrity, honor, and be committed to excellence. With all of our colleagues around the world watching, i want it known that this recall issue isnt merely an engineering or a manufacturing or a legal problem. It represents a fundamental failure to meet the basic needs of these customers. Our job is clear. To build highquality, safe vehicles. In this case, with these vehicles, we simply didnt do our job. We failed these customers, and we must face up to it and we must learn from it. To that end, and on behalf of gm, we pledge that we will use the findings and the recommendations from this report as a template to strengthen our company. What valucas found in this situation was a pattern of incompetence and neglect. Repeatedly, individuals failed to disclose critical pieces of information that could have fundamentally changed the lives of those impacted by the faulty ignition switch. If this information had been disclosed and i believe this in my heart the company would have dealt with this situation much differently and appropriately. Furth furthermore, numerous individuals did not take the responsibility to drive the organization to understand what was truly happening. The report highlights a company that operated in silos, with a number of individuals seemingly looking for reasons to not act, instead of finding ways to protect our customers. Let me be clear, this should have never happened. It is unacceptable. Our customers need to know that they can count on our cars, our trucks, an most importantly our word. Because of the actions of a few people and the willingness of others to condone bureaucratic processes that avoided accountability, we let these customers down. To give you a sense of the thoroughness and forcefulness of the investigation, let me paraphrase a few key conclusions. One, gm personnels inability to address the ignition switch problem, which persisted for more than 11 years, represents a history of failures. While everyone who was engaged on the ignition switch issue had the responsibility to fix it, no one took responsibility. Through the entire 11year history there was no demonstrated sense of urgency right to the very end. The ignition switch issue was touched by numerous parties at gm, engineers, investigators, and lawyers, but no one raised the issues to the highest level of the company. Overall the report concludes that from start to finish the cobalt saga was rid dualed with failure which led to tragic results with many. I hate sharing this with you just as much as you hate hearing it. But i want you to hear it and, in fact, i want you to remember it. I want you to never forget it. Because this is not just another business crisis for General Motors. We arent simply going to fix this and move on. We are going to fix the failures in our system that i promise, many are already fixed, and we are going to do the right thing for the affected parties, but i never want to put this behind us. I want to keep this painful experience permanently in our collective memories. I dont want to forget what happened because i and i know you never want this to happen again. You should know that mr. Valucas report revealed there was no conspiracy by the corporation to cover up facts. In addition, the investigators found no evidence that any employee made a tradeoff between safety and cost. The pattern in this case is much more complex and more nuanced. What valucas found was a pattern of management deficiencies and misjudgments often based on incomplete data that were passed off at the time as business as usual. Unfortunately, the report found that the seemingly benign actions led to devastating consequences. In short, we misdiagnosed the problem from the very beginning. Experienced engineers with the responsibility for safety did not understand that the air bags would not deploy if the ignition switch changed into the off position. I know many of you are saying to yourselves that this problem isnt a fair reflection of the company as a whole. I know it, and i know you know it too. We are better than this. But we have to own this problem and we have to have the courage to deal with it in the right way. As we have learned more about the situation over the last few months, we have acted aggressively to uncover facts, correct the problem, and restructure internal systems that allowed this problem to develop in the first place. I mentioned it earlier that we are posting a summary of all of our actions on the website, but i want to highlight five of the most critical steps we have already taken. First, we named jeff boyer, Vice President of safety, for the company, elevating and integrating our safety processes under a single leader. Jeff reports directly to mark royce and he and i meet on a regular basis. Weve added 35 safety investigators that will allow us to identify and address issues much more quickly and i think were already seeing the positive results of their work. Weve instituted the speak up for Safety Program that encourages employees to report potential safety issues quickly and we will recognize employees for doing so. We announced the creation of and have already implemented the new global product integrity organization, and this organization i am confident will enhance our overall safety and quality performance. And finally, and this is incredibly important, we restructured the safety decisionmaking process in the company to raise it to the highest levels. Senior management will be at the center of these issues as we move forward. The valucas report makes a series of recommendations in eight major areas and im committing the company that we will act on all of these recommendations. In each of the major areas weve already taken steps, but there is much more to do. We will move forcefully to complete the recommendations on an expedited timetable. Evidence of our work is already apparent. As im sure you know we are taking an aggressive approach on recalls. We are bringing greater rigor and discipline to our analysis and decisionmaking process regarding recalls and other potential safetyrelated matters. This is the new norm. We are redoubling our efforts and i believe they will be substantially complete by the end of the Second Quarter. In the near term you might expect to see a few more recall announcements. We have also made a number of personnel decisions. Some of these were tough calls. Im sure you can appreciate this, and we held off making these until the investigation was complete, but with the facts before us, we felt it was important to make a number of changes and weve already done so. 15 individuals who we determined to have acted inappropriately are no longer with the company. Some were removed because of what we consider misconduct or incompetence. Others have been relieved because they simply didnt do enough. They didnt take responsibility, they didnt act with a sense of urgency. Disciplinary actions have been taken also against five additional employees as part of the company. And with these moves i feel we have addressed the personnel issues in this matter. Consistent with our priority to do the right thing for those that were harmed we will be implementing a Compensation Program for those who lost loved ones or who have suffered serious injuries. As a result of the ignition switch failure. To that end, we have engaged ken fineburg to review options and he will administer the Compensation Program. Again, with all of the changes we have implemented and are now undertaking the job of correcting our mistakes is only the beginning. Strengthening our systems and adding resources are critically important steps to improving our company, but as positive as these steps are, they still arent enough. To excel, to truly build the best auto company for customers, we have to change our behaviors as well. We have to personalize this challenge, quality and safety arent someone elses responsibility. Theyre mine. Theyre yours. We must all feel a personal responsibility to see that this company excels at every level. Together, we have to understand that the attitudes and practices that allowed this failure to occur in the first place will not be tolerated. And if we think that cleaning up this problem and making a few process changes will be enough, we are badly mistaken. Our job is to not just fix the problem. Our job must be to set a new Industry Standard for safety, quality, and excellence. To settle for anything less would be a profound error. So if you are aware of a potential problem affecting safety or quality and you dont speak up, youre part of the problem and that is not acceptable. If you see a problem that you dont think and you dont believe its being handled properly, elevate it to your supervisor. If you still dont believe its being handled properly, contact me directly. I want an environment at gm where the customer is at the center of every action and decision we make. After all, we exist to serve their needs, not ours. We jointly own our successes and our failures and we need to hold each other accountable. I know that every day over 200,000 gm employees get up and go to work with a sincere commitment to do their very, very best. You and i both know that the vast majority of our colleagues care deeply about safety and quality and have the highest integrity. The simple truth is each one of us has the power to make gm a better, more customer focused company. Its time we unleash the full power of this great company. When i started at gm 33 years ago, i never expected to be ceo. And i certainly never expected to be in a situation like this. But im here and youre here. And we have to be committed to leading in a way that brings honor and respect to this company. Even on a day as tough as this, i am proud and honored to work for General Motors. I know we have dedicated and talented team of employees that are loyal and honest. I know because of your efforts, our current vehicles are winning in the marketplace on safety, quality, and design. I know our dealers are proud to sell our vehicles and they care deeply about providing Excellent Service to our customers. And i know suppliers work hard every day to provide the best components for our vehicles. And most important of all, i know, as do you, that our products enhance the lives of millions of people around the world every single day. As i prepared for today, i thought long and hard about this very difficult message. I knew full well, it would be difficult for all of uss. But i also knew the only course of action was to be direct an totally honest. This is a test of our character and our values. And in the end im not afraid of the truth and i know you arent either. I want it known that we will face up to our mistakes and we will take them headon. The fact is, i believe in this company and i believe in all of you. And i know you, with me, want gm to be the worlds best Automotive Company for customers. Whatever it takes to do that, is exactly what we will do. Thank you. [ applause ] that is Ceo Mary Barra at gm speaking to employees and dealers, unveiling the valucas report which essentially clears top management, finds no conspiracy, although in her words shows a pattern of incompetence and neglect, a saga riddled with failure. Not a cost issue. Wasnt a tradeoff between cost and safety. Recall should be done by the end of q2 and about 20 employees dismissed or faced disciplinary result. To me totally forceful. I think were used to seeing ceos say mistakes were made, nobody loses their job, we just kind of hope that they sweep it under. I mean i wouldnt be surprised if once you cut these people loose, some Government Authority goes after them. Theyre not going to be backed by gm. Theyre on their own. That is a signal to any u. S. Attorney. Here you go. Heres your people. Go after them. Certainly the Company Already under investigation by congress, by justice, by the sec, by a number of states. Lets go to phil lebeau and get his reaction to what mary barra said in warren, michigan. Good morning, carl. The bluntness of the language is what stands out. She didnt try to gloss over this. She said look, it was incompetence, it was neg next, riddled with errors. It was very clear that individuals, the 15 who were dismissed and the other five who have been disciplined, they were at the heart of this entire defect recall situation and the fact that over 11 years, they had some role, at some time had a chance to raise their hand and say this doesnt make sense, something is wrong here, something needs to be done, and yet they didnt, she essentially said look, its incompetence and neglect and theres no excuse for that. The bluntness is what stands out here. The real question Going Forward, lets say two years, three years, four years from now, is whether or not General Motors truly does make the changes that are necessary or if it falls back into a pattern where maybe theres an issue and it doesnt rise to the level of being flagged immediately. Time will tell on that front. Really, i totally agree with phil. One of the things i think we were all saying, first we hear basically what she said happened and it was like, are you kidding me . Did you really just stand by . She says you stand by no more. I like that kind of strength. I wish some of the bankers would periodically come forward and say, heres the 20 guys, theyre yours. We dont tolerate this. I thought it was very strong. There have been some comments that said if only we can get some executives who have been down a similar path to make the same speech. Phil, well be coming back to you later this morning. The stock up more than 1 premarket. Not the only story by a long shot. The ecb did cut rates to record lows including reducing its deposit rate to negative territory, the benchmark. 15. And mario draghi announced new liquidity measures aimed at supporting lending to the real economy, including targeted longer term refinancing operations, those ltros. He also said key Interest Rates will remain at present