New models
The CEOs of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler came caps in hand to ask the US Senate for a bail-out. One Senator was particularly unamused at seeing them each arrive in a private jet and commented, "Really! You come to us for money...at least you could have had the decency to downgrade to first class!"
posted by Whispering Walls at 9:29 am
6 Comments:
I agree, that is shocking.
Detroit has long been overdue a serious change. Quite rightly, congress is beginning to get back its capitalistic credentials -as in, change or die.
Well worth going onto the MSNBC site to see Richard Shelby chatting about the future of the car industry and his views on the management...
That said, I think Government has exacerbated the problem, by giving the car-makers a 'kop-out' by not including 'SUVs' within the scope of 'fuel economy legislation'.
They exploited that 'get-out' to the full effect, and would not bite the bullet to move to leaner, more fuel efficient cars and hybrid technologies.
That said, it is easier to put off the evil day than turn the mammoth super-tanker around - but with Barack Obama being clear about his different view on Climate Change, they ain't going be able to bury their heads in the sand for very much longer...
p.s. What make you of the frankly rather alarming procrastination by the Citigroup boards as well ?
Hi Anon - I suppose it would be quite a change of mentality for the large American posterior to move out of an SUV into a smaller vehicle. Citigroup is being bailed out: they learned their lesson from Lehmans and couldn't take the risk of letting it go. Let's see what the share price does today. Pandit keeps his job nevertheless.
my hunch is that within 12-18 months they will be head-hunting Eric Daniels. So long as the Lloyds TSB / HBOS deal goes through reasonably smoothly [albeit a shockingly poor one from the shareholders' point of view..] I suspect Terri Dial will be picking up the phone to her old boss.
No doubt they will then try to fix up another mega-merger to give mass and cost economies of scale to an enlarged group..
Hi Anon - economic cycles are like the sea: the waves collapse and then rebuild. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
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