Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Kaleidoscope of Changes


Bye bye, Rick Wagoner. That Hummer, those Big Trucks were a real cool time. GM better get cracking. So, too Chrysler with Fiat. But what of the old Axis powers of Italy, Japan, and Germany -- the original Big Three? Maybe science fiction writer Philip K. Dick was right about the victors and losers of that one, the great World War Two. Fiat! Daimler! Mitsubishi! Ein, zwei, Zufall!

Management of the American "Big Three" is long overdue for a good shake-up. With a brief respite before gas prices surge again, kick out the jams, Detroit. And save Baker's Keyboard Lounge, too!


Today's Rune: Possessions. Glad to see both MSU and the UNC Tar Heels will be in the Final Four next weekend, in Detroit. Yeahdawg!

4 comments:

Lana Gramlich said...

Imagine if the automotive idiots had tried to please their customers all that time...Now they're struggling to catch up w/those better imports. The "powers that be" should be shot.

the walking man said...

Lana...I'm taking the foul and free throw on that elbow. The D3 WERE pleasing their customers with SUV's, the behemoths are what a substantial portion of American consumer wanted. Witness the proliferation of SUV's among the foreign based competition during the past 15 years.

No one saw an investor based run up in the commodities market(oil, corn)of the past couple of years.

Detroit failed in not developing MORE, not better but more, small car technology. Americans failed in not trying the existing American engineered small car technology believing that the foreign, particular the Asian, quality is better. Which by the by is based on American engineering.

While not a particular fan of Wagoner, his stepping aside is a political move forced by the current administration.
If nothing else Wagoner is a "car guy" and has been for over thirty years. Their complaint on him is he had almost a decade at the helm, and wasn't fast enough in reforming the company.

I suppose that he reduced wages by 50% for new employees, cut way back on medical expenses for retiree's (shifting responsibility to the union for blue collar, eliminating them for white collar)cutting current work force by a third and expenses by a quarter just wasn't enough.

Wanna shoot someone? Go to Wall Street and it's regulators, we got enough people being shot here already.

Charles Gramlich said...

when you're in first place for a long while you get lazy looks like to me.

Johnny Yen said...

I voted with my pocketbook and bought a used Toyota last year. Wish I could afford a new Prius.