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Geneal Motors Board and its top management hobble along without a vision or timely decisions at critical turning points.
06/28/2008
The lack of vigorous discussion at the Board and top management levels of Gneral Motors is the most striking thing about the company. Classic example how the larger and more successful an institution, there is no assurance that even the vital skills of vigorous discussion and openness to fresh thinking promoted by its founders like Alfred Sloan in this case in one of his meetings, that these skills will be available in the future.
Linked Articles
GM's Massive Quarterly Loss Adds to Turnaround Pressure
Wall Street Journal 08/02/2008
McCain Offers Aid, No 'Bailout' on AutosWall Street Journal 06/28/2008
China's oil demand to grow at 2-3% over the next 15 years by one estimate.
06/20/2008
A much slower growth in oil demand as fuel efficient engines make a strong impact. Government policy raising oil prices, giving tax breaks for smaller engines to promote smaller cars on Chinese roads, and promotion of new hybrid and electric car technologies with significant subsidies, all push in this direction.
Linked Articles
China's Thirst for Oil Could Come Up Short
Wall Street Journal 06/01/2010
China Sharply Raises Energy PricesNew York Times 06/20/2008
American driving habits and preferences are finally beginning to change in 2008 as oil prices reach $4.00 to $4.70 per gallon.
06/19/2008
Americans miles driven reached 3 trillion miles by 2007 and now are headed downward for the first time in 10 years. its affecting car prteferences in favor of smaller cars and changing driver habits.
Linked Articles
The Smaller the Better, Automakers Are Finding
New York Times 06/20/2008
Driving Less, Americans Finally React to Sting of Gas Prices, a Study SaysNew York Times 06/19/2008
The Honda Civic becomes the best selling brand marking the shift to smaller cars.
06/04/2008
The Japanese carmakers pass the Detroit carmakers in sales with smaller models like the Honda Civic leading the way. Bill Ford talks about his and Mullaly's committment to a shift to smaller cars.
Linked Articles
In a First, Asian Autos Outsold Detroit’s in May
New York Times 06/04/2008
Bill Ford on Tipping Points and Thinking SmallBusinessWeek 07/31/2008
Geithner's style and the contrast with Summers as they contend for Treasury Secretary
05/30/2008
Geithner's has a prepared structure of questions which he uses to get informed, and other aspects of his style and how he has approached crises in the past.
Linked Articles
Summers and Geithner, Two Contenders for Treasury Job, Have Close Career Ties
Wall Street Journal 11/08/2008
Fed's Fireman On Wall Street Feels Some HeatWall Street Journal 05/30/2008
IHS Energy Associates's Yergin sees shale technologies changing the energy business by 2020, and IEA misses this completely
05/22/2008
Long term forecasting is a difficult business. IEA's 2015 forecast missed the situation in 2015 completely. Yergin was right but did not see how fast this would happen with oil prices down to $50 per barrel in 2015 and prices at the pump below $2.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 12/12/2011
Energy Watchdog Warns Of Oil-Production CrunchWall Street Journal 05/22/2008
Board meetings at GM and the how the culture and style of management stalled decisions on fuel efficiency and small car development.
05/15/2008
The evolution of the old management styles and attitudes as Ford brought in outside management and Bill Ford took a new tack, and at GM where old management plodded on inexorably in the old way. Which is quite different from what Alfred Sloan had advocated in his memoirs when he insisted on discussion and debate on critical decisions in board meetings for them to be worthwhile.
Linked Articles
BusinessWeek 05/15/2008
Bill Ford on Tipping Points and Thinking SmallBusinessWeek 07/31/2008
Imbalances in the global economy that will take time to correct- the situation in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets in 2012-2013
05/05/2008
The perception that "this time is different" is a typical behavioural reaction in history to to financial crises studied by Rogoff and Reinhart. Economic weakness is part of the mechanism for correcting global imbalances which happens over a number of years.
Linked Articles
Economy May Face Prolonged Pain, History Suggests
Wall Street Journal 05/05/2008
Boom, Bust. Repeat.Wall Street Journal 10/09/2009
The agreement won by Jerry Brown for 11 states against Countrywide/Bank of America to address foreclosures.
04/30/2008
The agreement won by 11 states from bank of America to devote $8 billion for mortgage relief and help homeowners facing foreclosures was a landmark agreement as little had happened in the way of relief for homeowners except for efforts by Sheila Barr at IndyMac in the way of comprehensive relief proposals for homeowners.
Linked Articles
Bair Proposal Seeks Government Loans To Aid Homeowners
Wall Street Journal 04/30/2008
Countrywide to Set Aside $8.4 Billion in Loan AidNew York Times 10/06/2008
Marchionne's transformation of Fiat, followed by the transformation at Chrysler
04/24/2008
How Marchionne accomplished the transformation at the two companies.
Linked Articles
Economist 04/24/2008
Fiat Will Hike Stake in ChryslerDetroit News 04/21/2011
Strategies of newspaper media business as advertising revenues decline (1)- The New York Times and Le Monde
04/21/2008
Linked Articles
Finances Frail, Le Monde Contemplates the Unthinkable
New York Times 04/21/2008
Billionaire Reaches Deal On Funding For Times Co.Wall Street Journal 01/20/2009
Labor costs in China, Ireland, and newly emerging countries.
03/27/2008
How the foreign investment model for countries that attracted Foreign Investment with lower wages is changing and the differentials with the US are closing, Irish hourly pay higher than US hourly pay.
Linked Articles
Ireland: The End of the Miracle
BusinessWeek 03/27/2008
China's Factory BluesBusinessWeek 03/27/2008
Ford Motor Company and the shift in message to "Quality, Green, Safe and Smart," from "American" and being "powerful"
03/18/2008
Ford is showing originality and focussing on safety and innovation as one of its advertising themes in a "Ford, Drive One" campaign which will be done with dealers and after listening to dealers.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 03/18/2008
Ford Displays a Wreck to Score Safety PointsNew York Times 03/18/2008
Sales of the Honda Civic, Toyota Prius,Ford Focus and the Honda Fit , all smaller cars are doing well
06/20/2008
Even so Toyota will not go ahead with making the Prius at the new plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, is a sign of the severity of the economic downturn that is shaping up for 2009 and 2010.
Linked Articles
The Smaller the Better, Automakers Are Finding
New York Times 06/20/2008
Toyota delays new Prius plantDetroit News 12/16/2008
The Honda Civic paradox- sales over 600,000 worldwide, and a mere 9000 in Japan in 2009
06/20/2008
Honda plans to discontinue production of the Civic in Japan as buyers are showing more interest in cars like the Honda Fit.
Linked Articles
Honda to End Civic Sales in Japan
Wall Street Journal 11/16/2010
The Smaller the Better, Automakers Are FindingNew York Times 06/20/2008
Huge shift in car mix in favor of smaller cars as USA buyers finally make the shift and fast.
06/19/2008
Small cars sales move up quickly from 12.5% to 20% of vehicles sold. Market is running at 12.5 million vehicles in May 2008. The small car share will rise much higher as supplies increase, currently small cars sell quickly and are in short supply especially for Hona Fit and Civic cars and the Ford Focus.
Linked Articles
The Smaller the Better, Automakers Are Finding
New York Times 06/20/2008
GM Puts Off Truck, SUV Redesigns In New FocusWall Street Journal 06/19/2008
Differing timelines for Bill Ford and Mullaly at Ford and Wagoner at GM in their shift to smaller cars.
06/04/2008
GM was late in the shift to smaller cars than Ford even as the shift was taking place. Both companies though remained mired in a decades long stagnation in fuel efficency even as companies like Honda moved forward, and as the gap with the Europeans and the Japanese in the technology and skills of making small cars widened.
Linked Articles
G.M. Closing 4 Plants in Shift From Trucks Toward Cars
New York Times 06/04/2008
Bill Ford on Tipping Points and Thinking SmallBusinessWeek 07/31/2008
Europeans protest of fuel taxes.
05/28/2008
Europeans protes fuel taxes but public opinion especially in Germany favorsreducing fuel consumption. It requires agreement by 27 EU member states to reduce fuel taxes so this is unlikely to happen.
Linked Articles
Europeans Protest Fuel Taxes But Accept High Prices
Wall Street Journal 05/28/2008
Irate Europeans Protest the Soaring Price of GasolineNew York Times 05/30/2008
How all carmakers and Detroit automakers in particular missed what was happening in the economy and the market with dire results.
05/20/2008
Even as late as May 22, 2008 Ford pared its outlook to 14-15 million cars as reported by Jeff Bennett in the WSJ. That puts the situation in October 2008, with a 30-40% drop in sales year over year only 5 months away.
Linked Articles
Car Makers' Boom Years Now Look Like a Bubble
Wall Street Journal 05/20/2008
Ford Motor Pares OutlookWall Street Journal 05/22/2008
The race to emission free or low emissions vehicles
05/10/2008
Daimler and Renault-Nissan are comitted to setting emission free or low emissions as critical goals and setting up the execution and plan to achieve this.
Linked Articles
Nissan Plans Electric Car in U.S. by ’10
New York Times 05/13/2008
At Daimler, Sales Follow the World’s Oil RichesNew York Times 05/10/2008
Sheila Barr, head of the FDIC, first suggested her proposal for foreclosures on April 30, 2008, about the time Feldstein made his.
04/30/2008
Martin Feldstein first made his proposal in early 2008, then repeated it in October 2008, as the crisis took a turn for the worse. Sheila Barr made her proposal public on April 30, 2008. Both address foreclosures. Later Sheila Barr implemented this when FDIC took over IndyMac bank for Indy's mortgage borrowers.
Linked Articles
Bair Proposal Seeks Government Loans To Aid Homeowners
Wall Street Journal 04/30/2008
The Problem Is Still Falling House PricesWall Street Journal 10/04/2008
FDIC Bair's proposal to aid homeowners anticipating the banking and mortagage crisis.
04/30/2008
FDIC Sheila Bair seen in retrospect after her anticipation of the mortgage and credit crisis and helping prepare FDIC for it. And for the comprehensive approach she took and which later convinced people at Treasury who had earlier adopted a case by case approach not realizing how deep and far reaching this crisis would be.
Linked Articles
Agency’s Head Expects Banking’s Crisis to Worsen
New York Times 08/27/2008
Bair Proposal Seeks Government Loans To Aid HomeownersWall Street Journal 04/30/2008
Toyota Prius hybrid- hard sell in India and China
04/21/2008
The Prius is priced around $22,000 in Japan and the U.S. In India and China it costs around $40,000 with import duties. This makes it a hard sell where pollution is a major problem.
Linked Articles
In India, 'Green Cars' Look Like a Hard Sell
Wall Street Journal 01/08/2010
In China, Hybrids Are Tough SellWall Street Journal 04/21/2008
Greenspan and his philosophy that let him take such an ambitious experiment in unrestrained markets.
04/08/2008
Grennspan took huge risks in his ambitious experiment with the American economy of a philosophy that simply said allow markets to operate unrestrained and trust in humans benevolent intentions and enlightened self interest. Goodman and Ip document the details. Did he believe that there was something miraculous that would prevent things from imploding, something inherently sacred about an idea of markets, when plain common sense like Buffets said that the arithmetic did not add up and in the end thats all that counts common sense.
Linked Articles
Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy
New York Times 10/09/2008
His Legacy Tarnished, Greenspan Goes on DefensiveWall Street Journal 04/08/2008
Debt gorged Britain and the U.S.
03/22/2008
British debt is even worse than the American debt with household debt to income ratio at 1.62 in Britain compared to 1.42 in the USA. Continental cousins in Germany have a ratio of 1.09.
Linked Articles
Debt-Gorged British Start to Worry That the Party Is Ending
New York Times 03/22/2008
Frugality Forged in Today's Recession Has Potential to Outlast ItWall Street Journal 04/06/2009
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