Word: auto
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...auto industry in trouble. You can tell how bad each company is doing just by looking at these hard copy reports. Ford, which seems best-equipped to ride out the economic storm, puts together a forward-looking document full of boxed-off pull quotes. The more dire GM ("Recent significant declines in dealer orders are now adversely affecting first-quarter production schedules and revenue forecasts") packs its statement with charts and graphs and lots of diverting graphics. And Chrysler? It's 14-page document, half the size of the others, looks like a college sophomore's final term paper...
When the heads of the Detroit Three auto companies return to Washington this week to testify before Congress about their restructuring plans, they won't be traveling on their corporate jets. Not after the story broke on Nov. 19 that they had flown their "luxurious" aircraft to Washington to beg for $25 billion in loans to keep their companies afloat. Official Washington was outraged at the extravagance. Columnists and comics were ever so grateful for the gift. "I mean, couldn't you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here?'' whined Representative Gary Ackerman...
While Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats mull an auto-industry bailout plan, it's worth recalling a pair of Republican legislators from the past. One of the most derided pieces of 20th century economic policy was introduced by Senator Reed Smoot of Utah and Representative Willis C. Hawley of Oregon. Signed into law on June 17, 1930, the notorious Smoot-Hawley Act jacked up U.S. tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods, sparking a global trade war that deepened the Great Depression at home and spread it abroad...
...Meanwhile, the European Investment Bank is set to pledge $2.5 billion to help the continent's auto industry develop more environmentally friendly cars, according to Reuters. That support could help struggling companies stay in the race to bring greener vehicles to market during a global economic downturn. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne summed up the situation in simple terms: "Either [aid] is for everyone...
Meanwhile, just to the north, in Kokomo, Ind., Rich Boruff, vice- president of the United Auto Workers local 685, is closely watching the developments. Kokomo boasts plants for Chrysler and one of the nation's largest auto parts suppliers, Delphi. So there is much at stake. Boruff and his troops have been calling and e-mailing their Congressional representatives, urging them to support a bailout for the major automakers. The consequences of a bankruptcy declaration from either of the Big Three, he fears, are just too severe. "It'd kill us," he says...