Ford CEO just gave a restructing talk on MSNBC. Cutting 1/3 of

[FloridaPat]

their capacity. They are for workers and customers. Things are going to get better. Sounds like a repub actually. Then they were discussing Ford after the talk and noted that it was the quality that counted, not all this other talk. Someone pointed out that those darn foreign car makers keep raising the bar. The poor US companies keep putting quality in their cars (somewhere I guess), but then the foreign cars make theirs even better.

So our problem is foreigners are raising the bar too fast. It's their fault Ford is closing 14 plants.

[librechik]

1. It's the government's fault for not providing universal healthcare

that drives everybody's costs up, but the greedy CEOs don't care/. They'll keep contributing to Bush until the country dies.

[Coastie for Truth]

5. The issue is Health Insurance

1. Drive "The 401" from Windsor to Hamilton - and look at all of the auto factories, parts factories, etc. Health Insurance was the motivator.

2. At one point the Big Three fought the "Good Battle" in Lansing to protect their vendor network from "cherry picking" by the insurance industry. That is, the insurance companies had to give "Mom and Pop seat cushion spring manufacturer" with 100 employees the same price that they gave the Big Three. I don't know when that law was repealed.

They are being eaten alive by health insurance.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. I wonder if the CEO of Ford is sharing "the pain"?

n/t

[Wickerman]

3. actually, the problem is that Ford went nuts building

big ass trucks and SUVs and the bottom has fallen out of that market for some reason. Couldna seem that coming even with an MBA and ifn you were in the ancestral line of dear ol' Henry Ford, huh?

[Coastie for Truth]

6. Anecdote - when I traded my SUV - just after 9/11

the salesman tried to "move me" into another SUV. When I asked "So, what are you going to do when we lose access to Middle Eastern oil?"

His response - We'll go to war - if necessary - to protect "OUR" oil.

That is the mind set of the Big Three.

[Coexist]

4. One thing he said that I like is that they will no longer issue annual

reports. I remember the Daimler Chrysler merger and the issues they German automakers had with the American obsession with the quarterly reports and the price of their stock that day - as opposed to taking the long view and it being okay to lose money for a year or two to put out a better product for the next decade.