Coincidence?

This letter from Stephen Hembree of Alameda, California was published earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle -

Editor - Anyone else find it a strange coincidence that gas prices plummet at the exact same time GM, Ford and Chrysler need to sell off their huge inventory of gas guzzlers?

It just so happens that...

The two football teams that will meet at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on New Year's Day share two common traditions. Both use the yell "We are... 'SC/Penn State!" And both use the motto, Fight On!

It should be a great game, although we're predicting that the Men of Troy will win by 6. Or 16. Fight On!!!

Should Rick Wagoner Be Kept On As Chief of GM?

From the Associated Press, Monday, December 8, 2008:

Chicago - An influential senator drafting a multibillion-dollar bailout for Detroit's Big Three automakers said Sunday that the head of General Motors should step down, while President-elect Barack Obama accused car industry executives of a persistent "head in the sand" approach. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Banking Committe, said GM CEO Rick Wagoner has to move on as part of a government-run restructuring that should be a condition of financial life support for the auto industry. "I think you have got to consider new leadership," Dodd said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

GM spokesman Steve Harris said the company appreciates Dodd's support for the (bailout) loans, but added, "GM employees, dealers, suppliers, and the GM board of directors feel that Rick is the right guy to lead GM through this incredibly difficult and challenging time."

Still another reason G.M. is in the state it's in...

This weekend's Wall Street Journal (December 6-7, 2008) contained an article, "Corporate Failures Hit Health Plans for Corporate Workers", that would seem to be unrelated to what is going on at General Motors. But, in the second part of the article, we read that in the service bay of a Chevrolet dealership in Georgia "an executive boomed over a loudspeaker that the car dealer, which had survived since the Great Depression, was closing. ... (the employees health) insurance was terminated."

Mr. G., a finance manager for the dealership, was in a panic. Why? Because he'd "bought a $60,000 BMW the day before." Now Mr. G. is selling the BMW as his family has $40,000 in medical bills and are two months behind on their mortgage.

Do you think it ever dawned on Mr. G. that by buying an expensive BMW, made in Germany, he was pounding a coffin's nail in the American corporation he indirectly worked for? Who was it that said, "Let's pay attention, people!"

Why General Motors Fell...

The latest issue of Fortune Magazine is well worth buying to read the excellent article by Alex Taylor, "GM - Death of An American Dream: How General Motors got it wrong for so long. A corporate memoir." Below you will find a couple of brief excerpts from the article and, yes, Taylor describes the shock among reporters "on the day in October 1999 when GM revealed the Pontiac Aztek... for the first time." The oh-so-beautiful and practical Aztek. (Enough said on that subject.)

On the positive side, Taylor provides some hope that bankruptcy will enable GM to continue to survive and perhaps to even return leaner and meaner.

Excerpts:

In working for the largest company in the industry for so long, they became comfortable, insular, self-referential, and too wedded to the status quo - traits that persist even now, when GM is on the precipice. They prefer stability over conflict, continuity over disorder, and GM's way over anybody else's. They believe that hard work will overcome adversity, and that tomorrow will be better than today - despite four decades of evidence to the contrary. In many ways the story of General Motors since the 1960s is a tale of accelerating irrelevance. Customer preferences changed, competition tightened, technology made big leaps, and GM was always driving a lap behind. It became a red-state company, its Buicks and Pontiacs seldom seen in California or New York City.

Ask Rick Wagoner why GM isn't more like Toyota, and he'd tell you, "We're playing our own game - taking advantage of our own unique heritage and strengths." Turns out GM should have forgotten that and become more like Toyota. Toyota's market cap is now $103.6 billion.

... You have to wonder whether the insular, self-absorbed culture that still dominates GM is up to the job of restructuring the company quickly enough to make it profitable and competitive again. ... As painful as bankruptcy will be, it would give GM the leverage it needs to redo its labor contracts and dealer franchise agreements, downsize the company, recruit new management, and position itself for an economic upturn... that would enable it to regain some fraction of its former glory.

Winter/Spring

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. - Anne Bradstreet

(Click on the photo to see a larger version.)

40 Years On

(Looking back at the 40-year plus career of Graham Nash.)

On February 3, 2009, Rhino Records will release a 3-CD collection of Graham's songs from 1967 through the near present. Reflections will take the listener on a chronological order tour of Nash's career from the Hollies to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to Crosby, Stills & Nash (CS&N), reformed for the cash. Thus, the 64 tracks will begin with On a Carnival and Carrie Anne and conclude with the previously unreleased CS&N track Lonely Man.

We expect the highlights to be the songs from his very good solo albums - songs such as Military Madness, Chicago and Barrel of Pain.

Rhino generally, although not always, gives us excellent warm-sounding remastered releases. Sadly, one notable exception was Rhino's recent re-release of the first CS&N album. Rhino's remaster took the life out of the lively CS&N and turned it into dull mush.

Let's hope they've hired better ears to supervise the production of GN's forthcoming Reflections.