Fun, fun, fun

~ Patrick O'Grady

I was off on a little web-surfin’ safari this morning and ran across a story in The Los Angeles Times that says Angelenos are abandoning mass transit and crankin’ up their little deuce coupes again, now that gasoline prices have plummeted to $2.30 per gallon. Good news, Detroit: You won’t be needing that bailout after all. SUVs for everyone! She’s real fine, my 409 . . . .

In other auto news, failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney — whose dad ran American Motors in the good ol’ Rambler days and then became governor of Michigan — took a giant dump on Motor City in The New York Times the other day, and The Detroit Free Press called him on it. It’s a pretty interesting read for those of us who haven’t paid much attention to the U.S. auto industry of late. Meanwhile, here’s some number-crunching from The Detroit News regarding the industry’s employment effects beyond Motown.

And in DeeCee, House Donks have voted to replace auto-industry pal John Dingell of Michigan as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with Henry Waxman of California. Steve Benen calls this “a very encouraging development” that will make a meaningful energy bill more likely.

3 thoughts on “Fun, fun, fun”

  1. Mr. Henderson makes some good points in his Free Press opinion piece, but so does one of the readers whom thus responded:

    “Mr. Henderson is absolutely wrong to think that Mitt Romney or anybody for that matter should give any credit whatsoever to the Big 3 for any changes they made over the past 2 years. Every single one of those changes were made with extradordinarily late hindsight and under the force of impending economic disaster. In other words, historically the Big 3 make changes only when it appears they’ve squeezed the last penny out of the US consumer for product lines that are quickly turning into dead-enders with noting ready to replace them. Good buisness practice and principles teach economic foresight and diversity in product lines that are constantly kept ready to step in just at the right moment when hot product lines suddenly crater. To adovcate giving credit to a greedy, short-sighted, instant gratification industry for changes made in the face of impending disaster is foolishness and misleading. Time to smell the coffee started over 25 years ago.”

  2. Mr. Henderson makes some good points in his Free Press opinion piece, but so does one of the readers whom thus responded:

    “Mr. Henderson is absolutely wrong to think that Mitt Romney or anybody for that matter should give any credit whatsoever to the Big 3 for any changes they made over the past 2 years. Every single one of those changes were made with extradordinarily late hindsight and under the force of impending economic disaster. In other words, historically the Big 3 make changes only when it appears they’ve squeezed the last penny out of the US consumer for product lines that are quickly turning into dead-enders with noting ready to replace them. Good buisness practice and principles teach economic foresight and diversity in product lines that are constantly kept ready to step in just at the right moment when hot product lines suddenly crater. To advocate giving credit to a greedy, short-sighted, instant gratification industry for changes made in the face of impending disaster is foolishness and misleading. Time to smell the coffee started over 25 years ago.”

    Of course, 25 year old coffee is likely to smell pretty bad, which sums it up nicely.

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