Automaker's Press Release After Meeting With President Bush
Here is the joint statement provided by Ford, DaimlerChrysler and GM post their meeting with President Bush yesterday.
I absolutely love this inept double talk. I'd have been embarrassed to publish this statement. The auto industry's insular management, terrible products and abominable customer service has lasted over half a century. Any other industry would have gone bankrupt or been forced into transformational change decades before. Instead, these massive bureaucracies continued to pay their inept leaders handsomely while cumulatively losing over $1 trillion in sales through constant market share erosion.
While I don't doubt there is legitimacy to their calls of fair trade and equal playing fields, that is a fact of life in every industry. There is no such thing as free trade. There never has been. All we can ever hope for is relatively fair trade.
Every nation has their protected industries. In Japan it's automobiles. In the US it's Boeing and defense contractors. In Korea it's autos and semiconductors. In Norway it's oil. Whatever. You want access to the Japanese auto market? First off, make something the consumer in Japan wants. Secondly, maybe Japan wants something in return. Maybe they want to compete in markets which are off limits. Maybe they ask to lift the unspoken ban imposed by America on the Japanese defense and aerospace industry and let them compete in the U.S. for contracts. Uh, you don't want that? My point is no one wants totally free trade. It's a ruse. Countries want generally fair trade with a fluid definition of what fair means.
Here's my rub of this two faced press release. On the one hand these executives complain about currency manipulation making it difficult to compete with Asian auto makers or in Asian markets. That's a true statement but it seems funny Honda can make cars in the U.S. at a profit. Yes, maybe there is some financial gamesmanship between parent and the U.S. business but Honda has never tried to pawn off garbage to the American consumer or flipped a buyer the bird when they bought a lemon. In other words, the American auto makers have no idea what they are capable of because they've never really been forced to change.
On the other hand, these CEO's complain that buying steel from American companies is too expensive so they should be allowed to buy steel sold below cost from the same Asian countries manipulating their currency. In other words, on one hand they complain about manipulated currency making their business difficult but on the other hand they want to take advantage of that manipulated currency to make business for other American companies more difficult. Now, go talk to the U.S. steel companies and they'd tell you that opening the barriers to dumped steel would decimate their industry. They'd have just as valid argument as the auto executives. Actually more valid because they've already transformed their inept management and business practices.
Frankly, I'd tell all three to pound salt. Fix your internal problems then come back to see me if you still cannot compete. To hide behind piss poor management decisions for fifty years, fire all of your employees because of those said piss poor decisions and come whining for protectionism so you can get your bonus doesn't sit well with me. In fact, it infuriates me.
I absolutely love this inept double talk. I'd have been embarrassed to publish this statement. The auto industry's insular management, terrible products and abominable customer service has lasted over half a century. Any other industry would have gone bankrupt or been forced into transformational change decades before. Instead, these massive bureaucracies continued to pay their inept leaders handsomely while cumulatively losing over $1 trillion in sales through constant market share erosion.
While I don't doubt there is legitimacy to their calls of fair trade and equal playing fields, that is a fact of life in every industry. There is no such thing as free trade. There never has been. All we can ever hope for is relatively fair trade.
Every nation has their protected industries. In Japan it's automobiles. In the US it's Boeing and defense contractors. In Korea it's autos and semiconductors. In Norway it's oil. Whatever. You want access to the Japanese auto market? First off, make something the consumer in Japan wants. Secondly, maybe Japan wants something in return. Maybe they want to compete in markets which are off limits. Maybe they ask to lift the unspoken ban imposed by America on the Japanese defense and aerospace industry and let them compete in the U.S. for contracts. Uh, you don't want that? My point is no one wants totally free trade. It's a ruse. Countries want generally fair trade with a fluid definition of what fair means.
Here's my rub of this two faced press release. On the one hand these executives complain about currency manipulation making it difficult to compete with Asian auto makers or in Asian markets. That's a true statement but it seems funny Honda can make cars in the U.S. at a profit. Yes, maybe there is some financial gamesmanship between parent and the U.S. business but Honda has never tried to pawn off garbage to the American consumer or flipped a buyer the bird when they bought a lemon. In other words, the American auto makers have no idea what they are capable of because they've never really been forced to change.
On the other hand, these CEO's complain that buying steel from American companies is too expensive so they should be allowed to buy steel sold below cost from the same Asian countries manipulating their currency. In other words, on one hand they complain about manipulated currency making their business difficult but on the other hand they want to take advantage of that manipulated currency to make business for other American companies more difficult. Now, go talk to the U.S. steel companies and they'd tell you that opening the barriers to dumped steel would decimate their industry. They'd have just as valid argument as the auto executives. Actually more valid because they've already transformed their inept management and business practices.
Frankly, I'd tell all three to pound salt. Fix your internal problems then come back to see me if you still cannot compete. To hide behind piss poor management decisions for fifty years, fire all of your employees because of those said piss poor decisions and come whining for protectionism so you can get your bonus doesn't sit well with me. In fact, it infuriates me.
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