Is Chevron Holding back Hybrid Vehicle production?
Toyota has recently announced that a hybrid version of the popular Highlander SUV will soon be sold. Industry scuttlebutt is that Toyota has about 100,000 pre-orders, a figure that dwarf's the capacity to produce the vehicle. Toyota has also announced that a hybrid Lexus luxury car, the GS 450h will be available next year. Production of hybrids by all manufacturers is said to be constrained by a lack of batteries.
The website www.soultek.com is dedicated to hybrid vehicles. According to Soultek, Chevron & Ovonics control patents on the NiMH technology necessary to create batteries for hybrid cars. Soultek raises the possibility that Chevron is deliberately creating a supply shortage to keep demand for oil (and profits) high.
I don't know that I buy into this argument. Chevron acting independently can reap near monopolistic profits on the battery technology used in the hybrids. By withholding battery production, Chevron is only getting a increased oil profits in proportion to its market share.
Hybrid vehicle article: Could Chevron end hybrid vehicle hold up?
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Indianapolis Rolls Royce UAW Local 933 to drop UAW-LSP coverage for new hires.
Although the information hasn't been publicly released, a little birdy told me that in the recently concluded contract negotiations between UAW Local 933 and Rolls Royce, UAW-LSP coverage will be dropped for new hires.
Rolls-Royce, UAW agree to contract
Although the information hasn't been publicly released, a little birdy told me that in the recently concluded contract negotiations between UAW Local 933 and Rolls Royce, UAW-LSP coverage will be dropped for new hires.
Rolls-Royce, UAW agree to contract
Hyundai to equip all vehicles with XM radio by 2007
Don't rush out & buy XM stock though, both it and Sirius are way over valued.
Hyundai Motor America is the First Automaker to Add Standard XM Satellite Radio to Its Full Vehicle Lineup
Don't rush out & buy XM stock though, both it and Sirius are way over valued.
Hyundai Motor America is the First Automaker to Add Standard XM Satellite Radio to Its Full Vehicle Lineup
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
The Googleteer takes on Ben Affleck
In a news item today, Ben Affleck announced that he was going to make his directorial debut. The Seer of Association himself, The Googleteer(tm), used his incredulity ray to defend against the forces of low expectations, and defeated the handsome one with this search
Ben Affleck "movie Sucks"
about 2500 hits (and that's just the hits in English)
Just for the hell of it, He then modified the search
Ben Affleck "movie Sucks" -gigli [so pages referring to Gigli would be excluded]
595 hits
Google Search: Ben affleck "movie sucks"
In a news item today, Ben Affleck announced that he was going to make his directorial debut. The Seer of Association himself, The Googleteer(tm), used his incredulity ray to defend against the forces of low expectations, and defeated the handsome one with this search
Ben Affleck "movie Sucks"
about 2500 hits (and that's just the hits in English)
Just for the hell of it, He then modified the search
Ben Affleck "movie Sucks" -gigli [so pages referring to Gigli would be excluded]
595 hits
Google Search: Ben affleck "movie sucks"
Monday, March 21, 2005
GM Kills Zetas - Lays off more WC staff
Last week I wrote about the plunge in General Motors' stock price. This week brings word that General Motors is planning to lay off thousands of white collar (salaried). Also GM has announced that it is ending plans to deploy a new car platform called the zeta archetecture in the US. The Zeta was to be a rear-wheel drive midsized line, and the first products were to be available in 2008.
When it comes to internal assessments about competitiveness, check out this quote from the article linked below:
It was Lutz who first championed the new rear-wheel drive platform. The renowned car expert announced the Zeta program in 2003 as the industry was turning its attention toward rear-wheel drive vehicles.
But he pulled the plug on the North America models after determining the vehicles could not be engineered and assembled to sell at prices competitive with the popular Chrysler 300C, Ford Mustang and other models, without sacrificing quality and content.
If you can't compete with Chrysler & Ford, how in the heck are you going to compete with Toyota & Hyundai?
USATODAY.com - GM kills car line, offers buyouts to white-collar staff
Last week I wrote about the plunge in General Motors' stock price. This week brings word that General Motors is planning to lay off thousands of white collar (salaried). Also GM has announced that it is ending plans to deploy a new car platform called the zeta archetecture in the US. The Zeta was to be a rear-wheel drive midsized line, and the first products were to be available in 2008.
When it comes to internal assessments about competitiveness, check out this quote from the article linked below:
It was Lutz who first championed the new rear-wheel drive platform. The renowned car expert announced the Zeta program in 2003 as the industry was turning its attention toward rear-wheel drive vehicles.
But he pulled the plug on the North America models after determining the vehicles could not be engineered and assembled to sell at prices competitive with the popular Chrysler 300C, Ford Mustang and other models, without sacrificing quality and content.
If you can't compete with Chrysler & Ford, how in the heck are you going to compete with Toyota & Hyundai?
USATODAY.com - GM kills car line, offers buyouts to white-collar staff
GM Kills Zetas - Lays off more WC staff
Last week I wrote about the plunge in General Motors' stock price. This week brings word that General Motors is planning to lay off thousands of white collar (salaried). Also GM has announced that it is ending plans to deploy a new car platform called the zeta archetecture in the US. The Zeta was to be a rear-wheel drive midsized line, and the first products were to be available in 2008.
When it comes to internal assessments about competitiveness, check out this quote from the article linked below:
USATODAY.com - GM kills car line, offers buyouts to white-collar staff
Last week I wrote about the plunge in General Motors' stock price. This week brings word that General Motors is planning to lay off thousands of white collar (salaried). Also GM has announced that it is ending plans to deploy a new car platform called the zeta archetecture in the US. The Zeta was to be a rear-wheel drive midsized line, and the first products were to be available in 2008.
When it comes to internal assessments about competitiveness, check out this quote from the article linked below:
USATODAY.com - GM kills car line, offers buyouts to white-collar staff
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Lyndon LaRouche - Who is he really?
Right after I published that last post, I thought, what do I really know about this "Executive Intelligence Review" publication. The answer, of course, was "nothing". So I looked it up. It is edited by perpetual presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. I didn't know anything about LaRouche other than he's been running for President for as long as I've been able to vote. I also heard vague allegations that he was a communist. Below is a link to the wikipedia article on him. Apparently he used to be a communist. Since 1980, he's been a Democrat.
Lyndon LaRouche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Right after I published that last post, I thought, what do I really know about this "Executive Intelligence Review" publication. The answer, of course, was "nothing". So I looked it up. It is edited by perpetual presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. I didn't know anything about LaRouche other than he's been running for President for as long as I've been able to vote. I also heard vague allegations that he was a communist. Below is a link to the wikipedia article on him. Apparently he used to be a communist. Since 1980, he's been a Democrat.
Lyndon LaRouche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GM reports losses. Stock tanks. Sales Slumping. Junk bond rating - imminent: Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
If you don't like to see General Motors get hammered, for God's sake, don't read or watch the news. At the beginning of this year, despite facing lots of adversity, General Motors stock was trading fairly steadily around $40.00 per share. With the announcement of a quarterly loss a couple days ago, GM stock went in the toilet. As I write this it is trading in the $28-29 range, more than a 25% drop from the beginning of the year. Big company stocks in mature industries just don't drop like that do they? I guess they do.
Google Financial Information: GM
One of my readers who shall remain named K___ W. Sent me a link to an analysis by Executive Intelligence Review at
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3211gmac.html
Boy, what a downer article - probably accurate to a fault, but a downer. Here's the part that was most striking to me:
"GM Decline to Junk Shows Waning Confidence in Automaker," headlined a long, March 8 Bloomberg News analysis of the fallout from February's sharp drop in U.S. auto sales. During 2004, General Motors tried to pump up its sales with circus-level rebates for auto buyers of more than $5,000 per vehicle (the entire U.S. auto sector gave an average $2,700 rebate on every vehicle in 2004, but GM's doubled those of the other makers). When, at the beginning of 2005, it tried to reduce the rebates somewhat, while oil, gasoline, steel, and industrial commodity prices were zooming up and total auto sales were falling, GM hit a wall; its January sales were 9% below a year earlier, and February's were 13% down despite its having suddenly lowered prices in mid-February. Its bonds' credit rating is now just one notch above junk, with a "negative outlook" from Fitch rating agency pointing the way to junk-bond status within weeks or months.
It's hard enough when GM pays twice as much in employee health costs as even the captive domestics, Pays a lot more in retiree and "legacy costs", has older factories,etc., but when the Finance arm has to pay junk bond rates, it's going to be the straw that broke the camel's back. GMAC is what has kept General Motors going over the last few years. After 9-11, the General's decision to ramp up rebates to spark sales, not only probably saved the company, it may have saved us from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. GM would have a hard time doing the same thing today.
My solution?
If I were the chairman of General Motors, I would call a stakeholder's conference. I would invite local, national and international government officials, representatives from unions from all affected contries, investors, suppliers & their unions, dealers, retirees, and randomly selected customers. Over a week, run through all the what-if scenarios, with computer simulations available to play out the results, and see if we could get a consensus on policies that give everybody a better future than is now in the cards. Right now, as things are going, I can't imagine a scenario that doesn't put General Motors in bankruptcy in 5-10 years, maybe sooner. That would be bad for me personally, but it would be worse for a lot of other folks.
If you don't like to see General Motors get hammered, for God's sake, don't read or watch the news. At the beginning of this year, despite facing lots of adversity, General Motors stock was trading fairly steadily around $40.00 per share. With the announcement of a quarterly loss a couple days ago, GM stock went in the toilet. As I write this it is trading in the $28-29 range, more than a 25% drop from the beginning of the year. Big company stocks in mature industries just don't drop like that do they? I guess they do.
Google Financial Information: GM
One of my readers who shall remain named K___ W. Sent me a link to an analysis by Executive Intelligence Review at
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3211gmac.html
Boy, what a downer article - probably accurate to a fault, but a downer. Here's the part that was most striking to me:
"GM Decline to Junk Shows Waning Confidence in Automaker," headlined a long, March 8 Bloomberg News analysis of the fallout from February's sharp drop in U.S. auto sales. During 2004, General Motors tried to pump up its sales with circus-level rebates for auto buyers of more than $5,000 per vehicle (the entire U.S. auto sector gave an average $2,700 rebate on every vehicle in 2004, but GM's doubled those of the other makers). When, at the beginning of 2005, it tried to reduce the rebates somewhat, while oil, gasoline, steel, and industrial commodity prices were zooming up and total auto sales were falling, GM hit a wall; its January sales were 9% below a year earlier, and February's were 13% down despite its having suddenly lowered prices in mid-February. Its bonds' credit rating is now just one notch above junk, with a "negative outlook" from Fitch rating agency pointing the way to junk-bond status within weeks or months.
It's hard enough when GM pays twice as much in employee health costs as even the captive domestics, Pays a lot more in retiree and "legacy costs", has older factories,etc., but when the Finance arm has to pay junk bond rates, it's going to be the straw that broke the camel's back. GMAC is what has kept General Motors going over the last few years. After 9-11, the General's decision to ramp up rebates to spark sales, not only probably saved the company, it may have saved us from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. GM would have a hard time doing the same thing today.
My solution?
If I were the chairman of General Motors, I would call a stakeholder's conference. I would invite local, national and international government officials, representatives from unions from all affected contries, investors, suppliers & their unions, dealers, retirees, and randomly selected customers. Over a week, run through all the what-if scenarios, with computer simulations available to play out the results, and see if we could get a consensus on policies that give everybody a better future than is now in the cards. Right now, as things are going, I can't imagine a scenario that doesn't put General Motors in bankruptcy in 5-10 years, maybe sooner. That would be bad for me personally, but it would be worse for a lot of other folks.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Whiners of the Week: Roy Disney & Stanley Gold
I generally support Roy Disney's and Stanley Gold's efforts to boot Michael Eisner out of the Disney company, and to generally shake up the management and governance in general. HOWEVER, with the recent announcement that Bob Iger, Eisner's hand-picked successor, will succeed Eisner next year, Disney and Gold have resorted to whining rather than acting constructively. Below is the Disney & Gold press release from www.savedisney.com.
SaveDisney - Roy Disney and Stanley Gold on Disney Earnings - Do the Math: Growth is Over for 2004
Not long ago at all, Disney and Gold had the opportunity to field a slate of directors to challenge the entrenched Disney lot. They declined to do so, basically stating that they trusted board Chairman George Mitchell to undergo a search for a new CEO in good faith. BUT WHY TRUST MITCHELL WITH ANYTHING? Gold and Disney knew that Mitchell & Eisner were the Bobsey Twins from the beginning. That's why they resigned from the Disney Board, supposedly. They didn't see any change happening internally. So, three years later, when they have the mechanism to lead an outside revolt they sit on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. To me that's not an exercise in discretion, that's just being chickenshit.
I generally support Roy Disney's and Stanley Gold's efforts to boot Michael Eisner out of the Disney company, and to generally shake up the management and governance in general. HOWEVER, with the recent announcement that Bob Iger, Eisner's hand-picked successor, will succeed Eisner next year, Disney and Gold have resorted to whining rather than acting constructively. Below is the Disney & Gold press release from www.savedisney.com.
SaveDisney - Roy Disney and Stanley Gold on Disney Earnings - Do the Math: Growth is Over for 2004
Not long ago at all, Disney and Gold had the opportunity to field a slate of directors to challenge the entrenched Disney lot. They declined to do so, basically stating that they trusted board Chairman George Mitchell to undergo a search for a new CEO in good faith. BUT WHY TRUST MITCHELL WITH ANYTHING? Gold and Disney knew that Mitchell & Eisner were the Bobsey Twins from the beginning. That's why they resigned from the Disney Board, supposedly. They didn't see any change happening internally. So, three years later, when they have the mechanism to lead an outside revolt they sit on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. To me that's not an exercise in discretion, that's just being chickenshit.
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