Some thoughts on America’s growing wealth disparity, why the reported looming bankruptcy of Envision Healthcare merits consideration for the return of guillotines, and the NHTSA’s demand for the recall of 67 million airbags manufactured by Tennessee-based ARC Automotive is potentially a very, very, big deal.
The UAW increasingly and deservedly commands little respect, even among its own members. The insulting and instantly rejected contract the union negotiated for workers at a suburban Toledo battery plant is an example of the UAW better serving management interests.
If Detroit’s economic history is a guide, the closing of Nordstrom’s massive department store in downtown San Francisco possibly means San Francisco has reached the point of no return. The two cities already share much in common.
Some thoughts on GM CEO Mary Barra’s 2022 compensation and why communist China is mighty proud of the city council in Marshall, Michigan.
The City Council of Marshall in rural Michigan on Monday is scheduled to vote whether to uphold or reject a decision by a Joint Planning Commission to deny a rezoning request that would have allowed Ford Motor Co. to build a lithium battery plant on fertile farmland. A Michigan economic development person is on record as saying it doesn’t matter what the elected officials decide, the plant will get built.
So much for all of Ford’s talk about “building trust” with the communities where it operates.
Social media was aghast last week as leaked videos of Zoom calls revealed the lack of empathy the CEOs of MillerKnoll and Clearlink showed their employees. Observers uniformly blamed the disparity of CEO pay for the insensitivity, but research shows that lack of empathy is among the psychopathic traits that land CEOs their corner offices.
It’s unimaginable that anyone could still have faith in the Biden Administration’s accelerated plans to force Americans to buy electric vehicles after reading today’s extraordinary report by CNBC auto writer Michael Wayland revealing just how little thought and preparation has gone into the conversion.
Wayland also reveals that when it comes to ensuring that first responders are properly trained to extinguish EV fires, GM is the far more responsible company.
The EPA’s proposal last week effectively requiring that electric vehicles comprise more than 60 percent of U.S. auto sales by the end of the decade made clear that America’s EV conversion isn’t being overseen by competent and experienced bureaucrats. That shouldn’t come as a surprise: Michael Regan, the head of the EPA, has never run a business.
America was a deeply divided country in the early to mid-70s, and U.S. marketers created brilliant advertising promoting harmony and laughter. America is again divided, but today’s marketers have agendas and seek to fan the flames of anger and discontent. Alissa Heinerscheid, who oversees marketing at Bud Light, is responsible for the latest furor, which sadly will likely blow over in short order.
I’d welcome making an example of Bud Light.
Given that President Biden hailed Ford as one of America’s exemplary companies in his State of the Union Address last year and the entrenched media promotes Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as a worthy presidential candidate, the controversial relationship between Blue Oval and “Big Gretch” is of national interest, particularly when China factors heavily into the equation.
A recent Ford announcement and more disclosures about China’s planned electric battery plants in the Great Lakes state serve as warnings of the economic and national security dangers if Whitmer ever occupied the White House.