I tuned in to the radio news this morning in the middle of a long list of school closings. Odd, I thought, for so many to be closed on such a nice day. And then I realized they weren't schools.
They were GM plants!
Yes, the once mighty king of the car companies has crumpled and fallen to its knees. GM has been removed from the Dow Jones Industrials, and it's stock is listed at 75 cents a share. That's what decades of systematic mismanagement combined with a big recession will do to a company.
GM will come back, they have loans enough to restructure and they'll probably emerge from bankruptcy court smaller and leaner...giving them a sort of new lease on life. If there were no government bailout, we'd be hearing about the liquidation of the company, so I guess they lucked out this time.
Looks like Chrysler has a second lease as well, although their managers better ditch the "Learn German" CD's they have been listening to in their cars and switch to Italian.
It's times like these that make me glad that I work for Ford. Whether through luck or good planning, our management got loans to get us through this back when banks were still loaning money. Remember those days?
1 comment:
I like Chrysler and GM's new TV ads. One says, 'The only chapter we're thinking about is chapter one.'
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