GM employees at the Arlington TX plant went on strike this week.  Please read this article.  Now having read the article, is their goal realistic?

History of Unions

Unions organized against Ford for good reason

Taft Hartley Act

National Labor Relations Board

National Right to Work Law

National Right to Work Committee

And the final result of al lthis in one of the most unionized states in the USA, which has had a net  loss of jobs

Michigan.gov

What we have here is a 1950s idea of union shop employment running smack dab into globalization, what will be the result?

If you read all these sites and listen in class you will have completed a better than average labor relations class

Suzanne Fields wonders what is going on in supposedly top notch universities.  Seems the students are pretty ignorant of civics and such.  The other day in class i asked wy Barbara Boxer would oppose expensing stock options.  That discussion went nowhere as no one knew who Barbara Boxer,  US Senator from California, was.

You will certainly be expected to reflect a knowledge of current events , both economic and civic on the job. That is the point of the blog, so let’s get reading here.

Robert Novak ;points out that Greenspan realizes embracing the left while working for four Republicans is likely to get good press in Washington.  Indeed I mentioned that Newsweek put him on the cover for criticizing Bush, both of them in fact.  Novak wonders if Greenspan deceived all four Republicans, an interesting column.

Lauren Upton is the South Carolina teen who got both brain and tongue tied in a national beauty contest. If you haven’t seen this mish mosh on You Tube, a description is in the hyperlink. Turns out though, she will be joining the Trump Modeling Agency and getting big bucks for pursuing her real dream, a modeling career. 

We are attempting to attract students to our new campus.  One problem is the perceived lack of advantage in a college education.  We are told that students think they will become NBA players, rap stars, or in this case, well paid models.  The message of course is that you are what you are not you are what you know.  But then no doubt modeling in far away places is more fun than calculating depreciation.  But I think the latter is a better platform to launch a life long career.

If you have a constructive idea on how we should pitch a college education be sure to post it here, we’d love to hear from you.

An EU Court has upheld a ruling that MSFT should pay  a $690M fine.  The rub is that MSFT intentionally designed windows so that its media applications do not work with other vendor software. Clearly this is a bit of European jealousy at how MSFT dominates the computer world, Europe where are you?  The writer poses an interesting question.  If that is true of MSFT, what about Apple?  The iPod and iTunes exclude Sansa et al.  Could Apple be hit with the same sort of fine and ruling?  Sounds likely to me.

New readers will  learn that I enjoy Jerry Flint’s obervations about the auto industry.  Jerry has been writing about the auto industry since the 1950s and brings sage experience to the table.

Again in managerial accouting we discussed strategy and long range planning reflected in budgets.  We also discussed how different firms appeal to customers with different strategies, Toyota with say quality and Volvo with safety.  Flint in his article notes that Ford

is giving up its successful rear wheel drive cars to the public and selling them as fleet vehicles.

going the wrong way with high powered mustangs, see my previous post about the Demon

apparently is going to kill Mercury forcing Ford and Lincoln dealers under one roof

not expanding Focus

I have previously posted articles suggesting that Ford stock is essentially worthless when factoring in the legacy costs.  Without new products this may become fact.  I frankly suspect that Ford will end up as a light truck manufacturer, period. And that may only happen if they are taken over by someone else, likea  big truck manufacturer.

Those of you looking for a book to review might consider Execution, the Art of Getting Things Done. The authors argue that there are lots of books on strategy but finally someone has to get something done, and that is execution.

Nardelli is assembling a new team at Chrysler.  But as readers comment to the article, are these older guys what Chrysler really needs?  And will these big egos really be able to work together and get anything accomplished? 

I would agree. Chrysler had a pretty good head start on where they needed to be in the 1990s after Iacoca worked on the problem. Specifically their partnership with Mitsubishi produced the respected 2.2 L turbo four, gee with gas back at $2.75 what happened to that idea?  Instead Chrysler revived the 5.7 L hemi engine in 5,000 pound trucks and the 4,000 pound Chrylser 300 and Dodge Charger. 

I would say Chrysler needs to

Once and for all improve their dealerships which have never been equal to Ford or GM or anyone else in terms of esthetics or personnel.

Get serious about small cars with quality. Chrysler is famous for great engines in cars that literally fall apart with doors that don’t shut adn rattles aplenty. Like Toyota they need to work with suppliers to improve the tactile feel of switches et al, not drive the suppliers out of business with more low cost demands. Stop bulding cheap small throw away cars like the NEON. A sign in a Honda dealership compared five year car values and NEON was dead last in a field of a dozen.  Tear apart a BMW Mini or a Mazda 3 series and learn what constitutes a quality small car. 

Produce the Dodge Demon as a symbol of what the new Chrysler might do.  Tell the world you can compete with Miata, and that a 500 bhp Corvette is not what America needs now.

Most world cars have been a bust, will the Dodge Journey be any different?  Good luck guys, but I think this is the last chance for Chrysler. 

On Monday in Managerial Accounting we discussed the concept of product cost versus period cost.

Apple’s new Nano apparently benefits from negotiated lower costs  This will lower cost per unit which will fatten Apple’s ever growing bottom line, but that is what managerial accounting is all about.  Click and read the article to see how Apple did it.

Alan Greenspan’s book The Age of Turbulence is out.  Since he takes Bush to task and remarked that Clinton absorbed economic data like a sponge, he is of course featured on the cover of Newsweek.

Here is an article in Portfolio.com that takes a different view. The author points out that the FED was created to prevent calamity,not put the fire out afterwards.  You might go back and read my previous post about the Panic of 1907 which lead to the creation of the current FED in 1913.

As Jim Rogers observes, the FED Chair is a player but no longer THE Player. Now futures markets and other countries as well as currency levels play a big part in what the FED can realistically do.

Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates and the economy expanded.  Lyndon Johnson and Reagan continued the idea. Today the DOW is over 13,000.  Charlie Rangel has other ideas however. Click the hyperlink to read about it.  Some of you are taking the tax class.  What direction do you think tax rates should take.