Michael Barone

How Detroit's Big Three Automakers Screwed Up

March 13, 2009 RSS Feed Print

By Michael Barone, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

This lecture by Joseph B. White, Detroit bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal from 1998 to 2007, is as good a short account of the Detroit automakers' woes as I have seen. Definitely worth reading. White is now a senior editor for the Journal in Washington. The Detroit bureau, by the way, once upon a time was one of the Journal's major incubators of talent. Norman Pearlstine and Seth Lipsky worked in the Detroit bureau on their way to the top echelons of journalism. I remember meeting Pearlstine in the early 1970s when I was a law clerk in Detroit (and writing the first edition of what became The Almanac of American Politics).

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Tags:
Detroit,
car manufacturers

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THE BIG THREE SPENT 4 DECADES DISREGARDING THE FOREIGN AUTOMAKERS. AFTER ALL THEY WERE THE "BIG THREE". ALSO DISREGARDING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, THEY FAILED THE COUNTRY BY BEING ARROGANT, ABOVE THE AVERAGE WORKING PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT THEIR OFTEN INFERIOR PRODUCT. STARTING IN THE 1960'S WHEN COLLEGE STUDENTS SWITCHED TO MORE GAS EFFECIENT, REPAIR FREE, AND BETTER BUILT VEHICLES THE "BIG THREE" IGNORED THE NEW UPSTARTS. AFTER ALL THEY WERE THE "BIG THREE". MARKET SHARE BEGAN ERRODING WAY BACK THEN. THEN THE UNIONS BEGAN GETTING REWARDED FOR NOT STRIKING WITH EXCESSIVE BENEFITS. SLOWLY THE "BIG THREE" NO LONGER RAN THE COMPANIES BUT WERE CO-MANAGERS WITH THE UNIONS. I AM A LOYAL AMERICAN, FORMER COMBAT MARINE AND LOVE MY COUNTRY. tHESE THREE COMPANIES HAVE BEEN SELFINDULGENT, LIVING THE HIGH LIFE, DISREGARDING THOSE THAT BUY THERE CARS AND FAILED TO BECOME GOOD AMERICANS. IF I HAD MY WAY I WOULD PUT THEM UP AGAINST A WALL AND SHOOT THEM. WHAT THE HELL IT WORKS IN CHINA.

CHARLES B. SALWEN of FL 8:27AM May 12, 2009

I cant find the article, only the first paragraph.

Bill of GA 10:34AM March 16, 2009

I love this satire from Iowahawk: http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/11/lemon.html

Mike Kelley of MT 9:11PM March 15, 2009

Michael Barone

Michael Barone

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Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications—including the Economist and the New York Times.

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