neutrino23

PIMCO's Bill Gross Sees a Bleak Future

So what is wrong with focusing on middle class wager earners? Seems like it would be good for business if buying power increases.

Similarly with regulation, I'm happy to see more regulation to the extent that it leads to transparency and honesty. Excessive deregulation is part of the reason we're in this mess. I'd like to know that if something is rated AAA that really means something. I'd like to know that if a company publishes earnings statements that those are close to realistic.

Just How Sensitive Is the Economy to the Auto Industry?

As Fcountry points out, there does not seem to be a level playing field in the global economy. All this talk about free trade is a bunch of hooey. We have far lower tariffs than our trading partners. I'm all in favor of reciprocity. Let's have free trade but let's level the playing field with appropriate tariffs. It worked for us for several hundred years till Reagan cut tariffs drastically. Look how well that worked for us.

Chevy Volt: Can It Survive GM?

The comparison to the refrigerator is clearly wrong. Refrigerators use about 2 kWH a day. That's good for ten miles.
Regardless, the Volt is a nice idea and I hope it works out for GM. The problem is trying to launch a totally new technology like this. Toyota didn't come out with the current Prius in one step. They went through several generations gaining experience along the way. GM should have been building something like this for years and selling maybe 5,000 or so a year to gain experience and to learn how to cut costs.

The Japanese companies do have some benefit in that Japan has a national health insurance, however, Toyota provides health insurance to their workers beyond that supplied by the national plan so it is not a cut and dried issue.