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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
The criminalization-of-business lottery
The owners of Long Term Capital Management may have been the earliest winners in the most recent era of what Larry Ribstein has coined the criminalization-of-business lottery. On the other hand, Jamie Olis may have been the earliest big...
"That's just not us"
While General Motors is making its case in Congress for an $18 billion bailout (didn't GM need "just" $12 billion last week?), it's trying to cut corners in other areas, such as its endorsement deal with Tiger Woods that...
Ghosts of Enron
Ken Lay was prosecuted to death for promoting Enron even though he had a reasonable basis for believing that what he was saying about his company was true. Fast forward a couple of years. Yesterday, the W$J reported (NYTimes...
Be careful, Mr. Wagoner
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner made some interesting public comments this past week in Dallas regarding the besieged automaker's bankruptcy prospects: "Under any scenario we can imagine, our financial position, or cash position, will remain robust through the rest...
Public financing of a private boondoggle
The WSJ's Holman Jenkins splashes some cold water on the suggestion that General Motors' Volt automobile will have much of a positive impact either environmentally or on GM's bottom line: At best, the Volt will be an affluent family's...
The Incarceration Nation
Following on this post from yesterday on a troubling growth sector in the burgeoning prison industry, Doug Berman points to this daunting Boston Review piece by Glenn C. Loury, the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences in the...
What's going on at Ford?
While most of the auto industry news of late has been the hubbub over Kirk Kerkorkian bailing out on his investment in General Motors, my sense is that the more interesting (or pathetic) snippet is this one reporting that Ford...
Kerkorian's deal for GM
Kirk Kerkorian's proposed deal to save General Motors came up just before the holiday weekend, so analysis of the proposal has been sparse to date (previous posts on GM's Enronesque experience are here). Last Friday, Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. -- the...
Ford and that pesky "B" word
Although somewhat lower on the radar screen than General Motors' more well-publicized troubles, Ford Motor Co. is reeling today after Fitch Ratings downgraded the company's credit rating (see also here) two notches to the highly-speculative single-B-plus level while analyzing how...
Toyota v. GM, Texas style
Texas is a big business battlefield in the automobile wars, and this excellent Lee Hawkins Jr. - Norihiko Shirouzu/WSJ ($) article reviews the competive advantages that Toyota Motor Corp. enjoys in building trucks in its new San Antonio manufacturing facility...
Ross Perot, Jr. v. Hughes & Luce
One of the enduring law firm-client relationships of the past generation in Texas has been that between the family of Dallas billionaire Ross Perot and the Dallas-based firm of Hughes & Luce, LLP. The firm long represented Perot personally and...
The real presumption in the Lay-Skilling case
Although the key presumption in the criminal trial of former key Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling is supposed to be that the men are innocent of the charges levied against them, a far different presumption is turning out...
Houston well-represented in the Fortune 500
Fortune magazine has just published its annual Fortune 500 list of America's largest public companies, and ExxonMobil again leads the pack. ConocoPhillips weighs in as Houston's largest public company at number six on the Fortune 500. Here is the top...
When even Tiger can't help
The Enronesque experience of General Motors has been a common topic on this blog, but you know it's gotten bad for the automaker when even Tiger Woods's endorsement appeal cannot bolster one of the company's brands. This John O'Dell/LA Times...
GM's Enronesque slide continues
Geez, talk about a bad day at the office. Embattled General Motors (prior posts here) conceded in its delayed regulatory filings filed yesterday that it had found "material weaknesses" or "significant deficiencies" in the company's accounting controls, and that the...
GM's Enronesque experience continues
This Floyd Norris/NY Times article reports that General Motors' descent toward what is increasingly looking like an inevitable reorganization is looking absolutely Enronesque: There was a time when General Motors was seen as the paragon of financial quality. Its bonds...
Thinking about GM
These posts over the past year have chronicled General Motors' Enronesque slide toward what is increasingly appearing to be an inevitable reorganization case under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. That probable fate was reinforced this past week when...
More daunting news for GM
This earlier post on General Motors' descent into a possible (probable?) bankruptcy case speculated that car buyers would be relunctant to make a long-term purchase of an asset from a bankrupt company. Related posts on GM's financial problems are here....
More on GM and the "B" word
With the filing of the Calpine chapter 11 case, the word "bankruptcy" is in the news again and it is increasingly being associated with the name "General Motors." Prior posts on the risk of GM's insolvency are here. GM shares...
The myth of the government cure-all
Sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the muddled thinking that is passed off as keen economic insight in much of the mainstream media. My thoughts along these lines started last week with this David Ignatius/Washington Post op-ed in...
Avoiding GM's Enronesque experience
General Motors' seemingly intractable descent into chapter 11 has been a common subject here, so I took notice of this Sean Gregory/Time magazine article that explores the following question: why are the U.S. manufacturing plants of foreign automakers thriving while...
Checking in on GM's Enronesque experience
Following up on posts here and here from last week, General Motors' seemingly relentless descent into a formal reorganization under chapter 11 continued yesterday as its share price fell to its lowest closing since December, 1991. Previous posts on GM's...
Are the WaPo editors reading Clear Thinkers?
On the heels of yesterday's post regarding General Motors' Enronesque experience, the Washington Post business section leads with this article today that links General Motors and the "b word" in the same headline, and includes the following tidbit of information:...
GM's Enronesque experience continues
Already under the pressure of an SEC investigation into its accounting, beleagured automaker General Motors Corp. announced late yesterday -- after the close of New York Stock Exchange trading -- that it will restate financial results for 2001 by reducing...
The economics of deferred obligations
Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy wrote this interesting column over the weekend that includes excerpts from an old interview with business restructuring expert Steve Miller, who is currently managing the reorganization of Delphi as its CEO. The reorganization of Delphi...
Delphi finally tanks
In perhaps the least surprising business move of the year, Delphi Corp. and 38 of its U.S. subsidiaries filed chapter 11 reorganization cases today in an attempt to restructure its money-losing auto supply business and resolve over-priced union contracts. Delphi...
Meanwhile, in regard to another troubled business
Jerry Flint writes in his Forbes Backstreet Driver column that GM's problems are worse than they appear, and they appear to be pretty darn bad. Mr. Flint focuses on GM's tactical decisions, including a suggestion that the Pontiac and Buick...
John DeLorean, RIP
John DeLorean died yesterday at the age of 80 from the effects of a recent stroke. John Zachary DeLorean was one of the more interesting business characters of the past two decades. His famous stainless-steel sports car project collapsed in...
GM's big problem
Alan Murray's column today in the Wall Street Journal ($) reports on the subject of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner's speech tomorrow to the Chicago Economic Club. What do you think it would be? International trade barriers? GM's bonds being...
Perots hand reins of Perot Systems to next generation of management
In a surprise move, Plano, Texas-based Perot Systems Corp. announced Friday that Ross Perot Jr. had dropped CEO from his title at the Plano, Texas computer services firm and given up the founding family's operational control of the company. Peter...
Pitney Bowes battles America's broken health care finance system
This Wall Street Journal ($) article provides an excellent analysis of what Pitney Bowes -- the mailing service and equipment company -- learned regarding the question of why health costs keep rising relentlessly in America: A dysfunctional market creates few...
Accrual accounting = higher litigation risk
A wise old class action plaintiffs' lawyer once observed the following to me: "Accrual accounting is a particularly valuable annuity for the legal profession." A new study validates my friend's observation. This Wall Street Journal ($) article reports on a...
Holman Jenkins on Health Care Finance
Holman W. Jenkins Jr. is a member of the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal and is the author of the weekly Business World column. He is one of America's most insightful thinkers and commentators on the political implications...
The Law of Unintended Consequences
In the aftermath of Enron's demise, Congressmen fell over themselves in self-righteous indignation proposing legislation that would ensure that such a debacle would never occur again. Not only does the nature of man ensure that another Enron debacle will occur,...
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