Ouch. I can’t imagine how Chrysler can survive this as a stand-alone company.
Chrysler U.S. December sales drop 53% – MarketWatch
Chrysler LLC said Monday that U.S. December sales fell 53% to 89,813 vehicles from 191,423 a year ago.
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This is what I’ve been saying about the Michigan economy. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.
The city of Ann Arbor is, if not reeling, pretty darn worried about the University of Michigan’s recent purchase of the Pfizer property there, and the impact on Ann Arbor’s property tax base. See Arbor Update for an extensive discussion of the issue. Let’s deal with the problem at the source: let’s eliminate the tax exemptions for universities. Whatever the original logic of the policy, it makes little sense in a world where the U of M has a $7 billion endowment, and it builds in a set of perverse incentives for distorted cost accounting. Apparently it would require amending the Michigan Constitution, which can be done by a legislative supermajority or by proposition: can anyone fill in the details? This anthem to positive thinking from the BGP LJ group site — a good place for “nontraditional” reporting on the travails of Ann Arbor’s own. Borders group employees We aren’t Leo and Kate, that’s for sure, those are probably our customers, Leo dies, and leaves us, as he sinks in the icy void of ‘we don’t have it, and no we can’t order it in the store, and maybe you can get it from borders.com but we really can’t see anything about that it is a seperate business, I wish we could help you with it in the store, but it is down, or so slow as to be practically down from the perspective of the bookseller’. Since the Chronicle’s comment policy rather perversely prevents them from allowing comments on articles like this which are of obvious local interest, let me say here, thank you Borders Group, for your efforts in destroying 96% of your market capitalization in the last year. If there is a way to save Borders, surely it is to cut out all the CDs, to cut out all the ancillary products, to cut out international operations, and to focus on being a full-service bookstore in the US. Amazingly, Foresee results still list Borders and Barnes and Noble as global leaders in customer satisfaction, and Borders still has great bookstore locations in most major US cities. Build on what you have.
After spending too much time posting grouchy comments to ArborUpdate and the Ann Arbor Chronicle, I am moving some of my Ann Arbor commentary here, in the hope that this will prove a better venue for contrarian thinking about the city that is, for better or worse, my lifelong home. In an otherwise intelligent and interesting overview of the latest doings at the Ann Arbor Chronicle, The Ann Arbor Chronicle » Fourth Monthly Milestone Message Two nuggets jumped out at me. First, this “inside the bubble” perspective:
This is an interesting spin on hyperlocal reporting. While the AAC is using Twitter-equipped local drivers to gather some news outside city limits, “All the News That We Can Walk To” doesn’t have quite the same zing as “All The News That’s Fit to Print.” The second item that caught my attention: “with an economy that isn’t showing strong signs of recovery yet.” As I observed in my comment, I don’t see any signs of recovery yet. I hope we’re not all succumbing to happy thinking. Where I weigh in on the need for a more hardy midwestern attitude towards snow removal. The Ann Arbor Chronicle » Column: Ann Arbor Now 0-16 Important thread over at ArborUpdate as a cabal* of tax-and-spend advocates are working to lay the ground work for an Ann Arbor city income tax as a replacement for the property tax from the Pfizer facility recently bought by the untaxed plutocrats at U of M. An ill-timed attempt to broaden the city tax base, this will likely be divisive and, in the end, either ineffective (it won’t be passed) or counterproductive (it will be passed, but will drive new job creation out of Ann Arbor to the townships. *Irony alert: while there is plainly some behind-the-scenes politicking and organization among the advocates in this thread, the term “cabal” is, of course, a joking exaggeration.
Asprin was important to me because he was a very successful SF writer from my home town. I enjoyed the first few books in the THIEVES WORLD and MYTH series. Too bad his life and career was cut short. |
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