Spot @#$% on. I graduated from biz school in '85. One of my ops professors consulted for boeing. he recommended i work there. i was in awe of their engineering and mfg prowess after interviewing in Seattle. I have sadly watched as all of that real-life expertise was subordinated to their stock price. In fact, one of the reasons I paid for a subscription to BIG was because of how accurately Matt's depiction of Boeing matched my own mental model.
Still reading Goliath. I think you were a bit too nice and understanding when it came to Wilson. He never gave a crap about democracy or the Constitution and demonstrated it over and over. The stuff with Bernays is another black mark. On the other hand, I knew some of the things Andrew Mellon and J. P. Morgan got up to but damn. You almost could not make that shit up in a movie. I swear some of those turn of the century "captains of industry" have a lot in common with Saturday morning cartoon villains.
Breaking up AT&T and the telecommunications ice jam that had blocked technological and consumer advances for decades led to an explosion of innovation that we enjoy now. Do that to Boeing.
We’ve heard plenty about Nikki Haley, but Caroline Kennedy was a Boeing director from 2017-2021. Other than political connections, what were her qualifications? Shame on people like her who should know the seriousness of their position and their inability to perform.
The thing not being mentioned is Airbus itself is the result of numerous domestic and cross border mergers of long forgotten European aircraft makers like Aerospatiale, Hawker Sideley, British Aircraft Company, Messerschmidt, Daimler Aerospace, etc since 1945. One of the only European aircraft companies to stay out of Airbus' wake of consolidation was family owned Dassault Aviation maker of the famed Mirage and Rafale fighter jets along with the super high end Falcon business jets.
BTW, the post 1945 consolidation of European Aviation into Airbus occurred under government as politically varied as Attlee socialists, Wilson Socialists, Heath Conservatives, French Gaullists, German Christian Democrats, German Social Democrats, French Mitterandian socialists, and British Thatcherites.
Somehow we also must address the lack of accountability not just at Boeing but in many other too big to fail companies. How many times do JP Morgan and the other banks get fined and no one gets sent home? Who got fired after the 2008 crisis? People run these companies and they should be responsible. The fish stinks at the head and when leaders (government too) aren’t held accountable, you cannot expect the average citizen to do what’s right either. As always, IMHO
Boeing is the lead on US ballistic missile defense (BMD) programs, with other companies "serving" as contractors: Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and smaller companies such as SAIC. That Boeing situation is a whole 'nother can of worms. I would strongly recommend separating out Boeing BMD out into a separate company, just to deal with BMD issues. THEN proceed with nationalizing - with the eventually goal of breaking up - the aerospace remainder of Boeing.
Matt, I have a newsletter that goes out to 20K people eager to take action on things like this. What would you recommend we ask for in semi-simple language if we call our representatives? I'd like to create a call script for my readers. This seems really, really important to me, and I've given them some of your actions in the past.
I believe the deferred prosecution agreement strategy would be a more likely success than our current dysfunctional Congress.
As for Boeing’s 40% revenue from the government, Boeing’s strategy with the Pentagon for years has been to make lowball bids on contracts offered on a fixed-price basis, inevitably forcing them to bear tremendous cost overruns. Boeing blamed this on shortages of parts and labor, but: In one quarter of 2022 Boeing posted a $3.3 billion loss while General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin enjoyed healthy profits, so….
With regard to the refueling tanker incident you mentioned, Boeing intentionally lowballed that bid to best Airbus in order to prevent Airbus from building production facilities in the United States. Airbus has since built a factory in Alabama and Boeing has overspent by many billions of dollars (I don’t have precise figures because five different programs are involved).
Airbus is partially owned by France, partially by Germany, partially by Britain, and partially by Spain, not just the French government. You are the second person I have read today who has said that France is the owner, or that it is a French company, when it belongs to a European consortium of governments and American private investors.
However, after the Alaskan Airlines door blew out, I was somewhat worried when my daughter flew back to Germany on a Boeing. Ironically, she flew right in the aisle seat next to the same door in her plane that was around where the door of the Alaskan Airlines plane was. I am grateful she is home safely. I am glad that I am flying back on an Airbus. I checked my ticket. It makes her lost suitcase, which is now being flown back to Europe never having made it to us in the USA seem like nothing, compared to sitting on a plane next to a door that blows out, or a window that sucks you out. Will anyone dare take off their seatbelt to go to the bathroom after this? Forget the flight attendant telling you to keep fastened in case of turbulence. The real reason is in case a door or window blows out, so you hopefully won't get sucked out of the plane to certain death. Perhaps it would be a good idea for people flying on a Boeing plane to spend money on a good parachute and have that as their carry on. I assumed before reading your article that the reason this happened is because Boeing has been cutting corners with safety and know it is cheaper to pay for lawsuits, funerals, then spend money to make their planes safe.
I hope you have influence to get your idea of the government taking over Boeing and breaking it up, to the White House. I will write the White House as well as my other politicians. Before flying to the US I had read a whistleblower type of article about how over stretched the Air traffic controllers are and how sleep deprived most are, and other things like drunk or high in some cases, while working, leading to them falling asleep and other things. I thought about that when there was the Japanese airline crash with the Coast guard plane. The story is not that the people got out safely because the flight crews were so great, but that these problems are happening at all. Thanks for taking this on. My nephew will read this as well. He is working on his PhD in sustainable aviation engineering. Breaking up this monopoly would probably bode well for him and his colleagues in the job market when they come out of school.
Sorry, there is no way the Federal government under this administration can be trusted to do anything better than a private company, especially something like Boeing. Maybe under the ESG and DEI crap this company has unqualified employees and managers??? Remove the hiring practices mandated on government contractors and then let the "invisible hand" be the guide to better and safer products.
Where are the shareholders on this? Vanguard alone holds 15% of Boeing's stock. How could they and Fidelity and the other companies running ETFs, mutual funds and pension funds vote for a board without the needed expertise. More importantly how can we use market forces to provide some discipline to these companies in the way they vote their shares.
Spot @#$% on. I graduated from biz school in '85. One of my ops professors consulted for boeing. he recommended i work there. i was in awe of their engineering and mfg prowess after interviewing in Seattle. I have sadly watched as all of that real-life expertise was subordinated to their stock price. In fact, one of the reasons I paid for a subscription to BIG was because of how accurately Matt's depiction of Boeing matched my own mental model.
Still reading Goliath. I think you were a bit too nice and understanding when it came to Wilson. He never gave a crap about democracy or the Constitution and demonstrated it over and over. The stuff with Bernays is another black mark. On the other hand, I knew some of the things Andrew Mellon and J. P. Morgan got up to but damn. You almost could not make that shit up in a movie. I swear some of those turn of the century "captains of industry" have a lot in common with Saturday morning cartoon villains.
Breaking up AT&T and the telecommunications ice jam that had blocked technological and consumer advances for decades led to an explosion of innovation that we enjoy now. Do that to Boeing.
We’ve heard plenty about Nikki Haley, but Caroline Kennedy was a Boeing director from 2017-2021. Other than political connections, what were her qualifications? Shame on people like her who should know the seriousness of their position and their inability to perform.
The thing not being mentioned is Airbus itself is the result of numerous domestic and cross border mergers of long forgotten European aircraft makers like Aerospatiale, Hawker Sideley, British Aircraft Company, Messerschmidt, Daimler Aerospace, etc since 1945. One of the only European aircraft companies to stay out of Airbus' wake of consolidation was family owned Dassault Aviation maker of the famed Mirage and Rafale fighter jets along with the super high end Falcon business jets.
BTW, the post 1945 consolidation of European Aviation into Airbus occurred under government as politically varied as Attlee socialists, Wilson Socialists, Heath Conservatives, French Gaullists, German Christian Democrats, German Social Democrats, French Mitterandian socialists, and British Thatcherites.
Somehow we also must address the lack of accountability not just at Boeing but in many other too big to fail companies. How many times do JP Morgan and the other banks get fined and no one gets sent home? Who got fired after the 2008 crisis? People run these companies and they should be responsible. The fish stinks at the head and when leaders (government too) aren’t held accountable, you cannot expect the average citizen to do what’s right either. As always, IMHO
Boeing is the lead on US ballistic missile defense (BMD) programs, with other companies "serving" as contractors: Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and smaller companies such as SAIC. That Boeing situation is a whole 'nother can of worms. I would strongly recommend separating out Boeing BMD out into a separate company, just to deal with BMD issues. THEN proceed with nationalizing - with the eventually goal of breaking up - the aerospace remainder of Boeing.
Matt, I have a newsletter that goes out to 20K people eager to take action on things like this. What would you recommend we ask for in semi-simple language if we call our representatives? I'd like to create a call script for my readers. This seems really, really important to me, and I've given them some of your actions in the past.
"former diplomat and Presidential daughter Caroline Kennedy" ... She's *still* a diplomat; she's ambassador to Australia.
Don’t forget Condit’s replacement also resigned in disgrace. https://francinemckenna.com/2010/08/09/hp-hurd-deloitte-and-tone-at-the-top/
Damn, you are on fire!
I believe the deferred prosecution agreement strategy would be a more likely success than our current dysfunctional Congress.
As for Boeing’s 40% revenue from the government, Boeing’s strategy with the Pentagon for years has been to make lowball bids on contracts offered on a fixed-price basis, inevitably forcing them to bear tremendous cost overruns. Boeing blamed this on shortages of parts and labor, but: In one quarter of 2022 Boeing posted a $3.3 billion loss while General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin enjoyed healthy profits, so….
With regard to the refueling tanker incident you mentioned, Boeing intentionally lowballed that bid to best Airbus in order to prevent Airbus from building production facilities in the United States. Airbus has since built a factory in Alabama and Boeing has overspent by many billions of dollars (I don’t have precise figures because five different programs are involved).
Airbus is partially owned by France, partially by Germany, partially by Britain, and partially by Spain, not just the French government. You are the second person I have read today who has said that France is the owner, or that it is a French company, when it belongs to a European consortium of governments and American private investors.
https://simpleflying.com/europes-manufacturing-juggernaut-who-owns-airbus/
However, after the Alaskan Airlines door blew out, I was somewhat worried when my daughter flew back to Germany on a Boeing. Ironically, she flew right in the aisle seat next to the same door in her plane that was around where the door of the Alaskan Airlines plane was. I am grateful she is home safely. I am glad that I am flying back on an Airbus. I checked my ticket. It makes her lost suitcase, which is now being flown back to Europe never having made it to us in the USA seem like nothing, compared to sitting on a plane next to a door that blows out, or a window that sucks you out. Will anyone dare take off their seatbelt to go to the bathroom after this? Forget the flight attendant telling you to keep fastened in case of turbulence. The real reason is in case a door or window blows out, so you hopefully won't get sucked out of the plane to certain death. Perhaps it would be a good idea for people flying on a Boeing plane to spend money on a good parachute and have that as their carry on. I assumed before reading your article that the reason this happened is because Boeing has been cutting corners with safety and know it is cheaper to pay for lawsuits, funerals, then spend money to make their planes safe.
I hope you have influence to get your idea of the government taking over Boeing and breaking it up, to the White House. I will write the White House as well as my other politicians. Before flying to the US I had read a whistleblower type of article about how over stretched the Air traffic controllers are and how sleep deprived most are, and other things like drunk or high in some cases, while working, leading to them falling asleep and other things. I thought about that when there was the Japanese airline crash with the Coast guard plane. The story is not that the people got out safely because the flight crews were so great, but that these problems are happening at all. Thanks for taking this on. My nephew will read this as well. He is working on his PhD in sustainable aviation engineering. Breaking up this monopoly would probably bode well for him and his colleagues in the job market when they come out of school.
Sorry, there is no way the Federal government under this administration can be trusted to do anything better than a private company, especially something like Boeing. Maybe under the ESG and DEI crap this company has unqualified employees and managers??? Remove the hiring practices mandated on government contractors and then let the "invisible hand" be the guide to better and safer products.
Great minds think alike… It will be very interesting to see what momentum accrues to this idea.
Where are the shareholders on this? Vanguard alone holds 15% of Boeing's stock. How could they and Fidelity and the other companies running ETFs, mutual funds and pension funds vote for a board without the needed expertise. More importantly how can we use market forces to provide some discipline to these companies in the way they vote their shares.