When it comes to the cars, Volvo will probably survive. They make pretty good cars in an internatonal comparison and will get new owners of one kind or the other.
SAAB on the other hand is probably the shittiest auto manufacturer outside North America. There is really nothing worth saving in that company, except the technology portfolio (and even there SAAB has mainly gone for stupid ethanol). Currently the government is playing its part in the theater with the Koenigsegg front, which seems interested solely in plundering the public coffers, and the government only interested in not paying out any money to a doomed company or corporate plunderers, while neither being seen as the one which gave SAAB the mercy bullet.
And after all, Sweden does have to much of its economy focused on vehicle manufacturing (only Slovakia and Germany ahve more). Even if SAAB goes down, we'll still have Volvo PV, Volvo Trucks and Scania Trucks. Those truck companies are world class. The auto companies are not.
In a globalized economy with free capital flows we must play to our absolute advantages, not waste energy on saving industries were we won't be number one. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
And banks are special, but Carnegie was and is the typical kind of noxious bank that should be regulated away.
Carnegie Investment Bank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carnegie Investment Bank AB is a Swedish company which specialises in stockbroking, investment banking and asset management.
Remember the crucial notion of the Glass-Steagall Act
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, bankers and brokers were sometimes indistinguishable. Then, in the Great Depression after 1929, Congress examined the mixing of the "commercial" and "investment" banking industries that occurred in the 1920s. Hearings revealed conflicts of interest and fraud in some banking institutions' securities activities. A formidable barrier to the mixing of these activities was then set up by the Glass Steagall Act.
While stockholders were wiped out, did not managment by and large stay? As I remember it, the CEO was the only one who had to go and he was replaced by his right hand. So they saved the managment and the careers of the upper echelon in the company. Probably people they had good relations to as this was the go-to bank for privatisations.
Anyway, my critique was mainly centered on handling this crises in a way that did not show any realisation of the systematic problems. Thus, I do not think any such action should be expected during the swedish presidency. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
Also, Saab was erratic and then GM made it crappy.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
Anyway, I think that they could do OK on a model like Mini, by making one car and putting some effort in it instead of putting their brand on different crappy GM platforms.
In the car industry someone must be culled, and SAAB is a prime candidate. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
What Saab would need to do is look on the long term and start developing its own customised platform again instead of making somewhat fancier Opel Vectras and Insignias with poor finishing.
Besides, Saab doesn't have the capacity that needs to be cut. They only make 100,000 cars a year, and that's a target they could stick to, getting profitability by better pricing for cars with a higher standard.
100.000 cars is not enough at the prices they take today. They need 150.000-200.000 and they won't get that. The alternative is raising prices, but there's no way anyone would choose a SAAB when they could get a Lexus, BMW or Mercedes for the same price. No way.
There is a huge global overcapacity and competition is razorsharp. The herd will be culled. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
