Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:49:46 -0700 
From:  "Ross A. Smith" <rosssmith@charter.net> 
 
An interesting story in Forbes (9-4 p 162) discussing GM and GMAC bonds now being near junk status yielding 7.5 percent to maturity (in 5 or 6 years), in which the author described GM as "the largest company in what seems to be a dying U.S. industry ..." -- incredible is it not?

    Who would have thought it would come to this? What is the ultimate function of unions if they must bear some responsibility for what has happened to GM and Ford especially -- as well as AA, UAL, TWA, etc., for example, not that the executives of these companies have not been responsible for their company's own precarious situations or outright demise. The local Toyota dealer has called three times since my son bought his new Prius hybrid in late June to ask about satisfaction. What a truly remarkable automobile it is!

    And look what has happened to Big Steel and Bessie -- I remember back when I was a board marker on the stock exchange when GM, X, and BS were in the 30 industrials and Ford was family held and wasn't even traded back then. Now where are they -- gone or going, going .... it is truly remarkable how capitalism emulates the natural process of survival of the fittest -- perhaps this is why it works so well -- and where government bodies like public schools just keep getting more and more incapable and costly, but stay around forever being funded on the backs of lowly taxpayers, long beyond their time.

    And so it is on the bayfront on a sunny and calm August evening. Citizens in two local cities here on the coast have asked me to help them (secede) from the dysfunctional Lincoln County School District, and I have agreed to provide whatever financial expertise I can. They feel they have a real chance as they would not be the first to do so. Could this be the beginning of something really big?

                -- SOB