Why is jingoism normalized when it is in defense of labor?
US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
131–140 of 207 posts
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair. But it's not like US Steel has just been humming along for decades printing money. There are a lot of failure smells about it. Hundreds of thousands of people have been laid off at least once. Dozens of mills have been shut down.
Correct. But they seem to have sorted out many of the biggest issues. They could probably continue profitably as-is for the foreseeable future though, which is really the most you can hope for from a business.
While I actually agree with you personally that not everything should have to grow forever, a business that "just" delivers a consistent profit every year is considered a failure by those who expect YoY capital appreciation (at some multiple of the interest rate on a savings account), i.e. shareholders. Such businesses usually get sold to someone with a "growth" plan for them, which is usually some combo of combining overhead expense by merging it with another business, cost-cutting, as well as the more toxic short-term tricks such as selling all their owned land and leasing it back to goose profits for a few years. Oh, and share buybacks.
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#133We're bigger than US Steel. First sentence that raced to my mind when I saw this. Hyman Roth; legend.
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#134Will the NYSE ticker 'X' become free now?
Paging Elon Musk...
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's less clear that NUMMI failed to meet Toyota's goals for it.
Right, and that could be just as much a reflection of the fact that American workers are very different than Japanese workers. Also in a high-cost place like the Bay Area I can see how it would be hard to make a case to keep that particular plant, instead of an inland plant like 90% of foreign automaker US plants are. And once you decide yes, let's move production to Kentucky or whatever, so our employees' rent will…
GM was what failed.
Your argument about the Bay Area falls apart when we consider the Saturn plant in Tennessee.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a4536/4332298/
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/saturn-a-wealth-...
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Japan supplied sub-par metal for decades and lied about it. Aluminum, copper and steel. Something to think about next time you get anywhere near a car, train, airplane, skyscraper, or bridge. https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/16/news/companies/kobe-steel-s...
I hoped someone would have additional data to add, thanks! Is a scandal at one company evidence for the entire industry in a country? Is there similar information about other Japanese companies? What about the industry at large? The prevailing sentiment is that Chinese steel has similar issues.
Good questions - I certainly hope not!
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. But they seem to have sorted out many of the biggest issues. They could probably continue profitably as-is for the foreseeable future though, which is really the most you can hope for from a business.
While I actually agree with you personally that not everything should have to grow forever, a business that "just" delivers a consistent profit every year is considered a failure by those who expect YoY capital appreciation (at some multiple of the interest rate on a savings account), i.e. shareholders. Such businesses usually get sold to someone with a "growth" plan for them, which is usually some combo of combining…
I'm sure that's true for many shareholders; anecdotally I'm a very happy US Steel shareholder (especially after today!).
There are many folks who are long-term-value oriented who would much rather own a healthy and sustainable business than something that looks good short-term but is getting IBM'ed long-term. Case in point: Warren Buffett and See's Candy.
I like the steady accumulation of equity or dividends paid out to me. The business doesn't need to go to the moon for that to happen.
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
an easy response is "Our government no longer believes steel is critical to our national security" Cant find mention of US steel being sold, perhaps this? > In 1984, the federal government prevented U.S. Steel from acquiring National Steel, and political pressure from the United States Congress, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW), forced the company to abandon plans to import British Steel Corporation slabs htt…
The country that will acquire is also important in this equation. Russians were blocked from buying Oregon steel for example. Japan is more like a protectorate of the US than a fully independent country post WW2, with specific articles of the constitution that block army sizes, specific military equipment, agreements for maintenance of permanent US bases and troops in the country etc. Even when recently they decided…
True that there is no more loyal ally than Japan aside from perhaps Canada. Kind of miraculous that that happened, honestly, considering that the phase of our relationship immediately before this was "fighting to the death" followed by "atomic bomb dropping" -- but I'm grateful that somehow it has come to be an enduring friendship both politically and really culturally as well.
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. But they seem to have sorted out many of the biggest issues. They could probably continue profitably as-is for the foreseeable future though, which is really the most you can hope for from a business.
While I actually agree with you personally that not everything should have to grow forever, a business that "just" delivers a consistent profit every year is considered a failure by those who expect YoY capital appreciation (at some multiple of the interest rate on a savings account), i.e. shareholders. Such businesses usually get sold to someone with a "growth" plan for them, which is usually some combo of combining…
> While I actually agree with you personally that not everything should have to grow forever
nothing should have to grow forever.
especially not amounts of natural resources, or basic necessities like food and beverages.
Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We remained open throughout this process to working with U.S. Steel to keep this iconic American company domestically owned and operated, but instead it chose to push aside the concerns of its dedicated workforce and sell to a foreign-owned company ... for more than twice as much! He kinda left the part out.
> He kinda left the part out. It's irrelevant because the workers won't see a penny of any of it. You kinda left that part out.
Why would that matter to the workers? They'll still get the same exorbitant salary that they negotiated. They could have invested in their employer just like anyone else.