Red Horse

I wonder what percentage of Mondeo sales are the wagon?? I see enough BMW/MB "station wagons" running around in this area that I would think there would be a good market for these-in particular now that Hackett has declared the "3 box sedan" a dead vehicle.

Well a lot can happen between now and '24. But if you believe in "On job training", here is a person with experience as a governor-and in my opinion I'll take experience as a governor any day over some hack who spent his/her political service in congress-or in the case of Elizabeth Warren-a stint teaching a course at Harvard. And as you say, she has proven to be a tough lady as our UN ambassador. Given the fact that the power of the female vote will be pushed, she will be a good bet.

A most interesting read with an unexpected ending . The author is Joel Ross, Principal, Citadel Realty Advisors, 15 West 36th Street, NYC, NY. Mr. Ross publishes the Ross Rant, a $300 per year subscription newsletter, which makes predictions based upon economic data. Ross Rant July 29 2018 To understand the trade war with China, you need to understand that China at the moment is having a major slowdown economically. The stock market is down 25%. Many banks are being bailed out by the government. Everything and everyone in China is way over levered, and the economy is therefore in a high risk position which the government was trying to fix. The trade war got in the way, forcing the government to subsidize the smaller banks. China is loaning tens of billions to countries like Pakistan to build ports and railroads and infrastructure. Problem is, these countries have zero possible way to ever repay these loans. So now they are faced with stopping the projects or asking the IMF to bail them out. It is a mess for China and the countries who took the loans. There is starting to be pushback against China for this. So, Trump’s timing to go after China is exactly right. They are in a weakened position right now. Ignore all the hype about how they could sell their $1.4 trillion of US Treasuries —to who??? Not going to happen. The whole world agrees China violates every rule on trade and steals IP. Trump is just the only one who is willing to take them on, with the rest of the world cheering him on from the sidelines. Now it appears the EU is willing to cooperate with Trump and revise the WTO and to push China on IP and other trade violations. Something they were never willing to do before. Can 4% GDP growth continue? Maybe. But 3.5% would be great. Remember the left, and the press saying in 2016 and early 2017, 2% was the new normal maximum, and the US was at its peak and we faced stagflation, economic decline, etc. 2% was the accepted number as what good growth would be. Larry Summers was right out there saying 4% was impossible. Some in the mainstream media and Wall St said getting above 2% was pure fantasy, and Trump was dreaming. So, as I have said often, ignore the talking heads, and the mainstream media. They all have an agenda. Almost none are objective. The tax bill and deregulation was a huge boost. The left just can’t admit it. There are even stories now in the press that 4% is really a bad thing??? 4% is great, it may not be 4% next quarter, but 3.5% would be terrific. If Trump really does a deal with the EU, Mexico and Canada, and then Japan, 3.5%, or better, is very realistic. Capital expenditures will ramp up further once the tariff issues subside and that uncertainty goes away. They say exports were hyped due to pending tariffs, but to do that, inventories were drawn down, so this quarter inventories will be rebuilt, pushing up GDP growth upward. The press does not want you to believe it because it means the Republicans win in November, so they will try to convince you otherwise. Even my very liberal economist friends admit privately to me that the economy is going to be booming for at least 6 more quarters. The key is to reelect Republicans to control Congress. Keep in mind Maxine Waters is chair of the finance committee if the Dems get control, and Nancy is speaker. Think about that combo, and the ability to get budgets and more tax reform done. It should drive you to the polls and to take all your friends with you to vote. What a trade: Trump, and 4% GDP, or Maxine Waters. If you want to understand Russia, and the whole gas pipeline issue--- gas and oil is 52% of Russia’s GDP. The GDP of Russia is slightly smaller than NY State, around $1.5 trillion. GDP per capita is only $8,748 in 2017. Far lower than in 2013. We heard this first hand when I was in Russia, but now the stats show it to be true. The standard of living in Russia is declining. 20% of the Russian budget goes to weapons and the army. So Trump is right - how can Germany build a new gas pipeline with Russia which will fund more weapons spending, when they are supposedly having sanctions because of weapons and Crimea. It is nuts. The gas line will provide Russia billions of new cash flow for weapons which are aimed at ----Germany. But Merkel also thought letting in over 1 million Muslims was also a great idea until the voters rebelled, and the rest of the EU voted right wing in response. Reality is Russia is now in economic decline due to lower oil prices and corruption. Defense spending was reduced this year. So what does Merkel want to do – build the pipeline to pay them more badly needed money. Trump is not out of line for his comments. The pipeline is the same as Obama paying Iran $150 billion just as their economy was tanking. Truth is Russia cannot afford to wage a real war in Europe now that Trump has forced NATO to materially up spending and readiness. If Obama was still in power Putin could take over Baltic states and have only a few sanctions because under Obama NATO was militarily unable to react. That was why Putin felt he could go into Crimea with no big problem. Putin also knew he could continue his cyber war with no real consequences under Obama. Don’t believe the crap about Trump favors Putin, or they have something on him. It is more lefty nonsense. The US pays 71% of NATO costs. Germany pays less than 1.2% of their GDP for their own defense. We pay far more for Germany’s defense than Germany does, and they can afford to pay. Trump is right for making this a major issue. So in 2018, NATO and the US are upping spending on defense and Russia cannot keep up. Russia is forced to reduce spending because oil prices did not rise as much as Putin needed. Under Obama US defense spending went down from 2013 on, and Russia went up a lot, and China even more. Obama left us in very bad and weak shape vs our main adversaries. It was massive US defense spending by Reagan vs Russia, that won the cold war. The story now is very similar vs Russia and Iran. The best way to win a war is to far out spend the bad guys until they fold with no shots being fired. A strong offensive capability and willingness to use it (missiles fired at Syria) is the best defense. Putin and Xi got the message. Putin blew it by favoring Trump. The last thing he wanted was a much stronger US military and stronger, capable NATO. Iran’s GDP is $439 billion, less than that of 14 states. And now it is tanking. Obama gave them $150 billion - 34% of their GDP. Iran cannot compete with US and Israel. Israel is much smaller by population and has a GDP of $320 billion. With sanctions Trump is imposing, Iran is in real economic trouble, and cannot afford a war with us, the Sunnis and Israel. The Obama nuke deal just empowered Iran to go on an expansion into Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. Now Israel and the US are pushing back with the help of the Sunnis. Reimposing sanctions will severely cripple Iran and they will likely try to attack shipping in the straits and the Red Sea. It will end very badly for them now that the Sunnis, Israel and the US are teamed up, the US military is being rebuilt, Sadr is pushing back on Iran trying to control Iraq, and the Iranian people are protesting and ready to revolt. The entire Mideast situation is going to change by year end when sanctions go back into effect. Iran will run out of money to continue their expansion. What is astonishing is Merkel and the EU prefer to try to get around the US sanctions and trade with Iran instead of cooperating with us and destroying the regime. And the press thinks Trump acts badly with the EU??? The EU doesn’t pay for their own defense and they favor Iran. The US economy is on a roll. It will be strong well into 2019 and maybe into 2020. The stock market will go up. Just be patient. Bond prices will decline further. All equities will continue to work. They will resolve trade in the next 90 days. Before November. NAFTA will get revised. WTO will get revised. Putin is in no economic shape to invade anyone, or do another Syria. He is now motivated to try to work with Trump. If oil prices stay around where they are, Russia is hurting. Q3 GDP will be over 3%. This is like under Reagan. Trump will bury Putin in military spending and Putin will have to concede on some issues. It will just take time. It took Reagan three years. If the result is no pipeline, Russia is in more trouble. Farm products in the EU will still be a big problem. Macron cannot give in on this and stay in office. From here on it is all about China, and how Xi can give in and not lose face. Bottom line, a very strong US economy and big defense spending will overwhelm Russia and Iran. A strong economy, allowing big defense spending, matters a lot in terms of geopolitics. The price of oil is strategic, not just economic. Nicky Haley will be elected president in 2024. She will be the first woman president. Mark it down Reply Reply All Forward

IMO this would be a stand alone competitor in the US -at least as far as GM and FCA competition. I wonder why they did not consider leaving the Explorer with its current configuration (E-W engine lay out) and capitalizing on the rugged Everest as the N-S engine layout and making a PI out of that. Instead seems like they are spending a lot of $$ on converting the Explorer to a RWD, N-S engine layout and ignoring what could have been done with Everest. So much for Mulally's "One Ford"-or so it seems to me.

I too thought "X"was "Severe Service" KSC??

Just came down I -495 in MA. Right at Exit 4 is a CH in Breakdown lane. Aluminum wheel sitting on the asphalt- didn't see any sign of the tire before I passed him or after.-either it took off into woods or driver gathered it all up. No service vehicles there yet. Lucky driver as well as those around him.

This was posted on the Blue Oval News site. I can't believe this was actually sent out by the guy at the top. A collection of worn out buzz words. Just think..."10 cross functional teams"...Wow-"Paralysis through Analysis" at its finest. When you don't know your ass from third base time to bring in more study teams. From: Jim Hackett Sent: Monday, August 27, 2018 1:02 PM To: The Ford Team Subject: Company Announcement Today, we are announcing a key organizational change to help us better position our business for the opportunities ahead as we focus in on our Winning Portfolio smart choice for growth and shift to a team-based approach centered on driving a deeper product-line and customer-first focus across the company. With this, we are announcing that we are creating a new Enterprise Product Line Management organization, led by Jim Baumbick who will report into Jim Farley, as we continue transforming to better meet emerging customer needs, drive top-line growth and maximize returns. The new EPLM organization establishes 10 cross-functional teams that will manage distinct product lines as end-to-end businesses and leverage Ford’s human-centered design, advanced product marketing and user experience teams to create breakthrough products and customer experiences.

Let's hope this new Ford 7.3 L V-8 gets here quick and Roush does its magic with that!

" sigh...." You guys just don't get it.....you see Hackett was hired because he is a "cerebral thinker". Per Webster....."cerebral"..."of the brain"... "of appealing to or conceived by the intellect rather than emotions...." Don't forget he "saved" Steelcase-the office furniture people. You know, "office furniture" -That is the stuff that companies abandon around here when they walk away from a commercial lease and the new tenant says.."i don't want that stuff". AND he was the Athletic Director at Michigan. Not quite as qualified as Mulally but Silicon Valley convinced Bill Ford you don't need a guy who understands engineering/manufacturing-you need a "thinker". When in doubt hire more staff. And the train station??? I always said, if you have an empty desk or an office, someone will think of a need they have for manpower and..."we have the space"! Hmnn-wonder if this guy Baumbick knows that Ford builds trucks beyond F-150?

Jim-Never saw that before-this year at NH show? Is it an "X" with with big rear?

Given the nightmare that govt. compliance alone must be I don't see how a company at this scale can make a go of it. Hope I'm wrong

And Ford can't "afford" to add additional drivetrains to 650/750??? These guys must be very clever to get this operation financed.

All Transit Connects currently built with "wrong side" drive right? As are I'm sure the various FCA vans. So no engineering cost to speak of. Can't believe they can't take one of these right hand drive vans and figure a relatively inexpensive box storage system that would rotate the boxes up to the driver. I do believe that is what they currently do. Bins/boxes are loaded by specific route sequence.? Might not last 20 years but upfront cost savings would be huge and as someone has said-will USPS be around in 10 years as we know it today??

Same here- I'm thinking wireless is the future

Well I hear you. I thought the Everest would have been a nice compliment to the current Explorer. But instead the new Excplorer goes to a RWD platform with a NS engine layout but still unibody. I too think the everest would have done well here-what real competition would it have had given the current crop of crossover look alikes? As for the Ranger I have to admit-350HP and a 10 speed auto doesn't sound too bad-but I question their "one size fits all" mentality. In particular the engineering associated with a manual trans was done I would have to believe. To say nothing ofthe fact it has taken them how long to pull this off??? And the 'train station"???? I would like to have the haz mat remediation figures alone. While I'm a firm supporter of the Ford family still calling the shots I think this is a case where their allegiance to Detroit is what carried this decision. But I'm sure Hatchett was all on board after he called his Silicon Valley puppeteers and they told him.."yes milennials would like to work in an antique building that has cost millions to rehab,

Guy is trying to open all your doors and she doesn't call 911? Far too trusting in my opinion- Knocking on doors is one thing-trying to gain entry??? As for your PD response, I think I would be in the chief's office in the morning given their response. As for cameras, good post-I'm wondering the same thing. I have a hard wired system and my alarm monitoring co. charges 300 a year. Plus I have some circuits that are out- One of my kids just bought two cameras for 200 bucks-tied to their phones. I had to go over his house the other day to pick up a set Deere forks he had borrowed and my phone rings-the d-in law. She says "Hi that you that just drove in?-she is at work and it dinged her cell!

Nice Rich-and where was this?

Yeah-but why is the truck carrying about a third of a load??😎 Kevin you must have some good pix of those RD-800's up in Maine. I always wondered why they did not roll over the minute they took an turn.

The Journal yesterday had an Opinion piece by Kimberly Strassel entitled "When Justice is Partial" with a by line.."Mueller is determined to sniff out any wrongdoing he can find-on one side." A closing quote .........."Prosecutors can claim all they want that they are applying the law equally, but if they only apply it to half the suspects, justice is not served. Mr Mueller seems blind to the national need for -the basic expectation of--a thorough look into all parties. That omission is fundamentally undermining any legitimacy in his findings. Lady Justice does not wear a blindfold over only one eye." I must admit, I voted for Trump while holding my nose- but we are a hell of a lot better off now than we were under the previous leadership . And for sure, better off than we would have been under Hillary's watch. On the Supreme Court issue alone my vote was justified as I have less fear now that O'bama's goal of building his own electorate has been overturned.

Great article IMO. Key phrase... First, Washington must recognize that American military power is not going to solve political, ethnic, or religious problems. Second, U.S. leaders must accept that America cannot solve every problem in the world—nor should it try.

Jim, Henniker still in business or has Carroll bought them out too? In any case a real looker!

wow- 118K ! 6 spd lo hole and 38 rears? You got lucky!

Hah! Bill Ford hit a home run when he hired Mulally. He must have been drinking too much wine with his silicon Valley pals when he picked furniture man.

Don't remember seeing it but had I, for sure I would have been checking it out-is it as rust free as this picture would lead you to believe?

Well 2006 would be a 6.0 would it not? No comparison to the 6.0 vs 6.7. F-550 6.7's are very popular contractor service trucks around here-set up as you describe yours. There are also a lot of 5500 Mopars in same service but I would say the 550's are in the majority. Had a contractor doing some work for me and his (550) also had an air "conditioning" system that kept tool compartments from developing condensation! Like yours-loaded-big hydraulic crane with wireless control, welder, 100 gal diesel tank, nice Miller welding set up etc etc. Guy's primary business is portable rock crushing so you can imagine-this thing is set up for every contingency. I will say the big Cat dealer has 650s set up for their service trucks.