kscarbel2

I never mentioned Trump or Obama. Okay? I only said that all government, by design is corrupt (and has been for hundreds of years). In 1887, John Dalberg-Acton wrote: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

All government, by design, is corrupt to varying degrees, and inefficient in functionality.

The RWL/RWS was produced at Hayward. The MH chassis-based RWI was produced at Macungie.

F-150, Bronco programs delayed 2 months Michael Martinez, Automotive News / May 15, 2020 DETROIT — Plant shutdowns due to the coronavirus will result in roughly two-month delays for several of Ford Motor Co.'s key vehicle programs, including the redesigned F-150 pickup and new Bronco SUV, but a top executive said the automaker doesn't envision additional postponements. "Given our inability to work in our assembly plants during the shelter-in-place restrictions, it will have an impact to program timing, in terms of the launches, but we expect the launch delays to be commensurate with the duration of the shutdown period," Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's chief product development and purchasing officer, said Friday in a Bank of America presentation. Ford on March 18 said it would shutter its North American facilities as the coronavirus spread across the globe. It plans to resume limited production at most plants Monday. Ford has already delayed public unveilings of the Bronco, Bronco Sport crossover and F-150 this spring. The Bronco Sport, F-150 and Mustang Mach-E electric crossover are due in showrooms in the second half of 2020. The Bronco is expected to go on sale in early 2021. Bronco Sport output was originally planned to start July 13 but then was pushed to Sept. 7 because of the coronavirus outbreak. Suppliers have been told production now will begin Aug. 31 at a plant in Mexico. The vehicles represent popular, high-margin nameplates that Ford hopes are key to a financial turnaround. Despite the delays, Thai-Tang said Ford planned no further postponements, even as money gets tight. "We're not going to do any additional delay to these launches beyond the impact of COVID-19 as a mechanism to conserve cash," he said. "I know that's something some of the other OEMs are doing." The virus has upended launch plans for a number of automakers. Ford has said it has enough cash to make it to the end of 2020, even if none of its assembly plants resumed production. In the case of the Bronco family of vehicles, Ford is betting not only on robust sales — it's targeting 200,000 in 2021 — but also revenue from a large number of accessories. Ford is hoping the Bronco subbrand can do for it what Jeep has done for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. "FCA has nine Jeep products; last time I counted, it accounts for at least half of their revenue and profit, all underpinned by the Wrangler," Thai-Tang said. "We think we have the same brand strength with Bronco and Mustang, and series like Raptor, that we need to really capitalize on. You're seeing the initial us dipping our toes in the water, but we think there's tremendous upside there."

Yes. If I recall correctly, Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Kenan Transport ordered RD tractors when the R model was discontinued. In their spec, basically the same truck except with the stronger deeper rails. The weight difference was actually negligible. The ultimate money-making tractor for a tanker fleet.

Read of the week ------------------------------------------------------ In the early days of the pandemic, the US government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America Aaron David, Washington Post / May 9, 2020 It was Jan. 22, a day after the first case of covid-19 was detected in the United States, and orders were pouring into Michael Bowen’s company outside Fort Worth, some from as far away as Hong Kong. Bowen’s medical supply company, Prestige Ameritech, could ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks a week. He viewed the shrinking domestic production of medical masks as a national security issue, though, and he wanted to give the federal government first dibs. “We still have four like-new N95 manufacturing lines,” Bowen wrote that day in an email to top administrators in the Department of Health and Human Services. “Reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive but could be achieved in a dire situation.” But communications over several days with senior agency officials — including Robert Kad­lec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and emergency response — left Bowen with the clear impression that there was little immediate interest in his offer. “I don’t believe we as a government are anywhere near answering those questions for you yet,” Laura Wolf, director of the agency’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection, responded that same day. Bowen persisted. “We are the last major domestic mask company,” he wrote on Jan. 23. “My phones are ringing now, so I don’t ‘need’ government business. I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.” In the end, the government did not take Bowen up on his offer. Even today, production lines that could be making more than 7 million masks a month sit dormant. Bowen’s overture was described briefly in an 89-page whistleblower complaint filed this week by Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright was retaliated against by Kadlec and other officials — including being reassigned to a lesser post — because he tried to “prioritize science and safety over political expediency.” Emails show Bright pressed Kadlec and other agency leaders on the issue of mask shortages — and Bowen’s proposal specifically — to no avail. On Jan. 26, Bright wrote to a deputy that Bowen’s warnings “seem to be falling on deaf ears.” That day, Bowen sent Bright a more direct warning. “U.S. mask supply is at imminent risk,” Bowen wrote. “Rick, I think we’re in deep shit,” he wrote a day later. The story of Bowen’s offer illustrates a missed opportunity in the early days of the pandemic, one laid out in Bright’s whistleblower complaint, interviews with Bowen and emails provided by both men. Within weeks, a shortage of masks was endangering health-care workers in hard-hit areas across the country, and the Trump administration was scrambling to buy more masks — sometimes placing bulk orders with third-party distributors for many times the standard price. President Trump came under pressure to use extraordinary government powers to force the private industry to ramp up production. In a statement, White House economic adviser and Coronavirus task force member Peter Navarro said: “The company was just extremely difficult to work and communicate with. This was in sharp contrast to groups like the National Council of Textile Organizations and companies like Honeywell and Parkdale Mills, which have helped America very rapidly build up cost effective domestic mask capacity measuring in the hundreds of millions.” Carol Danko, an HHS spokeswoman [and employee of the American people], refused to comment on the offer by Bowen and other allegations raised in the whistleblower complaint. Wolf also refused to comment on the whistleblower complaint. A senior U.S. government official with knowledge of the offer said Bowen, 62, has a “legitimate beef.” “He was prescient, really,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. “But the reality is [HHS] didn’t have the money to do it at that time.” Another HHS official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “There is a process for putting out contracts. It wasn’t as fast as anyone wanted it to be.” A voice in the wilderness Two decades ago, the low-slung factory in Texas was part of a supply conglomerate that produced almost 9 in 10 medical and surgical masks used in the United States. Bowen was a new product specialist at the plant back then, and he watched as industry consolidations and outsourcing shifted control of the plant from Tecnol Medical Products to Kimberly-Clark and then shuttered it altogether. In less than a decade, almost 90 percent of all U.S. mask production had moved out of the country, according to government reports at the time. Bowen and Dan Reese, a former executive at Tecnol, went into business together in 2005 and eventually bought the plant, believing a market remained for a dedicated domestic manufacturer of protective gear. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress appropriated $6 billion to buy antidotes to bioweapons and the medical supplies the country would need in public health disasters. An obscure new government organization called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or ­BARDA, was among the agencies purchasing material for what would become the Strategic National Stockpile. Bowen began studying ­BARDA, attending its industry conferences and searching for a way in to press his case. In the parlance of BARDA, Bowen was seeking a “warm base” contract. The government would pay a premium to have masks manufactured domestically, but his company would keep its extra factory lines in working order, meaning production could be ramped up in an emergency. Bowen said he soon concluded that BARDA’s focus was trained elsewhere, on billion-dollar deals to induce manufacturing of vaccines for the most exotic disasters, such as weaponized attacks with anthrax or smallpox. Still, as Bowen moved down the supply chain, appealing directly to hospitals to buy his domestic-made masks, his sales pitch often ended with a plea to call BARDA. Bowen often carried PowerPoint slides from a 2007 presentation by BARDA and its parent division at HHS, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. One had a table showing that, in the event of a pandemic, the country would need 5.3 billion N95 respirator masks, 50 times more than the number in the stockpile. The presentation concluded: “Industrial surge capacity of [respiratory protection devices] will not be able to meet need and supplies will be short during a pandemic.” Bowen said he felt like a voice in the wilderness. “The world just looked at me as a mask salesman who was saying the sky was falling,” he said, “and they would say, ‘Your competitors aren’t saying that in China.’ ” After Trump’s election, Bowen hoped the new president’s America-first mentality might trickle down to operations like his. He wrote a letter to Trump and addressed it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: “90% of the United States protective mask supply is currently FOREIGN MADE!” it began. “I didn’t think Trump would read it, but I thought someone would and take note,” Bowen said. He also called Bright, who had been appointed to lead BARDA just before Trump took office. “In 14 years of doing this, there have been maybe four people in government who I felt like really understood this issue,” Bowen said. “Rick was one of them.” In Trump’s first year, however, Bowen grew newly disillusioned. During a week when the White House touted its “Buy American, Hire American” initiative, Bowen lost a military contract worth up to $1 million to a supplier that would make many of the masks in Mexico, he said. "Shame on the Department of Defense! One of these days the Bowen wrote on Aug. 17, 2017, to Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Clark, a senior official with the Pentagon’s Defense Health Agency. The US military will need America’s manufacturers to help win another war or fight another pandemic — and they will not exist,” Proposal to produce goes nowhere For Bowen, the first signs of trouble came in mid-January. Online orders through his company’s website, typically totaling maybe $2,000 a year and accounting for only a fraction of his business, suddenly skyrocketed to almost $700,000 in a few days. On Jan. 20, Bowen also fielded a call from the Department of Homeland Security, urgently seeking masks for airport screeners. Bowen said he did not have masks in stock to fill the order, but the call led him to contact Bright to tell him about the surge in demand for masks. “Is this virus going to be problematic?” Bowen wrote. Inside HHS, Bright quickly passed Bowen’s on-the-ground observations to a group that included Wolf, the director of the agency’s Division of Critical Infrastructure Protection. “Can you please reach out to Mike Bowen below? He is a great partner and a really good source for helpful information,” Bright wrote on Jan. 21. “Thanks Rick,” she replied. “We are tracking and have begun to coordinate with fda, niosh, and manufacturers today. More to follow tomorrow. Thinking about masks, gowns (inc those in shortage), gloves, and eye protection.” Within a day, Bowen sent an email to Wolf laying out what Prestige could do. The company’s four mothballed manufacturing lines could be restarted with large noncancelable orders, he wrote. “This is NOT something we would ever wish to do and have NO plans to do it on our own,” he wrote. “I’m simply letting you know that in a dire situation, it could be done.” Over the next three days, Bowen kept HHS officials informed as orders for a million masks came in from intermediaries for buyers in China and Hong Kong. On Jan. 26, he sent the email warning that the U.S. mask supply was at “imminent risk.” Bright forwarded it that day to Kadlec and others, urging action: “We have been watching and receiving warnings on this for over a week,” he wrote. The next day, Bright wrote to his deputy asking him to explore whether BARDA could divert money earmarked for vaccines and other biodefense measures to instead buy masks. From his end, Bowen said his proposal seemed to be going nowhere. “No one at HHS ever did get back to me in a substantive way,” Bowen said. The senior U.S. official said Bowen’s idea was considered, but funding could not easily be obtained without diverting it from other projects. Bowen started talking to reporters about the mask shortage in general terms. He was soon invited to appear on former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon’spodcast: “War Room: Pandemic.” On the Feb. 12 podcast, the two commiserated over the beleaguered state of U.S. manufacturing. “What I’ve been saying since 2007 is, ‘Guys, I’m warning you, here’s what is going to happen, let’s prepare,’ ” Bowen said on the program. “Because if you call me after it starts, I can’t help everybody.” Bowen said Bannon put him in touch with Navarro, the White House economic adviser. Navarro was quick to see the problem, Bowen said. After talking with Navarro, Bowen wrote to Bright that he should soon expect a call from the White House. “I’m pretty sure that my mask supply message will be heard by President Trump this week,” Bowen wrote. “Trump insider reading yesterday’s Wired.com article, the ball is screaming toward your court.” According to Bright’s complaint, he soon began attending White House meetings and helping Navarro write memos describing the supply of masks as a top issue. Emails and memos attached to the complaint show Bright reporting back to Kadlec and others about his work with Navarro. None of it turned the tide for Bowen. Nearly a month after his emailed offer, Bowen received his first formal communication about possibly helping to bolster the U.S. supply. The five-page form letter from the Food and Drug Administration — one Bowen said he suspected was sent to many manufacturers — asked how his company could help with what was by then a “national emergency response” to the shortage of protective gear. Bowen responded on Feb. 16, by firing off a terse email to FDA and HHS officials. He directed the agencies to a U.S. government website listing approved foreign manufacturers of medical masks. “There you’ll find a long list of . . . approved Chinese respirator companies,” he wrote. “Please send your long list of questions to them.” In March, Bowen submitted a bid to supply masks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which by then had taken over purchasing. The government soon spent over $600 million on contracts involving masks. Big companies like Honeywell and 3M were each awarded contracts totaling over $170 million for protective gear. One distributor of tactical gear — a company with no history of procuring medical equipment — was awarded a $55 million deal to provide masks for as much as $5.50 a piece, eight times what the government was paying months earlier. On April 7, FEMA awarded Prestige a $9.5 million contract to provide a million N95 masks a month for one year, an order the company could fulfill without activating its dormant manufacturing lines. For the masks, Prestige charged the government 79 cents a piece. .

You are bringing back memories today. That brochure has a Value-Liner you showed (incorrectly identified as RD), as well as a pre-facelift axle-forward RD with Value-Liner styling. Customers and dealers said it was too heavy, so we didn't sell many. We sold far more post-facelift Western Contractors. I'm going to say the last model year for Macungie Value-Liner production was 1987. .

With a set-forward front axle. No, the RD Western Contractor did not exist until after the Value-Liner was discontinued. The lack of a Value-Liner, or a replacement, angered the western dealer body, forcing the issue to be addressed.

I recall we discontinued the Value-Liner thinking the face-lift RD would be an acceptable replacement for both east and west. Our dealers didn't agree and complained. So we created the face-lift RD "Western Contractor" as a replacement for them, for the discontinued Value-Liner. Later, we made the Western Contractor specs optional on the standard RD and discontinued the Western Contractor as a stand alone model.

Peterbilt Motors Press Release / May 12, 2020 Peterbilt Motors Company is proud to announce the return of the Model 389 Pride & Class package due to popular demand. Introduced with a limited production run in 2014 and 2017, the Model 389 Pride & Class package’s unique styling and touches of understated elegance truly set this truck apart from all others. Key external features of the Model 389 Pride & Class package include a highly polished hood crown surrounding a classic style louvered grille sheet, a brightly polished hood spine, chrome hood side accents, and polished hood fenders. The side of the truck is accentuated with polished rocker panels, bright cowl skirts, battery box, fuel tanks, and trimmed mud flaps. The iconic exterior look is finished off with a polished exterior sun visor, bumper, exhaust stacks and an exclusive Pride & Class emblem on the sleeper. The distinctive features of the Model 389 Pride & Class package continue on the inside of the truck as well with a luxurious Platinum Arctic Gray interior, charcoal dash top and Blackwood-finish trim accents throughout the cab. Premium black leather seats are embroidered with the Pride & Class logo on the headrests and go nicely with the black, luxury carpet lines found in the spacious cab and sleeper. Bright gauge bezels, a special steering wheel and Pride & Class emblems on the dash and accent trim round out the interior experience. “The Model 389 Pride & Class package takes a place among Peterbilt’s most iconic trucks. With unparalleled performance and distinctive design, it furthers our proud tradition of providing trucks with industry-leading styling, quality and value,” said Robert Woodall, Assistant General Manager Sales and Marketing. .

This event today was very informative, but also troubling. Worth your time to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5FHRElONJc

Springfield News-Sun / May 11, 2020 Production resumed on the main line for Navistar’s Springfield plant on Monday, a move that brought back hundreds of workers who were previously laid off. At least 700 workers were called back to the Springfield plant as its main line —which builds medium-duty commercial trucks, including those for General Motors— went back on line, according to Chris Blizard, the president of UAW Local 402. His union represents assembly production workers at the plant as well as those in skilled trades. Blizard said approximately 700 of those members were called back to work. However, he did not have information regarding the total number of workers called back to the plant. Production was temporarily suspended at the Springfield plant in March due to “disruptions in the supply chain,” according to a news release from Navistar in the beginning of April. The stoppage was originally expected to last until the end of April as the supply chain continued to be interrupted, the release added. However, it was extended into May, said Blizard, with the plant’s main line to resume first and its line two to resume later in the month. Blizard said that he expects production to resume on line two, which builds cutaway vans for GM, on May 26. Blizard said workers are required to wear face coverings that covers their nose and mouth as well as other types of personal protective equipment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who enter the facility are also required to have their temperature taken. He added that the company is also implementing social distancing guidelines were possible. .

Bob, it's a variant of the latest generation MAN D26, configured to meet US emissions.

The Mack vendor code (prefix) for American Bosch is 79. The vendor code for Robert Bosch is 935. 5479 must be the pump supplier itself. Do you have an American or Robert Bosch pump ?

I just recalled (it's been years). The R-700 was never redesigned to accommodate CMCAC (chassis-mounted charge air cooling), which was the basis for the "new" E9.

That's a shame. No problem with the globally proven MAN engine, but rather one bad supplier. Navistar will make it right.

Jason Cannon, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / May 14, 2020 Navistar late last week filed notice with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concerning a defective or noncompliant component on its A26 engine, which could result in complete engine failure in nearly 4,500 affected trucks in the United States. Navistar has pledged to outright replace any engines that exhibit the signs of the potential defect, which the company estimates will number about 600 units. The 12.4 liter A26 engine was introduced three years ago and marked a new beginning for International as it retired its 12.4 liter N13 Series. In the years since, nearly 23,500 A26 engines have been built in Huntsville, Alabama. The failure notice, which was officially posted by NHTSA Thursday and assigned campaign No. 20V255000, affects 1,814 model year 2019-2020 RH Series and 2,685 model year 2018-2020 LT Series equipped with A26 engines. Affected engines were built between Feb. 12, 2018, and June 10, 2019, for LT Series, and Feb. 10, 2018, through June 6, 2019, for RH Series. According to the recall report, the bushing material in the small end bore (wrist pin of rod) of the connecting rod may over time develop cracks or lose chunks of bushing material and could lead to connecting rod engine failure. Navistar’s Vice President of Service Mark Reiter said the company began to see premature failures with the engine late last year and found the root cause to be related to supplier quality in a rod that connects the piston to crankshaft. The investigation was prompted in September 2019 by a carrier who suffered five A26 engine failures over a two month period. The wrist pin bore of the connecting rod on affected engines was machined outside the design tolerance for straightness. Reiter said the company was already in the process of changing connecting rod suppliers before the reported failures started and transitioned that work to a new company last year. There have not been any injures reported as a result of the defect. Reiter said in an effort to learn more about the defective part prior to engine failure, the company worked with its customers via the International Truck dealer network to determine what symptoms drivers were experiencing as breakdowns occurred. Some drivers said the engine began to knock. Others reported the truck showed visible signs of distress, including rough idle. Most were able to limp to a dealer while others needed a tow after pulling the truck off the road. Three drivers reported sudden failure that left them stalled in traffic. “We were really concerned about what the driver would experience when the connecting rod failed in an engine,” Reiter said. “When we get cases where something happens and you get stalled in traffic, we really wanted to protect the drivers so we declared the safety defect.” Navistar is in the process of notifying affected carriers but Reiter said part of the fix will be providing advance notice to the driver of when a failure is about to occur via the truck’s instrument cluster. With an expected failure rate of only about 13% across the 4,499 potentially affected trucks – about 600 units – Reiter said a sweeping fix would “create a lot of unnecessary down time.” “The supplier had two machines [producing connecting rods],” he added. “One made them fine. One produced rods that floated in and out of spec.” Navistar’s proposed remedy is two-fold given that 87% of affected units are unlikely to suffer connecting rod failure. Phase one includes the installation of knock detection capability that relies on the data feed coming from existing sensors on the engine. When the system deems a connecting rod failure is imminent, it will trigger a red “stop vehicle now” light on the instrument cluster, which should allow the driver to get safely to a dealer before the truck loses power. If the truck is equipped with Navistar’s OnCommand Connection platform, the pending failure will report through there as well, notifying both the fleet and the Navistar network. “We’re in the process of finalizing the development and validation of a solution. Our primary path forward would be to install a new ECM calibration on the engine,” Reiter said. “This could be accomplished at a dealer location, via mobile maintenance with a service tool, at a fleet terminal location or even over-the-air for vehicles that have that capability. The solution of flashing the engine would provide drivers with a notification allowing them to seek a safe location before the engine could fail.” Phase two would be the actual engine replacement. Reiter said once a truck has been diagnosed with a connecting rod failure, Navistar will replace the engine with a new one equipped with a connecting rod from Navistar’s current supplier – a process Reiter expects to take five days or less. Given the complexity of the engine’s internal parts, he said it was best for all parties to outfit the truck with a new engine rather than try to repair the damaged one. “The less you can disturb the inside of the engine, the better off you are,” he said. Engines found with a suspect connecting rod will be repaired under warranty. Letters will be sent to affected carriers within 60 days but Reiter said the company is already talking with customers. The previous vendor is no longer supplying any components for the A26 and Reiter doesn’t foresee any further issues tied to supplier quality. “This engine is performing really well,” he said. “This is an isolated incident. In terms of a component that’s leading to a high failure rate, this is the one. Changing the vendor really solved this problem.” The recall is expected to begin July 8. Owners may contact Navistar customer service at 1-800-448-7825. Navistar’s number for this recall is 20504.

International Trucks Press Release / May 14, 2020 From quality products to superior service and the industry's largest dealer network – you get everything with International Truck! .

That's a good question. I don't recall the E9 being fitted to R-700s. By that time, the R-700 was primarily for Cummins fitment to customers like Ryder, plus the rare CAT order. They did see the ETAZ1000 (multi-speed Eaton trannies) and ETAZ1005A (5-speed Maxidyne spec).

Henry Ford III is rising to the top of a dynasty facing crisis Keith Naughton, Bloomberg / May 14, 2020 When Wall Street analysts call Ford’s investor relations department these days, they’re likely to be greeted by Henry Ford himself. It’s not the founder, of course, and it’s not a recording of him either. It’s Henry Ford III, the patriarch’s great-great grandson, who at age 39 has been thrust into the crucial role of liaison between the struggling automaker and its investors. The III’s ascent -- along with that of his cousin, the 32-year-old Alexandra Ford English, just named to the board of electric-truck maker Rivian Automotive Inc. -- marks a coming of age for the fifth generation of the Ford dynasty. For all but 20 of its almost 117 years of existence, Ford has been led by a family member. And while critics lay much of the blame for the company’s current struggles on the Fords, the family sees Henry and Alexandra as their best hope of maintaining control for years to come. “They’ve moving above the radar line now,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean at the Yale School of Management, said of the automotive heirs. “This is what they were destined for when they entered the company. When we look at their dads, they’re on the same trajectory, with at least one, if not both, ending up on the board.” The changes come as the company endures another crisis, with losses mounting and North American factories idled in the face of coronavirus shutdowns. But as Ford shareholders gather for a virtual annual meeting Thursday, the founding family remains firmly in control, aided by a special class of stock that gives them 40 percent voting power. That arrangement will once again come under scrutiny at the annual meeting. A shareholder proposal would strip the family of its special class of stock and go to a one-share, one-vote arrangement. A similar motion garnered 34 percent support of Ford shareholders last year. Some investors have long complained that super-power voting weighs down the value of publicly traded companies, while giving founding families sometimes unwarranted control. Since Bill Ford became chairman in 1999, the automaker’s shares are down 91 percent, while the S&P 500 index is up 129 percent. Unlike General Motors and Chrysler, however, Ford avoided bankruptcy in 2009. And for all their problems, the Fords have earned a reputation for not meddling in the corporate decision-making process. “The Fords, in general, have a pretty good history of letting the executives run the company,” said Rob Du Boff, corporate governance analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. Henry Ford III and Ford English are likely years away, if ever, from assuming the uppermost leadership roles. Jim Farley, promoted March 1 to chief operating officer, is the clear heir apparent to current CEO Jim Hackett. But each is now moving through a variety of jobs at the company. Henry, known as “Sonny” among friends and family, was director of corporate strategy before taking the investor relations job. He is the son of Edsel Ford II, a board member and now a company consultant. Ford English, the daughter of Bill Ford, assumed a corporate strategy position similar to the one previously held by her cousin, while also being named to the board of Rivian Automotive, the electric-truck maker in which Ford has taken a significant ownership stake. Their seasoning is similar to what their fathers received while rising in the ranks in the 1980s and ’90s. Bill and Edsel Ford landed on the company’s board of directors in 1988 while still in their 30s and agitated successfully for more prominent roles as directors. Edsel eventually rose to president of Ford’s highly profitable credit unit before retiring in 1998, and Bill became company chairman in January 1999 and served as CEO from 2001 to 2006. For Henry and Ford English, working in the family business may not have been preordained, but close to it. After graduating from Dartmouth in 2002 with a degree in history, Ford III taught middle and high school math and history. Then in 2006, at the age of 25, he joined Ford in labor relations. He helped to negotiate a contract with the UAW, similar to Bill Ford’s first job at the company in 1979. Henry III went on to work in purchasing, dealer relations, as a vehicle program analyst and as global marketing manager for Ford’s high-performance sports cars, drawing on the company’s racing heritage highlighted in last year’s Academy Award-winning “Ford v Ferrari.” “In the back of my mind, I knew I always wanted to work for Ford,” Henry Ford III told Automotive News in 2014. “Our family’s legacy and heritage are very important to me and I knew it was something I wanted to carry on.” In investor relations, the young scion will face tough questions about Ford’s falling stock and growing losses. “Investor relations is the best place that you can put somebody that you’re trying to groom for leadership because they are going to be dealing with complaints all the time,” Minow said. “It will give him a real reality check.” Unlike some children of famous people, he has no qualms about using his name in business, recalled Los Angeles Ford dealer Beau Boeckmann. Ford III worked at his store selling cars during the summer of 2009 while getting an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “When he walked through the door, he said I want to be called Henry Ford and have it on my nametag,” Boeckmann said. “Customers would say, ‘Wait a minute, your name’s Henry Ford, are you any relation?’ And he’d laugh and say, ‘Yeah, I’m Henry Ford III.’” Ford English also tried out another industry after she earned a bachelor’s in human biology, physiology and neuroscience at Stanford and an MBA at Harvard. She worked in retailing in the merchandising divisions of Tory Burch in New York and Gap Inc. in San Francisco. Her first job at Ford, in 2017 at the age of 29, was in a department helping to find new mobility solutions for crowded cities, and then she moved on to Ford’s self-driving vehicle unit. “I was originally hesitant to join Ford because I don’t have a technical background and it’s a company built upon engineering,” Ford English said in a 2018 company-sponsored video. “But I knew what I could bring to the company and I was very aware of those skills.” Joining the company and rising to the top are two different things, of course. Henry Ford II, the outsized and colorful leader of the company for 35 years until his 1981 retirement, once famously declared “there are no crown princes at Ford.” The latest Henry has said he works hard not to appear “to have any sense of entitlement.” That may be what drove him to turn down an invitation to a Fourth of July party from dealer Boeckmann back in the summer of 2009. Instead, Henry III remained in the showroom all day, selling cars in the California heat. “I said, ‘Hey Henry, why don’t you come join us for the family picnic?’ But he said, ‘Thank you, but I’m here selling cars,’” Boeckmann said. “He’s extremely humble and he is aware that he needs to work harder because of his name.”

With the RWI Super-Liner in production at Macungie for 1985, we felt that continued production of the R-700 was redundant.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell gave a dire warning today (Wednesday, May 13) that the U.S. economy could become stuck in a painful multi-year recession if Congress and the White House do not authorize more aid to address the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout. “The scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent, significantly worse than any recession since the second world war. Additional fiscal support could be costly but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery,” he said. Powell’s statement was a sharp departure from the economic optimism President Trump and some senior administration officials have touted in recent days. Powell sounded a much more urgent tone, describing the United States as in the midst of the “biggest shock our economy has felt in modern times” and is likely to face an “extended period” of weakness. “The record shows that deeper and longer recessions can leave behind lasting damage to the productive capacity of the economy,” Powell said. “Avoidable household and business insolvencies can weigh on growth for years to come.” Powell is concerned about a domino effect, where consumers lose jobs and sharply cut spending. That, in turn, can cause more restaurants, gyms and other businesses to close, hurting more jobs. Companies that go out of business also stop paying their suppliers, which can drag down other firms. Negative Rates Powell pushed back against the prospect the central bank would deploy negative interest rates in the U.S., though he didn’t fully rule out the option as a potential tool in the future. “The evidence on negative rates is mixed. For now, it’s not something we’re considering,” he said. Powell noted Fed officials had debated whether to follow other central banks in that direction and opted to use other tools.

Very cool Paul ! Nothing compares with the sound of a V-8. Thank you !!

So brilliantly designed, the small size (dis-proportionally small) cab is virtually hidden in the overall scope of things. Recall, the amazing and much loved Zenon C.R. Hansen joined Diamond T in 1953 as vice president of sales, at the request of Diamond T founder and President C.A. Tilt. Mr. Hansen was quickly promoted to executive vice president in 1954 and president in 1956. "All of us at Diamond T felt that we had the finest trucks in the industry," Zenon said. In his first year as president of Diamond T, sales shot up 20 percent while profits skyrocketed 800 percent.