Friday, January 09, 2009
Business / Economy / Politics / Autos
Daniel Howes is business columnist and associate business editor of The Detroit News. His column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. From 1999 to January 2003, he was based in Germany as The News' European correspondent and automotive columnist, reporting from more than 20 countries on three continents. Before heading to Europe, Howes was senior automotive writer and an investigative and projects reporter on the business desk. He came to Detroit in 1993 from The Roanoke Times in Virginia, where he covered business, politics and higher education. He can be reached at dchowes@detnews.com or through his blog.
More on Daniel Howes
- On media: He is a regular contributor to the Paul W. Smith Show on NewsTalk 760-WJR in Detroit. He appears often on radio and television locally, in the United States and overseas.
- On education: He holds a bachelor's degree in history from the College of Wooster in Ohio, and a master's in international affairs from Columbia University.
- On awards: Winner of multiple International Wheel Awards for column writing; a four-time winner of Northwestern University's Medill award for general markets coverage; and a three-time finalist for the prestigious Gerald Loeb Awards, including an honorable mention for commentary in 2007.
Podcasts
- On the UAW-GM tentative deal
- Why the Chrysler sale means merger was a failure
- Commentary on the return of Ford's Taurus
- On whether Chrysler is a better or worse company than it was nine years ago
- On The President's meeting with CEOs from the U.S. automakers
Resources
- Detroit Renaissance: Structural Reform Agenda (PDF)
- Road to Renaissance Report (PDF)
- University of Michigan Economic Outlook (PDF)
- Michigan Future Inc.: New Agenda for a New Michigan (PDF)
- U-M's Millenium Project: Roadmap to Michigan's Future
- Brookings Institution study: The Vital Center (PDF)
- Michigan Emergency Fiscal Memo
Blog: Business / The Economy / Politics
While Detroit teeters on a financial abyss, Conyers travels -- natch'
Crisis? What crisis? Less than 24 hours after Detroit learned that Standard & Poor's is lowering the city's credit rating to "junk status," the esteemed president of City … Continued
- Someone, please, stop the Granholm-to-Washington sales job
- DPS brooms another superintendent, gets a do-over from Lansing
- Failure of auto bailout bill allowed Senate GOP, UAW to posture
- Gettelfinger: 'This wasn't just anti-union. This was anti-Big Three'
- Freefall: It's the Michigan-auto-Detroit culture, stupid
- Who says bankruptcy talk doesn't kill the car-selling business?
- More in Daniel Howes' Blog
- Join the discussion in Daniel Howes' Forum
The Howes Blog Roll
More in The Detroit News blogs
Washington Bureau Blog
Gordon Trowbridge: So instead of entering the race for Republican National Committee chairman, Florida state chair Jim Greer has endorsed Michael Steele for the job.
The other big … Continued
Autos: Scott Burgess' Blog
Scott Burgess: During the Today show this morning, Ed Welburn, GM's top designer showed Matt Lauer a sneak peek at a car the car maker will unveil at the Detroit show.
That lime … Continued
Nolan Finley's Blog
Nolan Finley: Israel appears to be readying for a massive ground invasion of the terrorist infested Gaza Strip. Israel's success depends on its ability to close its ears to the … Continued
Patterson would rev up gov's race
If ol' L. Brooks Patterson pulls the trigger on this run-for-governor thing, one thing's for certain: It won't be a dull race. - 01/09/2009
New school gives hope for the future
As the city's public schools prepare to become wards of Lansing for the second time in a decade, a new kind of public school this week is beginning to take applications. - 01/08/2009
Is rebirth next after 'Dark Dec.'?
"Dark December for Detroit," intoned the headline on MarketWatch. - 01/06/2009
Ford's success tops industry wish list
The headline jumped off the page: "Ford Fusion is hybrid champ." Now that's what we're talking about: a new model from the Motor City that potentially outperforms, outshines and out-greens the foreign-owned competition. - 12/25/2008
Commentary: America cares little about fate of Detroit's Big Three
Forget the politicians and their calculated "rescue" of Detroit's automakers. They won't be the ones who save, or kill, the Big Three where it matters most -- in the marketplace. - 12/23/2008
Commentary: Forging new path will be rough road for Detroit automakers
Now that GM and Chrysler have a $17.4 billion federal lifeline to take them into the early days of the Obama era, the real action will be with the automakers and the constituencies expected to grant major concessions to keep Detroit out of bankruptcy court. Officially, that is. - 12/20/2008
Carmakers' woes aren't unique to Detroit
In appearances before congressional inquisitions, General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner got lambasted for suggesting the deepening recession was pushing the General to the existential edge. - 12/19/2008
Detroit's next mayor has tall task
He's never held public office, but a new poll to be released this week concludes former Pistons great Dave Bing remains the favorite to win the mayoral primary in February. - 12/18/2008
Michigan is down, but far from out
There's nothing like an economic catastrophe-in-the-making, complete with caricatures of an inflexible union boss, clueless CEOs and an ineffective congressional delegation, to solidify Michigan's national image as being stuck in the 1970s. - 12/16/2008
Senators to UAW: It's payback time
They failed repeatedly to organize the foreign-owned auto plants proliferating down South, even now. - 12/12/2008
Crisis could end up a plus for Ford
The New York Post last week graced its smackdown of Detroit's automakers with a picture of the Three Stooges standing around a collapsed jalopy. It didn't bother to say which stooge represented which company, but I will -- Ford is Moe, arguably the sharpest of the bunch. - 12/11/2008
Feds flex political muscle at automakers
This is what you get, Detroit, when the government becomes your lender of last resort -- a business plan designed to score political points. - 12/09/2008
Wagoner admits to 'Plan B:' Bankruptcy
The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee , Chris Dodd, D-Conn., got it right Thursday: "We're looking at a death sentence here if we don't respond intelligently and prudently." - 12/05/2008
Michigan needs to act like the Big 3
Conventional wisdom holds that Michigan is entering Year Seven of its one-state recession because Detroit's automakers are tanking -- and poised to drive off a cliff. - 12/04/2008
Situation is far worse than we thought
A teetering General Motors says it needs $12 billion in cash -- a third of it by the end of this month -- and a $6 billion credit line to make it into next year. Would it be enough? - 12/03/2008
Shared denial takes Big 3 to brink
The stakes could not be any higher -- for Detroit's automakers, the United Auto Workers, salaried employees, tens of thousands of retirees and communities around the country. - 12/02/2008
Cashing in on double standards
The feds pump another $20 billion into teetering Citigroup and insure $306 billion in bad assets just days after Congress slaps Detroit's automakers for failing to table 'a plan' to justify $25 billion in loans and folks 'round here cry, "Double standard! Double standard!" - 11/27/2008
Big 3 prepare to sheepishly plead case again
If Hollywood moguls do a remake of the Keystone Kops, I'd suggest they avail themselves of Michigan's movie tax breaks and film it right here, in Detroit. - 11/25/2008
Symbols behind loan smackdown
Congress didn't officially tell Detroit's automakers to "drop dead" Thursday, but it came close. - 11/21/2008
To rest of U.S., Detroit is mired in the past
To watch two days of hearings on how -- or whether -- Congress should rescue Detroit's close-to-failing automakers is to be haunted by a recurring question: How did we get here? - 11/20/2008
Political titans clash in auto loan war
Detroit's bailout battle in Washington, shifting this week into high gear, is about more than the survival of three automakers. - 11/18/2008
Big 3 must prove they are worth it
Gentlemen: You're the bosses (for now) of the Big Three automakers, not Big Tobacco, but the prospect of being grilled next week by New England's dynamic duo -- Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. -- likely could make you feel as if you are. - 11/14/2008
Detroit auto mess turns toxic
Short of the subprime mortgage racket, perhaps nothing is more toxic right now than the Detroit car business. - 11/13/2008
Commentary: Detroit will never be the same
The credit crisis of '08 has ensured that Detroit as we know it will never be the same again. Even if the feds pump billions into the city's automakers to avert a bigger economic catastrophe, the era of the Big Three as the Big Three officially died last week. - 11/11/2008
Big 3's hopes rest with Washington
America's political leaders have a choice to make, and very soon: Do they want the country to keep its own independent automakers, a hallmark of major economic power around the world? - 11/10/2008
