Sunday, November 08, 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.
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Chrysler is in a race that already started

Time is not on Chrysler's side because the clock clearly favors crosstown rivals Ford and, yes, General Motors -- both of which have killer products in showrooms, right now. - 11/06/2009

Michigan should go for nuclear jobs

Michigan needs to get on the nuclear power train because it's getting ready to leave the station -- and take the jobs with it. - 11/05/2009

Ford's $1 billion profit signals turnaround

In Ford's surprisingly strong third-quarter numbers, there are all sorts of people who could claim vindication. It starts at the top. The simple fact is that Ford wouldn't be poised for a break-out had Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. and the board of directors failed to recruit CEO Alan Mulally three years ago. - 11/03/2009

United Way needs help of all

Mike Brennan doesn't say it in the direct, we-need-your-help United Way ads running these days on local radio stations. - 10/29/2009

UAW workers may derail Ford's success

Here, in the week before Ford Motor Co. hopes to maybe, sorta' report encouraging third-quarter earnings, a faction of its United Auto Workers membership is on course to torpedo a revised labor agreement. - 10/27/2009

Feds' war on bankers is folly

A government that spends more time lobbing rhetorical grenades at Wall Street and automakers, bankers and insurance execs, media outlets and other critics, is one that isn't laying the ground work for economic stability. - 10/23/2009

Ex-car czar's unsaid views most telling

President Obama's former car czar may be among the more unpopular guys in Detroit, but he shouldn't be -- because Steven Rattner's right. - 10/22/2009

Europe's politics hold up GM's Opel sale

The Germans aren't the only ones hoping to hurdle European Union objections to General Motors Co.'s plans to sell a majority stake in its Adam Opel GmbH unit. - 10/20/2009

State budget faceoff is absurd

The game of political chicken being played in Lansing between Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, is less about juicing the dismal economy than it is political positioning and crafting legacies. - 10/16/2009

GM out to shock American consumer

After years spent back on their figurative heels -- and the past 12 months on their knees -- GM's message-makers are leaning forward again, theoretically together. - 10/15/2009

Ohio gaming tests Detroit boosters

Dan Gilbert, the self-proclaimed Detroiter working big plans for his diverse business empire, remains bullish on his hometown. - 10/13/2009

Detroit supplies ammo for its bad image

Next time someone laments the tiresome fact that Detroit is getting whacked again in public, remember this: We give them so much material. - 10/09/2009

Bing battles a culture of entitlement

No one who draws a paycheck from the city of Detroit -- or wishes they could -- likely will embrace the plan from Mayor Dave Bing's crisis turnaround team, unveiled Wednesday. - 10/08/2009

So far, Fiat leaders fail to impress at Chrysler

Chrysler has been a cash incinerator for the past decade, helped by successive owners whose chief goal ended up being to milk the pentastar for all they could get. Fiat stands to be the third such controlling force until it displays, by its positive actions, that it isn't. - 10/06/2009

What's it gonna take for Michigan to change?

What's it gonna take for Michigan's political class, in both parties, to acknowledge that they repeatedly have failed the people who sent them to Lansing with some expectation that they would do something to earn the salaries we're paying them? - 10/02/2009

Time for GM to overhaul its culture

Starting today, General Motors Co. officially begins the big push to change its slow, risk-averse, bureaucratic culture. - 10/01/2009

MSU sets example in how to lead

The opening of MSU's Detroit Center is a bricks-and-mortar symbol of a deepening commitment to Detroit despite difficult times for both. - 09/29/2009

GM puts focus back on cars

For the first time in a very long time, GM can focus on what they actually build and market instead of health care, labor costs, debt-laden balance sheets, the politics of the recession and myriad other issues that pushed them into bankruptcy. - 09/25/2009

Dillon fits mold for Michigan governor

Andy Dillon, the speaker of the Michigan House, officially is not running for the Democratic nomination to be the next governor. But he ought to be. - 09/24/2009

CCS center proves Detroit can rebuild

The Taubman Center is bricks-and-mortar validation that a few smart politicians, influential business leaders and innovative educators can coalesce around an idea, push through the soggy blanket of negativity nearly smothering southeast Michigan and show how things can work. - 09/22/2009

Lenders recognize American Axle still has value

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., so dependent on shrunken General Motors Co.'s production for its revenue, said Thursday it had reached a last-minute accommodation with its lenders to avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy. - 09/18/2009

Michigan's year of reckoning isn't over

Wall Street is recovering, bonuses are rising again, humbled banks are repaying the feds and the recession is "over," says Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. But the annus horribilis that changed Detroit, the state of Michigan and their hometown auto industry -- forever -- isn't over. - 09/17/2009

Maximum Bob leads GM marketing charge

In his newest gig, General Motors Co.'s favorite septuagenarian, Bob Lutz, is preparing to double spending this year and next on marketing GM vehicles and unleash a flood of new ad campaigns that will be truly revolutionary simply for what they aim to do -- focus on the cars and trucks. - 09/15/2009

Whether Germans like it or not, GM won't be going away

The only question I have about General Motors Co.'s incipient spin-off of its Adam Opel GmbH unit in Germany is this: Are they popping corks on German Sekt or the old Russian equivalent, that sparkling wine from Georgia favored in Soviet times? - 09/11/2009

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