I was a bit skeptical of the ability of Newsweek to transform itself. There are few magazines like the Economist for a reason. Even though the newspaper (as they call themselves) has been around for 150 years and is hugely successful, most imitators flounder.

I’m thinking that Newsweek isn’t going to make it. They want to be the American voice of serious news journalism with a dash of opinion thrown in. How do they show it? By letting a fake news guy take over the magazine for a week.

I’ve triple checked the calendar and it’s not April. It’s not the Onion reporting the story either. I keep wanting this to be satire, but I’m not sure it is.

While it’s made me mention the magazine, it surely won’t make me associate it with serious journalism.

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. TV Guide Report: Scrubs and Friday Night Lights Renewed!
2. Friday Night Lights on Friday?
3. Business Journalists Don’t Know Any Better Than You

As a little background, I have grown attached to my Saturn (despite some early issues). I really hope that the company makes it because I think that if it gets back to its roots, it could go back to being a viable entity. Basically, Saturn needs to de-GM themselves and go back to what made it successful: small cars and a labor agreement that is much more flexible than the GM agreement.

Renault could supply the small cars. I was really impressed with Renault’s vehicles when I was travelling to Germany. I would absolutely love to get euro-designed fuel efficient small cars into the US market. If Renault could get 50 state diesels over here, they could easily challenge VW as the diesel maker of choice in the US.  There’s a lot of potential in a Saturn-Renault tie up.

I hope that Mr. Ghosn (who runs Renault and Nissan) wouldn’t simply buy Saturn to sell repackaged Nissans (that’s what got Saturn in trouble, they sell nothing but rebadged Chevrolets).  I would hope that Mr.Ghosn, who  seems like a smart guy, realizes that there is still value in the quirky car company that almost could. Without GM breathing down their throats, and undercutting their marketing and production, I think that Saturn could thrive in the market. Will it ever be a GM? No, but it could easily be a Hyundai.

I realize that there is the potential for politicking in this move. Luckily, Nissan has a large presence in Tennessee (Saturn’s home state), so it should tamp down on state politicians trying to take advantage of the situation. It really is in the best interest of Saturn, and therefore Tennessee, to have them viable. However, the whole auto industry (including labor and local politicians) has shown an acute inability of seeing the big picture. Both the labor unions and politicians have decided it’s better to try and hold on to the little piece they have currently while the whole industry burns around them.

While the UAW has made some concessions in the past couple of years, this whole situation could have been helped (though not avoided because management is to blame for running the companies extremely poorly) if they had made concessions earlier. Politicians have made the problem worse by doing everything they can to keep the domestic auto industry from making the changes they need to make to make the industry healthy.

And I’m not saying this as an uninterested observer that couldn’t care less about the industry. I work in an industry that depends on a healthy auto industry and every move that is made by the automakers could have an impact on my job. I want to have a healthy industry. I need a healthy industry and we don’t have one. If done right, this could definitely be a step in the right direction.

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. A Ford and GM merger?
2. Is GM Getting It?

However, I think the state that it will affect the most will be Minnesota. There is zero chance that the GOP lets Coleman concede the election until the SCOTUS weighs in on the decision. This probably hurts Pawlenty’s chances because polls are showing that Minnesotans just want another Senator and want the whole charade to be over. The poll I saw (sorry, no link) was that the majority Coleman to concede but would want Franken to concede if he lost the next court battle. If the national GOP forces Coleman’s hand, Pawlenty could lose a lot of support in his home state.

I’ll never know if Specter switched for personal political gain or if for true idological reasons. But like I said, I’m not surprised as I could only take the crap that the GOP has given him for so long before just leaving as well. There was zero reason for him to stay in the party and every reason for him to leave. I think that has the potential to help the Democrats well beyond PA if the GOP continues to act like the Democrats circa 2002.

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. Tax Earmarks Rule Will Have No Effect
2. AMT Patch Passes
3. Today’s Must Read

Okay, I hate to point this out to everyone all fired up about this, but those things were started under the Bush administration. The budget that was just passed was 90% Bush administration. The $700 billion TARP (and trillions in other guarantees) were enacted or requested by Bush appointees. How is this part of the “bankrupt liberal agenda”? Yes, I understand that the Democrats were in charge of Congress but we had a President that believed that the Executive branch could do whatever it pleased (see the original three page request for the TARP). There’s no way that the GOP is getting away from these events as they were there from the beginning.

Even if they were protesting high taxes, has anyone protesting actually looked at their tax returns? I did. My wife and I do fairly well. My effective tax rate for Federal purposes has hovered around 8% for the past few years. 8%. I’d bet most of the protestors are in the same boat as me. It shoots way up to 15% if you include Social Security and Medicare. Sacre bleu!

I’ve written time and again that I hate the tax code (though it grants my standard of living). The protest organizers do realize that the original tea party was protesting taxation without representation, right? Everyone has representation in Congress (well, except for DC) so if the tea partyists really want change, simply elect somebody else. These protests are just as silly and useful as protests by Jesse Jackson and their ilk. It’s just the other side.

We do need to have a serious discussion about simplifying the tax code. Unfortunately, this is not going to help. Both sides are dug in and no one is going to get anywhere with stunts like this. Hopefully, we won’t have a crisis before our representatives decide to get serious.

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. “Creative Accounting” Indeed
2. Lieberman Suggests A Rational Idea…
3. The Power of Lobbyists

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. Welcome to Blogging, Economist
2. The Economist Needs A Writer
3. The Economist on Google

I’m sorry that I brought the whole global financial system down with my irrestible baby blues. I will try harder next time to keep myself (and others) under control while I have my eyes open.

What a tool.

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. Politico’s Mea Culpa?
2. Online tools
3. Congrats, Jake!

No related posts.

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. Does Robocalling Work?

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. Ugh, I hate AT&T. I’m trying t…
2. Upgrade Complete
3. So after two and a half hours,…

Possibly Related Posts (Auto Generated):

1. I hate websites that think the…
2. CSR walking me through upgrade…