Thread Number: 5455
It's OK to sell port operations to foreign countries, but...
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Post# 115984   3/17/2006 at 22:37 (6,586 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

our DOJ lawyers do not want WP to buy poor Maytag according to a business news story on Yahoo.




Post# 115985 , Reply# 1   3/17/2006 at 22:39 (6,586 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Lost this little link somehow. sorry

CLICK HERE TO GO TO tomturbomatic's LINK


Post# 116001 , Reply# 2   3/18/2006 at 00:22 (6,586 days old) by dadoes (TX, U.S. of A.)        

dadoes's profile picture
Wow. Obviously, Whirlpool wasn't expecting this decision.

Post# 116030 , Reply# 3   3/18/2006 at 07:57 (6,585 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        

toggleswitch's profile picture
Yes well great!
Now some foreign firm will get it.

Possible scenarios:

1- Felafel with that Maytag, Afendi?
2- Arroz Con Gondules con el Maytag senior?
3- Free dim-sum with Maytag, white lice or fried lice? Any sauce?


Post# 116104 , Reply# 4   3/18/2006 at 21:55 (6,585 days old) by jetcone (Schenectady-Home of Calrods,Monitor Tops,Toroid Transformers)        
Thats Just STUPID!

jetcone's profile picture
It's okay for all these banks to become super big mess banks?

It's okay to allow all the MEGA-INCs to support the worlds biggest lobby system in DC? So the little guy has no say in what goes on in DC?
I liked monopolies! All the airlines had big seats, the phone worked and no one called me about which phone service I would like.

Have IQ's dropped since the 60's???????



Post# 116181 , Reply# 5   3/19/2006 at 08:08 (6,584 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        

gansky1's profile picture
It's interesting to note that the Canadian government approved the merger last week, just before this tidbit came out in the press here. I'm actually quite shocked that this would be a problem at all given the political and pro-corporate climate we have today. An article in our local paper yesterday cited that it was Home Depot that was fussing about the merger and complaining of possible price fixing on the part of Whirlpool since they would be the largest maker of laundry products, etc. This isn't over, if a suit is filed by the DOJ to stop the merger, Whirlpool and Maytag can file suits as well... On it goes.

Post# 116198 , Reply# 6   3/19/2006 at 08:53 (6,584 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        
HAVE THE IQs DROPPED SINCE THE 60s?

On the front page of Sturday's Washington Post: Cooking 101: Add 1 Cup of Simplicity

At Kraft Foods, recipes never include words like "dredge" or "saute." Betty Crocker recipes avoid words like "braise" and "truss." Land O' Lakes has all but banned "fold" and "cream" from its cooking instructions. And Pillsbury carefully sidesteps "simmer" and "sear."

When the country's top food companies want to create recipes that millions of Americans will be able to understand, there seems to be one guiding principle: They need to be written for a nation of culinary illiterates. (nasty me: Illiteracy is not limited to culinary matters.)

Basic cooking terms that have been part of kitchen vocabulary for centuries are now considered incomprehensible to the majority of Americans. Despite the popularity of the Food Network cooking shows on cable TV, and the burgeoning number of food magazines and gourmet restaurants, today's cooks have fewer kitchen skills than their parents--or grandparents--did.

To compensate, food companies are dumbing down their recipes and cookbooks are now published with simple instructions and lots of step-by-step illustrations.

"Thirty years ago,, a recipe would say, 'Add two eggs,'" said Bonnie Slotnick, a longtime cookbook editor and owner of a rare cookbook shop in Greenwich Village. "In the '80s, that was changed to 'beat two eggs until lightly mixed.' By the '90s, you had to write, 'In a small bowl, using a fork, beat two eggs,' she said. "we joke that the next step will be, "Using your right hand, pick up a fork and...'"

At a conference last December, Stephen W. Sanger, chairman and chief executive of General Mills Inc., noted the sad state of culinary affairs and described the kind of emails and calls the company gets asking for cooking advice: the person who didn't have any eggs for baking and asked if a peach would do instead, for example; and the man who railed about the fire that resulted when he thought he was following instructions to grease the bottom of the pan--the outside of the pan.

It's like Greg mentioned once about taking treats to school functions; everybody wondered where he BOUGHT what he brought and were amazed that he had actually baked them in his oven. That sort of fits in with what Richard Ruben, who teaches cooking courses to non-cooks said.

"In my basic 'How to Cook' class, I get people who have only used their ovens to store shoes and sweaters. They don't know what garlic looks like."


Post# 116200 , Reply# 7   3/19/2006 at 09:16 (6,584 days old) by mayken4now (Panama City, Florida)        
Oh My God.

mayken4now's profile picture
Why do only the lawyers and their court buddys always fare in profit on these issues.

I understand the all about monopoly's etc.

DOJ - work on other issues that directly effect citizens welfare and stay the Hell out of this. (hint: we still need help here in the south from all the past hurricanes.....think you could pass a vote on that)

I'm over it

Steve



Post# 116723 , Reply# 8   3/21/2006 at 09:20 (6,582 days old) by designgeek ()        


Silly humans, what will they do next...?

An old conservative guy whose name escapes me just wrote a book on the decline of the US. He is rather ticked-off at the present administration, to put it mildly. One of the factors he says is killing us, is the "financialization" of the economy: as it's commonly said, in the past we used to manufacture things, now we just sell each other mortgages. (The other two factors are religious extremism, and over-dependence on oil which is about to start running out.)

Think about the commercials you used to hear on the radio, for all kinds of real products. Nowadays, half of the commercials are for either going into debt or getting out of debt, and the other half are for various pills. I suppose all those pills are supposed to cure the sicknesses you get from too much debt.

IMHO the roots of our present de-industrialization of America go back to Margaret Thatcher's de-industrialization of England. English companies with as much as 250 years of history, that survived two world wars and the (last) great depression, were killed off by Thatcherism. I swear she is going to fry in hell for eternity for that. And the present crop of her American equivalents will be frying right along next to her.



Post# 116738 , Reply# 9   3/21/2006 at 10:34 (6,582 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Think of how much fun others will have sticking forks into them to see if they are done.

The fact that our major corporations have been able to export these jobs, especially to an antagonistic place like China is criminal. The Chinese were making the counterfit $100 bills that North Korea used to flood financial markets. That's why we had to have a new design. Chinese drug lords are making crystal methamphetamine for North Korea's drug trade. The leaders that question patriotism over some small POS issue are the ones complicit in moving the wealth out of this country and allowing the importing of illegal aliens to do the work that has to be done here cheaper so that they can break labor's back. This country is headed for some very eye-opening events when more and more foreign firms and governments that have our money start buying up more and more of this country and will then be telling us how to live.


Post# 116745 , Reply# 10   3/21/2006 at 11:36 (6,582 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )        

petek's profile picture
What you're seeing now isn't even the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the financial clout China will have on the worlds economy over the next few years let alone the next couple of decades as their mega population makes an even great shift from agriculture to manufacturing and service industries.

The other country to watch out for is India, again with a massive billion plus population they too are pulling out all the stops when it comes to becoming the world leader in superior health care at a fraction of the cost among other things.

The other thing too is that India and China are pumping out university graduates by the thousands and will have if they don't already a higher percent per capita amount of people with university degrees and specialties leaving the USA and other western countries in the dust when it comes to a highly educated population. The Chinese especially put a high value on education and don't pay lip service to it like here. India isn't much different.


Post# 116787 , Reply# 11   3/21/2006 at 15:19 (6,582 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        
IQ going down? Yes and for good reason...

gansky1's profile picture
One of the talking points of our current administration was that we need to place a greater value on education especially in the fields of mathematics and science. All evidence to the contrary. NASA climate change studies have been supressed and the NASA website engineers were "asked" to add the term "theory" after every mention of The Big Bang where it concerned the origins of the universe. Consider too the funding cuts for higher education institutions, tuition grant programs for the poor and interest hikes on student loans. Proper grammar and legible handwriting are less important in elementary cirriculum now than ever before - we have computers to do it for us. I'm not pointing my finger at one person, party or group, this is a joint effort (through complacency and ingnorance) on the part of every American. We are creating a country of ignorant people but the saddest thing is, everyone is too busy watching American Idol to care...so the wheels keep turning.

Post# 116791 , Reply# 12   3/21/2006 at 15:41 (6,582 days old) by lavamat_jon (UK)        

Sad thing is, a lot of customers in the dark about washers will buy a Maytag, Whirlpool or GE because they think it is made by the same American company that their 1973 Maytag set was, whereas the truth couldn't be anymore different.

Same thing is happening here in the UK. People buy Hotpoint because it's British and think it will last just as well as the model they bought in 1981, but the sad truth is that the machine is now of Italian design, only assembled in the UK, and you'd be lucky if it lasts you 5 years. But people still buy it because they think it is British designed and engineered, yet they couldn't be far more from the truth. Scary really, when you think it is a Communist state that is producing a lot of these new appliances, and the majority of our electronics.

Jon


Post# 116953 , Reply# 13   3/22/2006 at 11:51 (6,581 days old) by tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD)        

Jon, we were shocked in April, 2001 at the Kitchen & Bath show in Orlando when we walked into the Asko area and started opening doors. There were still some washers, dryers and DWs that looked like Asko machines, then there were all of these cheap looking things. We were told that Asko had somehow merged with a firm in Italy, not known for making quality anything, but now those things had Asko's name on them, sort of like what Maytag did with all of the junky lines that they bought up.

Greg, I thought that the math-science initiative was most ironic when religion trumps science in the classroom and visitors from all over the world can read and purchase a publication in the Grand Canyon Visitors' Center which disputes everything about the geological history and formation of the canyon since the book states that the whole planet is only a few thousand years old. We have created a culture where ignorance is glorified if the ignorance can be found to have a Biblical reference. Why is fundamentalism bad when it is Islamic, but good when it is Christian? And, if you think it is outrageous that an Afghan citizen is in danger of being put to death for converting to Christianity, I hope that you know that for centuries when the Catholic church was running the world, if a Christian converted to Judaism, both the convert and the rabbi who helped with the conversion were put to death.


Post# 116997 , Reply# 14   3/22/2006 at 17:06 (6,581 days old) by gyrafoam (Wytheville, VA)        

Not too terribly surprised to think of HD having something to do with muddying the water. Their CEO who was cast off by Jack Welch (at GE) some years ago has been trying to mold HD and its related companies into another type GE conglomerate. The senior management at HD is VERY pro-Republican party. They also have built up quite the nasty reputation for bullying vendors. One of the reasons their competetors or doing so well is the vendors that got po'd with the Depot went "across the street" to do business with the other guys----and like it!

Now Whirlpool, from what I understand, has a very good and humanitarian policy in place to care for their employees, and, for instance, do not discriminate against same gender partners. So I would think maybe the fundamentalists currently in the Oval oriface would tend to view Whirlpool as sort of a liberal minded group.

In any event, it will be interesting to see what will happen now. I think another consortium of business people might just get in the fray now and make an offer. The big questions for them will be not only "what are they buying?" but more importantly---"what will they sell?"

MTC


Post# 117292 , Reply# 15   3/23/2006 at 20:53 (6,580 days old) by johnb300m (Chicago)        
IMO

johnb300m's profile picture
I honestly think Maytag's in a bit of serious trouble, but nothing as bad as needing to be bought out. That lazy ass CEO John Hames just doesn't want to work at fixing Maytag and making it great again. Maytag needs to take a hard look at itself. It's heart is in the right place, but it's body is expelling crap. Once Maytag reidentifies itself and makes high quality, durable, no nonsense appliances, and not try to copy what everyone else from F&P and Hair are doing with all their plastic, Maytag will come back. They also need to stop their rebadging of overseas appliances right quick. I'm actually hoping our old Maytag LA511 will break so we can get the matching Neptune washer to go with the Neptune dryer we got in 2003, before they discontinue them.
I'm not impressed with the Korean sourced Neptunes. I think they're abominations. We're almost toast when talking about domestic industries, the US auto industry is fighting the gallows tooth and nail, i would be devastated to see our appliance industry go that way too.

As far as being bought out, if that seriously is their only future, then I'd rather see Maytag stay domestic and go to Whirlpool, or maybe even GE if they are suddenly interested. I'd be devastated if Maytag went to Hair. I've experienced some of "China's finest" and their stuff makes me laugh, seriously.


Post# 117318 , Reply# 16   3/24/2006 at 01:54 (6,580 days old) by chestermikeuk (Rainhill *Home of the RailwayTrials* Merseyside,UK)        
Very interesting!!

chestermikeuk's profile picture
I was talking to a couple of distributors / buyers within our industry and Maytag UK is going from strength to strength over here.

Granted is not with the "original" products except refrigeration, Asko badged laundry as well, Rangemaster cooking, Constellation Cleaning etc, reputable companies building well built appliances that can stand up to the marketing straplines ..."Performance You Can Depend On"..."Dependable Care"..."Built From The Ground Up"

On the Maggie Thatcher thread....we do blame her as a figurhead...BUT...its also the people who have shares in the companies as well now...its fine to take the share profits, but the same people (over here, I`ll own this one)then balk and winge when we see our finest companies decimated never to return.( I also realise its much more than that as well)

COOKING: we are ALMOST 2 generations too late with this one,not taught in schools to everyone, working mums era partly makes it necessary, and convenience food is the latest to have accessory... M & S dont rely on their clothing now but rather FOOD...now thats diversification for you...

Jamie Oliver is doing a grand job at re-educating the children (and Adults)about what they eat and how they prepare it...BUT it is the BASICS that they now dont get from moms or dads round the table all with your own bowl making all sorts of cakes etc, to get them to FEEL and EXPERIENCE what its all about...

WHAT TO DO:
Gospel according to Mikey, its back to all of us talking & engaging about this stuff at FAMILY & COMMUNITY level, engaging local groups, identifying issues, feeding it through to local schools & councillors, then to you MP`s, having needs met and making sure Governments & Organisations dont just think we will all roll over and let them do what they want...

Thought For The Day:
When was the last time you had such a burning issue that you wrote/discussed it with your MP / Congressperson???

AND Now!!! after all that I need to "Maytag" the house & "Clean My Space" !!!...



Post# 117360 , Reply# 17   3/24/2006 at 06:36 (6,579 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        

toggleswitch's profile picture
*WOW*
The above is a machine I would surely buy two of-

One to use
one to collect

2,000 watts? *GULP* Can't do that here with what Euro-boys (of this site) have called old-fashioned 110v!!!!


Post# 117510 , Reply# 18   3/24/2006 at 17:46 (6,579 days old) by cvillewasherbo ()        
Hoover Constellation

Didn't the Constellation float about on air? When I was a kid, our neighbors had one and it was VERY easy to pull around.


Post# 117517 , Reply# 19   3/24/2006 at 18:08 (6,579 days old) by toggleswitch (New York City, NY)        

toggleswitch's profile picture
hhhmmm. The cleaner that *hovers* around your home?
Isn't vacuuming in the UK called Hoovering?

FASCINATING play on words!


Post# 117520 , Reply# 20   3/24/2006 at 18:21 (6,579 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )        

petek's profile picture
They do call it hoovering at least they did.. Growing up that's what my mom would do. At the time I didn't put 2 and 2 together even though we had a Kenmore. LOL

Post# 117525 , Reply# 21   3/24/2006 at 19:10 (6,579 days old) by kirk280980 ()        

Mike,

How I agree with you when it comes to people not learning to cook properly these days. I know many people who freely admit to not being able to boil an egg, and one fellow in particular who, at the age of 27, can't even make a sandwich of all things and gets his mum to do it for him. The fact that they laugh about it when admitting these things is what gets me. I'm sorry, but I don't think this is funny; it's sad, and they ought to be downright ashamed.

Not saying *everyone* should feel confident in cracking out a 3-course meal for 20 guests (I certainly wouldn't), but there's absolutely no excuse for not being able to feed oneself properly.

I took domestic science lessons at school, in fact our class was 75% male, and had a wonderful teacher who taught us the basics of making good, honest family food. Not just the cooking side of things, but also costing and budgeting (hence "Home Economics") and the nutritional aspects too.

Also very lucky here to have parents who are good cooks, with my father spending 20-odd years serving in the Navy as a head chef. My brother and I were encouraged to cook and experiment in the kitchen from a very early age, therefore we see it as something to be enjoyed rather than just a chore. Living on convenience food is my idea of hell, I would rather make ice cream from scratch, bake my own bread and stuff my own sausages so I know what's going into them, and have fun in the process!

Kirk


Post# 117586 , Reply# 22   3/25/2006 at 08:50 (6,578 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!)        

gansky1's profile picture
One of my friends got an advert in the mail hawking a new company that you can make "homemade meals" - you go into their kitchen studios and prepare them yourself. All the ingredients are provided, measured, chopped/diced and ready to add to the dishes on the menu. There are 12 different meals you make in one evening and take them home, ready to freeze. You don't even have to do the dishes, they take care of everything. The cost? $179. It sounds like all you need to be able to do is operate a spoon, a roll of aluminum foil and your oven thermostat.

What a boon for those families whose children have learned their table manners in the back seat of the car!



Post# 117695 , Reply# 23   3/25/2006 at 22:03 (6,578 days old) by appnut (TX)        

appnut's profile picture
Greg, we have one of those places in Killeen. I went with some co-workers one evening just for grins. Everything on the menu that night for the month had one ingredient that rendered the food unable for me to eat due to my food cautions. And people ahead of us used wayy too much of a certain ingredient and the last group, us, didn't get to make what they wanted. The packaging does have heating instructions. The result is, you have a home cooked meal with the assistance of someone else, although you assemble. All ingredient planning/purchase is done for you. But a family can actually sit down to a real meal. IN the end, it's too expensive for me. I can make my own less expensive.

Post# 118771 , Reply# 24   3/30/2006 at 07:28 (6,573 days old) by thor (Buenos Aires)        
Takeover approved!

Whirlpool's $1.68 Billion Takeover of Maytag Approved
Bloomberg March 29 2006

Whirlpool Corp. can complete its $1.68 billion takeover of Maytag Corp., the U.S. Justice Department decided as it rejected concerns from its own lawyers that the combination might hurt competition.

The acquisition, approved without any required divestitures, will create the world's largest appliance maker. It was the first merger decision by Thomas O. Barnett since he won Senate confirmation on Feb. 10 to head the Justice Department's antitrust division.

``I'm stunned,'' said Mirko Mikelic, a senior portfolio analyst with Fifth Third Bank in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with $21 billion assets including Whirlpool bonds. ``I thought they would need to do at least something to appease the Justice Department.''

Shares of Maytag surged $4.73, or almost 28 percent, to $21.81 at 4 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Whirlpool rose $6.38, or 7.1 percent, to $95.95.

``The proposed transaction is not likely to reduce competition substantially,'' the Justice Department said in a statement. ``Large cost savings and other efficiencies that Whirlpool appears likely to achieve indicate that this transaction is not likely to harm consumer welfare.''

Government lawyers who investigated the combination had raised concerns that it would lead to higher prices for washing machines because Whirlpool and Maytag together control more than 70 percent of the U.S. market, said antitrust lawyers familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the transaction.

Foreign Competition

Whirlpool, argued that growing foreign competition from makers such as China-based Haier Group Corp., LG Corp. of South Korea and Sweden's Electrolux AB would constrain its ability to raise prices.

The Justice Department said in its statement today that it is convinced the combined company can't raise prices because of competition from General Electric Co. and Electrolux AB's Frigidaire line. It also noted that foreign-made products sold by such companies as LG and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. ``have quickly established themselves in recent years.''

The Justice Department also cited competition from Sears Holdings Corp.'s Kenmore brand, which is manufactured by Whirlpool.

Whirlpool said its production of the Kenmore brand shouldn't be counted as part of its share of the washing machine market because Sears sets prices and promotes its own appliances.

Fourth-Quarter Loss

Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, outbid Ripplewood Holdings last year for Maytag, which reported a fourth-quarter loss of $75 million, or 93 cents a share. Maytag's loss widened from $14.1 million, or 18 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Haier withdrew its preliminary bid of $16 a share for Newton, Iowa-based Maytag after Whirlpool bid $17. Whirlpool then raised its offer three times to $21 a share before Maytag's board agreed to the deal.



Post# 122162 , Reply# 25   4/14/2006 at 06:51 (6,558 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains)        
we did it to ourselves

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One of the reasons I will NOT be teaching when I return to the 'States is because of all the restrictions the christians and politically correct have placed on the truth. My students in Germany are actively encouraged to think for themselves and rewarded for researching and arguing points of view which differ from the "everyone knows" position.
My friends in Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas who teach write to me with one horror story after another.
Fundamentalism - whether p.c. or the christians, is doing in eductation in the US. The dumbing down is an inevitable result.
Not that Europe is doing any better at answering the challanges posed by China and India. Case in point: In Germany, Chinese students are welcomed with open arms. Once they have completed their studies (frequently summa cum laude) they MUST then leave the country. We wouldn't want them sullying our labor market with their initiative, creativity or industriousness. The Italians (who are great engineers, whatever their quality problems may be) are losing the battle for the cheap end of the appliances market because China, Pakistan and India produce better quality for less money. Instead of raising their quality, they are trying to have import restrictions imposed.
I am not even going into the human rights issues here - let's just leave it at this: Even if I did want to teach in the 'States, as a gay man I have no chance of being hired.
The middle class is dying, the rich get richer by not investing their profit into the productive economy...and the biggest issue facing the "West" is who will win American Idol or Deutschland sucht dem Superstar...



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