First encountering it a week ago, I'm still impressed by NPR's idea to turn the camera on the lobbyists packing the health care hearings rather than on the hearings themselves.
On top of that, NPR's idea (a lá Facebook) was to have readers examine the photos, then tag the various lobbyists in each photo. ...Unfortunately, readers haven't exactly flocked to the task. In the image above, only three people have been identified so far.
Still, doing its bit to breakdown the abstraction of "K" Street, I hope this exercise might actually get somewhere.
This is the fourth post of a BAGnewsOriginals series, Grand Rapids Auto, exploring theeconomic crisis through the life of a family-owned Chrysler dealership.Christina Clusiauis a New York basedphotographerwho has been returning to her hometown in Northern Minnesota to photograph and interview members and employees of Tom Clusiau Sales and Rental Service Inc.
Tony Bickford is a mechanic who has been with the dealership for 12 years. He does all the front end work, brakes, alignments, etc. These are some of his thoughts on Detroit and the business environment as conveyed to Christina Clusiau.
*** *** ***
On the auto industry:
Well, see, the big CEOs get way, way too much money. I never understood, how come me as a technician has to know the car inside and out, front to back and get paid a hell of a lot less than anyone at the assembly line? All they have to do is put four tires on all day long. And a CEO or president gets multi-million dollars in bonuses that don't help out the industry, so that’s part of the reason the auto industry went down.
On the economy:
Part of the problem was with Bush and the gas prices; it wasn't necessarily the housing market. It was the gas prices, everybody could afford their house payment up until the gas prices went to $4.00 a gallon and all of a sudden you are pushing the auto industry. Who could afford a house payment along with a new car payment and the gas prices at $4.00 a gallon? There are a lot of people that went under because of the gas prices; they could probably have made the house or car payment, but not both.
If people do have any money, they are not going spend it, they are going to save it. Unless they have to spend it - it’s like working on broken vehicles, if it’s broke down they are going to fix it and not buy a new one - because why buy a new one, why chance it when the gas prices might shoot back up next month? It was the gas prices that killed off everything else, it was the oil companies trying to line their pockets.
On job security:
As far as the auto industry, I don't know what's going to happen with the business, but from my personal eyes I don't plan on staying a mechanic until retirement age, because what's the sense of working my butt off for nothing? So, I would just get out, move on and do something else, like half the rest of the technicians, because to know it inside out, front to back and get paid less, it don't make no sense.
If the whole auto industry went bankrupt, I don't know if it would bother me. I would bring my toolbox home and turn wrenches on what I could and it wouldn't matter. I mean, it’s not a good aspect, but I would just move on earlier than normal.
On foreign cars:
I don't know that the foreign vehicles can do any better, I don't know if they are better designed. Since we merged with Daimler at that one point, I haven't seen any better concepts…I can't say they are any better than any American car.
(images: Christina Clusiau, April 2009. See slide show captions for photo information)
Even if mostly for show, it seemed noteworthy yesterday during Obama's moment of solidarity with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger that an enthusiastic Ford CEO Alan Mulally, far right, was beaming in response.
(image: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty. caption: US President Barack Obama shakes hands with United Auto Workers(UAW) President Ron Gettelfinger (L) as he stands alongside leaders of worldwide automakers and members of his Cabinet after announcing new fuel efficiency standards to curb auto emissions for US cars in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, May 19, 2009)
According to FORTUNE (which is doing its bit this month to make corporate boards more palatable), McDonald's is gorging on the recession, with visits up 2 million over last year to 58 million and profits up 80% to $4.3 billion. My question, however (given how much more the directors look like product testers than tasters), is: what did the board really have for lunch?
American journalism’s vaunted self-image as a watchdog apparently stops at the curb of Wall Street.
Instead of investigative journalism, the public is fed executive hagiographies and paeans to entrepreneurship and productivity. Even after the downward spiral of the last few months, the analysis often is devoted too much to praising the intelligence of the players and the complexity of the deals. The accompanying photos of gilded office towers and middle-aged guys in sharp clothes hardly diminishes the luster of those supposedly being scrutinized. And then, in a single stroke, an image appeared this weekend that stabbed through to the truth.
I was taken by the appearance of the Obama Auto Task Force (standing behind the President as he discusses the Chrysler bankruptcy), the members looking clearly outside their comfort zone. (I appreciate the Truman touch, by the way, although the painting seems to only heighten the look of anxiety amongst the team.)
Not knowing Chrysler's fate until the night before, the team members seemed to appear before the press without their game faces on. (Geithner, in particular, casts a look to Obama like he hopes he knows what he is doing.) What the photo reveals, then, perhaps more clearly than any other so far, is the strength of Obama's leadership -- especially, in house -- in the face of multiple tremendous challenges.
What holds them together is a passion for thinking and an inextinguishable curiosity about a new economic order that is unfolding before them like an Alice in Wonderland world. The sheer fascination of inventing a 21st century financial system motivates them more than the usual Washington drugs of power and money. In the past six years the three men have merged into a kind of brotherhood.
...
Among the top priorities: cleaner international banking systems, transparent lending practices and more open markets. As soon as they can ram those changes through, they expect growth to pick up again--possibly just in time to help a flagging U.S. economy. from:The Three Marketeers(TIME Monday, Feb. 15, 1999).
Because Paul Krugman's latest opinion piece ("America, The Tarnished" ) references this ten-year-old TIME cover...
Of course, Gov. Granholm was referring to the company, not the CEO, in this demonstration at GM's Detroit auto show press preview in January. Still, the irony is inescapable in this game show-like photo as the administration gives Wagoner the boot today.
Some history:
(image: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images. North American International Auto Show. Cobo Center January 11, 2009 in Detroit, Michigan)
The CEOs arrived today at the White House alone or escorted by other company executives; some were quickly ushered in through the security gate by Bartlett, while others were forced to go through the usual routine for visitors. Dimon was among the first to arrive and was asked by the guard at the gate to repeat his name twice and spell it once. --Bank CEOs Tell Obama They Are Working Toward Recovery(Bloomberg)
I'm thrilled how Obama corralled those bank CEOs on Friday for a selflessness workshop, then kicked them loose out on the driveway to face a hungry media.
FAIR USE NOTICE:: This site contains images and excerpts the use of which have not been pre-authorized. This material is made available for the purpose of analysis and critique, as well as to advance the understanding of political, media and cultural issues.
The 'fair use' of such material is provided for under U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with U.S. Code Title 17, Section 107, material on this site (along with credit links and attributions to original sources) is viewable for educational and intellectual purposes. If you are interested in using any copyrighted material from this site for any reason that goes beyond 'fair use,' you must first obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Grand Rapids Auto: Tony
