Lloyd wrote:

>
> From BusinessWeek:
>
> "Far from being the perfect hedge, Chrysler proved to be a massive
> rescue job that sucked up billions and absorbed German management for
> years."
>
Hah! German management completely ignored North American operations.
Except for putting out silly commercials with Dieter Zietsche as "Dr.
Z." Useless.

> "Soon the Germans discovered that Chrysler, which has a long history
> of boom-and-bust cycles,

EVERY carmaker that has operated primarily in the North American market
follows a "boom and bust" cycle. Its been that way since at least the
end of WWII. Daimler management refused to deal with that cycle by
timing new products correctly to generate interest as the previous
product lines waned, and paid for it.