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WEEKLY VIDEO: Chevrolet Traverse

SEPTEMBER 20, 2008: Happy Birthday GM!

by Michael Pistol

Fascinating week – don’t you think?
The third week of September 2008, will be remembered for a long time, no doubt, and it won’t be much related to September 16 General Motors’s 100 anniversary – which just happened to be celebrated right in the middle of the largest stock market rout and debt upheaval since the Dirty ‘30s.

As fate has it, this is the week when the fresh 100-year old GM unveiled its production-ready Volt – an overarching symbol of both the company’s financial future and its technological prowess. Yet, as irony has it, this current near-universal debt crisis has the potential to really derail GM’s centennial dream.

By now, the last couple of weeks’ incredible details are all well known: The Fred-n-Fannie bailout/nationalization, the failure of the 158-year old Lehman Brothers investment bank. Then this week’s US $85-billion AIG loan and the Morgan Stanley scare. By midweek, nearly US $2-trillion evaporated from the global equity markets; Russia halts trading completely for two days and the world’s central banks US $180-billion liquidity injection barely makes a dent in the investors’ sentiment.
By Thursday, sensing crash, the Fed goes full tilt for the Treasury Department’s purse insuring all of the consumer-critical publicly offered money-market fund, halts all short trading on almost 800 companies – and all is peachy again: By the closing bell on Friday, the markets rocket to recover losses and they did. As it is, for now, the total bailout/loans cost could reach just about US $1.3 trillion, all included.
History was made. Big time.

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Ipso Facto - Fundamentals September 2008

CANADA’S WEALTH: Canadian National balance sheet accounts - Second quarter 2008

National net worth rose 2.0% in the second quarter of 2008, as an increase in the value of non-financial assets was moderated by the rise in net foreign indebtedness. National net worth, total assets less...
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ENVIRONMENT: Honda Issues Fourth-Annual North American Environmental Report

Honda has released its fourth annual report on the company's environmental performance in North America. This year's report adopts a lifecycle assessment (LCA) model for the reporting of Honda's environmental footprint...
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INFRASTRUCTURE: Hydro One receives OEB approval to build $635 million high-voltage transmission line

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has approved Hydro One's Leave to Construct application for the Bruce to Milton Transmission Reinforcement Project with conditions. The project involves the construction...
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LEADERSHIP: Performance Management - A significant business issue. New survey to address leading practices, challenges and opportunities

A new global research study has been launched to develop a deeper understanding of leading practices in performance management and to establish whether there are links between the application of these practices and the performance of organizations...
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RESOURCES 2009

CANADIAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY RESOURCES

Need results? Meet our industry's key players.
Essential data, contacts, website.

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NEWS - Seven Days___________Sept.20 - Sept.26, 2008

MARKETING: Honda Canada To Sponsor ‘Honda Indy Toronto’

CNGVA: T. Boone Pickens to Promote Natural Gas for Transportation in Ontario, Sterling Manufactures Natural Gas Trucks in Ontario

CIAS 2009: Auto Trader wins CIAS Publishing and Event Presentation Rights

INSURANCE: Safety Group, Jones DesLauriers Team up to Create "Mega-trucking insurance brokerage"

DIESEL FUEL: North West Upgrading Enters Sales Agreement with Leading Alberta-Based Diesel Distributor

AWARD: PHH Arval Named to 2008 InformationWeek Top 100

PARADIGM SHIFTS - Open Source for Automotive Business Leadership /October

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Happy Birthday GM!

Creative Destruction - And an update on alternative fuels

While the business world is gripped by venerable banks deathwatch, hair-raising Wall Street’ cliffhangers, Detroit Three’s bailout schemes and oil’s sudden abandonment by your pension plan or investment bank...
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