Honda Tech Line

.. Several months ago, there was a lady on

And then gone to jail for insider trading.

Do you know what on earth you are proposing?

 

(Jason) wrote in

Yes, they did. But /why/?

Several reasons:
1) The governments of both California and Alberta got rid of some old, bad
regulations in their electricity industry, and replaced them with new, even
worse ones. They called this "deregulation", a term swallowed and
regurgitated regularly by the stupid media. Enron, being run by some very
intelligent people, learned quickly how to game this new system, and made
most of their money doing that.

Had there been REAL deregulation, Enron would not have been able to reap
the profits they did, and would have been unable to lobby the government to
slant regulations their way, since the government would not have controlled
things.

2) The US government began debasing the currency (inflation). Enron's other
businesses were badly affected by this, and ended up losing massive amounts
of money.

Had the Bush government not monkeyed with currency and credit supply for
their own gain, Enron's other businesses would not have suffered as they
did, and there would not have been dramatic losses to cover up.

3) What's the first thing that happens to companies that lose large amounts
of money? In the US, they get slapped with a lawsuit. Since the US "winner-
pays" legal system makes it costless to launch a suit against somebody,
even with slim or no evidence, being sued is a huge danger for those with
money. When the losses became evident, Enron sought to lessen the danger of
a shareholder suit, and started playing tricks with their accounting.

Had America's tort system been more like it used to be before the
government legalized contingency, "winner-pays", and class action, Enron
would have been under less pressure to keep the bad numbers secret.


The evidence is clear that Enron was, prior to these issues beyond its
control, a very intelligently-run company that was doing what it did very
well. I do not mean to defend or denounce Enron. I'm simply pointing out
that like a good politician or lawyer, they took advantage of the system as
they found it, and profited greatly (as did their shareholders!) until the
government changed the rules on them.


Don't blame Enron, change the system.
1) Repeal the laws allowing contingency and mass tort
2) Get the government out of the electricity business altogether
3) Repeal that law which compels any entity to come public when it acquires
more than 5% of outstanding shares of a publicly-traded company.

This "corporate wrongdoing" thing is a canard. It it were truly widespread,
the whole system would collapse. It's very rare indeed.

 

Not only that, can you imagine the lawsuits that would have been INSTANTLY
filed against Enron as soon as the losses became known?

America's tort system is the absolute dumbest, most moronic in the entire
lawful world. It is amazing to me that in the midst of all that legislation
and regulation there is anarchy, that anarchy being *directly* caused by
the aforementioned laws.

Anarchy is not lack of law, it is TOO MUCH law.

 

Tegger,
You are right in everything you wrote. I realize that the gov't made
numerous mistakes related to Enron. However, don't you agree that the CEO
of Enron should NOT have kept the financial problems that they were having
secret from its employees and stock holders? There was a huge airline that
just recently informed the public--including stockholders and
employees--that they were losing millions of dollars every day. That's the
same thing that Enron should have done when they learned that they were
having serious financial problems.
Jason

 

(Jason) wrote in

Possibly. My impression is that Enron was afraid of shareholder lawsuits,
and figured that with a bit of time they could pull through it.

What airline was that?

 

Tegger,
You are right again--they were probably worried about lawsuits, their
stock crashing and hoping to pull thru without anyone ever finding out
about the problems.
I believe that it was United Airlines. There will probably be a story
about it in tomorrow's newspaper. I saw a news report about it earlier
today (Friday).
It will be on the nightly news shows or CNN headline news
Jason

 

(Jason) wrote in

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/05/12/BUG1HCNMQK1.DTL&type=bus
iness

(all on one line, copy-and-paste as necessary)

And so it appears to be United. However, United has been in Chapter 11
bankruptcy since 2002. If they recently announced they are losing millions
every day, then that would only be news to hermits.

 

If you bring in a car that has an issue same as listed on one of the TSB's,
a reputable dealer will take care of the issue for free. Some dealers are
not as "customer focused" (another way of saying honest, I guess) and you
will need to "remind" them of the TSB.

The best equipped consumer is an informed one.

 

John and Jason = TROLL?

The fact is TSBs, Service News and anything in writing the dealer gets from Honda
is public knowledge. You just have to know where to look.

In the case of TSBSs, a little knowledge can be dangerous or even deadly. Honda
wants only qualified persons, properly equipment to make TSB, or for that matter
any, repairs on their products. There is nothing sinister about the way Honda
does business.

Here is the footnote at the bottom of every Honda/Acura TSB: If you don't agree;
Well, that's just not my problem.

CUSTOMER INFORMATION: The information in this bulletin is intended for use only by
skilled technicians who have the proper tools, equipment, and training to
correctly and safely maintain your vehicle. These procedures should not be
attempted by “do-it-yourselfers,” and you should not assume this bulletin applies
to your vehicle, or that your vehicle has the condition described. To determine
whether this information applies, contact an authorized Honda automobile dealer.

--
Tp,

-------- __o
----- -\<. -------- __o
--- ( )/ ( ) ---- -\<.
-------------------- ( )/ ( )

 

That is legal (as long as the information is announced publicly), but
disastrous to the company and stockholders. The predictable result is a rush
to sell stock when nobody wants to buy (how much would you pay for a stock
that is dropping in value every minute because the company has announced
serious financial problems and sell orders are flooding the market?), with
the price of their stock crashing. The effect would be far worse than the
loss of value if the company liquidated or merged.

The bottom line is that the loss has already occurred and *somebody* has to
shoulder the loss. That somebody is always the stockholders. That's just how
it works.

Mike

 

Hello,
Thanks for the post. The problem is not for the members of this newsgroup
and other auto and truck related newsgroups. The problem is for the
thousands of people that do not even know what a TSB actually is. As a
result, in most cases, no actions are taken by Honda dealerships to fix
the problems listed in the Honda TSBs. In my cases, I had to take the
summary version of the TSBs to the Honda dealership and show them the
list. The service advisor assured me that the mechanic would check and/or
repair the items on the list. If I had not provided the list--the mechanic
would have never known about the the TSBs related to my vehicle. I have a
simple solution: The service advisor should check the Honda database and
download (make hard copies) of TSBs and RECALL info. related to vehicles
that he or she is responsible for each day. The service advisor should
give the TSBs and RECALL info. to the various mechanics working on those
particular vehicles. The local Honda dealership already does this related
to
RECALL information but they DON'T do it related to TSBs. I saw a post
indicating that some car companies actually post the TSBs on the company
websites. I believe that Honda should do the same thing.
Jason