Good news on GM. I very much hope that GM gets back to profitablility. I wish, hope that Ford, GM, and DC would return to profitability in North America. The global profitability is wonderful, but I can tell you from experience that money losing operations will not be tolerated for long in today's world. I'm reminded of the yearly meetings where all of us plant General Managers were assured that even though our division was losing money, 30 plants, the overall picture was nicely profitable. Eventually, the entire division was sold off.

Actually, I should follow it more closely. I have several industrial customers that to varying degrees depend on the domestic auto industry. The multiplier effect of a business GM staggers the mind. I have one customer that would be out of business in fairly short order if it's two main customers were to tank from losing GM business. It ain't pretty out there.

Hatterasguy is correct relative to the numbers. Until you have actually participated in that excercise, as I have albeit years ago, you can't appreciate the level of distortion that can be achieved.

Steve