Were SUVs such profitable products after all?
You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out, as they say, and the Detroit auto makers are providing an example.
They are now halting cheap leases that have enabled Americans who could not afford to buy an expensive pick-up truck or Sports Utility Vehicle to lease one instead. Banks no longer want to underwrite that business. Read more
Is 22 the capitulation number?
So is 22 the number?
Merrill Lynch’s $6.7bn sale of a bunch of collateralised debt obligations for 22 cents on the dollar has been hailed as the long-awaited “capitulation trade” by various analysts. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT.
He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of 'All That Glitters', an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.
Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.
Latest columns by John and Andrew