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REB Blogs

  • Never mind

    RE my previous post, expressing some optimism based on GM's decision not to re-establish a financing arm: Oh, well! I'm sure they know what they're doing ....
    07-25-2010, 9:26 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Generally motivated

    No one should take investment advice from me. My interest in the stock market is mostly confined to manufacturing industries, but my real interest in the business world is in the way it influences or shapes human behavior. The once celebrated Alan Greenspan...
    07-13-2010, 9:32 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • For your consideration

    We’ve been promoting the annual selection process for FOUNDRY Management & Technology's Hall of Honor program for about six weeks, and the period for nominations is open for another two weeks or so, ‘til July 15. If you know someone who has positively...
    07-06-2010, 9:06 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Microeconomics at work

    After I posted the previous entry someone who read it sent over to me a column published earlier this week , and something snapped in me. I spent a few undergraduate semesters studying basic economics — macroeconomics, microeconomics — and I don’t claim...
    06-25-2010, 11:25 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Game on

    To the people who care about such news, the report this week that China may soon displace the U.S. as the world’s largest manufacturing nation must have been a little less than surprising. Domestic manufacturers, and those who value their contribution...
    06-22-2010, 9:37 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Who needs EFCA?

    It’s a fact that plant safety is a serious concern for the metalcasting industry, and monitoring operating equipment and facilities in general for risks to health and safety ought to be a very high priority for everyone working in the industry. Watching...
    06-15-2010, 9:29 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Listen to the man

    British Petroleum reportedly has 17,000 unsolicited offers of advice for fixing the catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico ( and at least one impatient demand from on high ), but metalcasters will be intrigued to read the proposal from one of their...
    05-26-2010, 9:52 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Hiding the news

    A few weeks back I learned about a new metalcasting venture , but I let the "news" take precedent. The fact that McWane Inc. is temporarily idling a foundry in Birmingham due to weak demand from the home-building sector seemed to be more important than...
    05-25-2010, 7:55 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • A significant return

    Intermet Corp. was a kind of emblem of what a unified metalcasting organization might be, in a more perfect world, and its demise with the financial collapse of 2008-2009 is rather emblematic of all that went wrong for investors that, in the early part...
    05-18-2010, 9:20 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Details emerge

    The news earlier this year concerning the National Institute of Standards and Technologies' investment in an R&D program, to perfect metalcasting techniques for aluminum and magnesium structures that feature ceramic elements ("nanocomposites") in...
    05-02-2010, 10:48 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • The VAT's out of the bag

    Last week former Federal Reserve Bank chairman Paul Volcker — the man who tamed rampant inflation and lackluster currency after the 1970s — seemed to endorse a value-added tax (VAT) resolve the federal government’s current fiscal chaos. This may be ironic,...
    04-13-2010, 9:12 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Back off, please

    Last week’s employment report is good news because it shows some improvement over the previous month’s report, or indeed over much of the data for the past two years. But, it’s qualified good news because it relies so much on the anomalous effects of...
    04-06-2010, 8:03 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • China chatter

    There’s been a lot of chatter in the past week about the value of the Chinese currency. Correct that: there’s been a lot of chatter in the past decade about the value of Chinese currency, and specifically it is charged that the rulers of that country...
    03-30-2010, 10:02 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Drawing a line

    Numerous metalcasters will be sympathetic, if not entirely familiar, with the problem faced by Acra Cast Investment Castings in Bay City, MI: … In 2006, one the company’s neighbors – who had filed 23 previous lawsuits in the county – sued Acra Cast, …...
    03-22-2010, 8:47 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • The trend that’s your friend

    It would be easy to get ahead of last week’s announcement from Caterpillar , that it is studying plans to build new domestic production capacity for its hydraulic excavators, and call it a trend . Several reports have hailed this as an example of “re-shoring,”...
    03-16-2010, 9:13 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Taking another whack at productivity

    “For a quarter-century,” write Alan Tonelson and Kevin L. Kearns in an op-ed published over the weekend in the New York Times , “American economic policy has assumed that the keys to durable national prosperity are deregulation, free trade and a swift...
    03-09-2010, 9:07 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Out in public

    Today's Wall Street Journal report on private-equity investment in metalcasting companies treats the subject as though it were a new development, a trend. I don't know about that. It seems to me that I've written about private equity several times in...
    03-04-2010, 9:44 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Forced labor

    About two weeks ago the word came from General Motors that an investment program will begin soon to prepare three plants to produce the newest version of the Ecotec engines. It’s a $494-million project, and among the plants to be favored with that investment...
    03-02-2010, 10:41 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Still waiting

    There will be a metalcasting revival someday, soon, perhaps, but until it’s clear that the industry is reborn it’s going to endure a series of sad demises. We reported two of these closings within the past week, both of them in Indiana. Neither one represents...
    02-22-2010, 1:06 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Technology catches up

    About two years ago I did some research into radio-frequency identification technology — RFIDs, as they are commonly called. The suppliers of the technology and equipment that I spoke to then were very glad to explain how it worked, its advantages, etc....
    02-16-2010, 9:13 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Employment prospects

    It seems that high unemployment rates will been around for a long time. That’s bad for everyone, but if you’re among the unfortunate many who are looking for a new job, it’s worse. And, while there will be no escaping the long discussions about jobs programs...
    02-08-2010, 8:15 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • Supply chain snags

    Last week ended with some cheering economic news: the total U.S. economy grew by 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2009 versus the third quarter. It was the fastest rate of quarterly growth since 2003 , and indicators show it was largely the effect of inventory...
    02-01-2010, 9:43 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • High-concept manufacturing

    Lots of smart people have been pondering the future of manufacturing lately, bringing forth big ideas about how to overcome its weaknesses and restore its dynamism. Generally, this is a good thing. Human nature needs inspiration, and aspiration. But,...
    01-26-2010, 9:34 AM by REB to REB Blog
  • Doing less with more

    Officially, the recession of 2008-2009 is over. Stock prices are rising, as is the overall level of industrial production. But, if the policymakers in the federal government and the Federal Reserve Bank think they’ve succeeded they are wrong: lingering...
    01-13-2010, 1:21 PM by REB to REB Blog
  • The clock is ticking

    The end of a year brings a certain degree of gloom. That’s certainly warranted in the various cases of foundries and diecasting plants that will not be around in 2010: happily, there are some of revivals to come in the near future, and there remains some...
    12-29-2009, 9:44 AM by REB to REB Blog
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