The Institutional Risk Analyst

New York | Over the past several months, news reports have suggested that the global auto industry is about to disappear. Ford Motor (F) announced a 10 percent reduction in executive ranks earlier this year. Daimler AG (DAI) has just announced additional job cuts. Analysts blame consumer angst regarding global warming and the imminent conversion of the industry to battery-powered electric motors. But sad to say, we think that politically motivated climate change hype inspires

New York | Watching the meltdown of Tesla Motors (TSLA) founder and CEO Elon Musk last week unfold in the pages of The New York Times, we are reminded that enterprises need both vision and operating smarts to be successful. It was obvious years ago that Elon Musk needed help to build a new car company. Yet somehow the members of the board of directors of TSLA did nothing as Elon Musk led this extraordinary endeavor. We noted in Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise that H

New York | We were in the car last week heading to Washington for the gala celebration for The American Conservative’s 15 years in existence. During the trip, we heard former auto industry executive Bob Lutz take down Tesla’s (TSLA) economic model live on CNBC. Talking to Carl Quintanilla, Lutz – who worked in senior management for all three US automakers – basically made two interesting points: that Tesla spends too much for its larger batteries and that the company’s labor

New York | In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we turn our attention to the auto sector. Kevin Tynan is the Senior Automotive Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence and has been covering the industry for decades. We first met Kevin during the research for "Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise" and value his insights on the automakers and the macro trends that impact this particularly American industry sector. We spoke to Kevin last week at his office in Princeto

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe." Thomas Jefferson New York | When William Clay Ford Jr., Chairman of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F), fired CEO Mark Fields earlier this year, he in part confirmed the view expressed in our book “Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise,” that figuring out which supposed techno trend to believe (and invest in) will be a challenge. After surviving the automotive equivalent of nuc