Ready to bail out Boeing?
There are only two serious builders of large commercial jet aircraft in the world, Boeing and Airbus. There are some hungry wannabes in China, Japan, and Russia, but they're so far behind the Big Two that they're not serious competitors, at least not in the short-to-medium term.
Airbus is notorious for getting financial help, in violation of various trade agreements, from governments around Europe. Places like France, Germany, the U.K., and Spain. The French government is an Airbus shareholder. But Boeing's been busted for getting unfair help from the U.S. government, too – just not as much.
The cash flow from Uncle Sam is probably going to be ramping up here soon. As we all know, Boeing's future took a major hit in the skies over Portland earlier this month, and they'd been losing big bucks consistently even before that latest quality control disaster. The company's last profitable year was 2018. As the bad operating results persist, and Boeing's reputation for quality stays in a nosedive, it's becoming pretty clear that more serious U.S. governmment intervention is coming.
And so, American taxpayer, as you ponder your TurboTax printout for another year, get ready to join in the fun of sending even more megabucks to Seattle to stanch the flow of red ink. Boeing is simply too big, and too important, to fail.
The question I have is, what will the taxpayers get for their new billions? Some folks are talking about "nationalizing" Boeing, but that makes me laugh. An old-fashioned nationalization, like the railroads, where the government gets control of the company and taxpayers enjoy the upside if and when things turn around? Ha! Ha! How 19th Century. No, come on, you know what's going to happen. 2008 wasn't that long ago. The taxpayers will eat the losses, and Wall Street will get the upside. It will be a straight-up bailout, as per usual.
What worries me more is the prospect that somehow Elon Musk or some other megalo-creep will get control over Boeing and roll it into their eccentric-billionaire space cowboy act. American business has gotten depressing enough without something like that happening.
Some extremely interesting developments lie ahead, that's for sure. I wish I could see a good one on the horizon.
Boeing was a wonderful, innovative company when the designers and engineers ran the place. Unfortunately, the suits got into power and screwed up the management.
ReplyDeleteTough choice—Elon Musk or the government running Boeing. I think fewer doors would fly off in midair if Musk was running things.
ReplyDeleteRemind me never to fly again when Musk turns Boeing into the aerospace version of Twitter/X.
DeleteI would ride in a Musk airplane far sooner than a government airplane.
DeleteHate to break it to you, but Musk is just a front man for the MIC. Everything has been given to him in the new world of fake companies that are shielded from scrutiny because they are "private"
DeleteWell, technically the check will be forwarded from Seattle to Chicago these days. Oh wait, Make that Virginia. Are they just perpetually trolling for state tax incentives these days?
ReplyDeleteDo you not remember Boeing entering the space race to put their government-run thumb in the eyes of Musk? The whole Starliner program? If it wasn't for guys like Musk, we'd still be using Soviet launch equipment.
ReplyDeleteBoeing as a company needs to die. But the infrastructure, vendors, and airfields will carry on, acquired by some other defense manufacturer.
If only we were using Soviet launch equipment, some space shuttle astronauts wouldn't have died.
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