Heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar today announced plans to lay off more than 2,400 employees at five plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia as the heavy equipment maker continues to cut costs amid the global economic downturn.
Since it’s hardly rocket science that,
Bad economy = Less construction = Bad news for Caterpillar,
inquiring minds want to know why caterpillar is lobbying, via the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, for economy-harming greenhouse gas regulation. Moreover, since such regulation is likely to be anti-coal in nature, why is Caterpillar effectively lobbying against the coal industry, one its biggest customers?
Take action:
Ask Caterpillar Investor Relations why CEO James Owens is lobbying against his own earnings.
Hilarious. Those who’s memory hasn’t yet been destroyed by harmful CO2 pollution ; ) may remember that Obama, in the process of selling us the first stimulus, claimed that it would lead to Caterpillar hiring back 1200 laid off workers. Many criticized this as not really being the creation of new jobs. Apparently now they can criticize it as being the exact opposite of the truth.
As for the many “whys” that this article brings up, I think the answer is simple. Look at GE, United, and others that have given up good business practices in lieu of big bailouts or subsidies from the goverment. The allure of free money, or political favor, turns them against the principles upon which they were founded in the first place. The answer of course lies in their leadership. Corporate execs are so removed from reality in so many ways that they inconceiveably lose sight of the founding principles of their business. Your customers will be loyal or tell you why they are leaving you. The government will lie, use you, and leave you hanging. Yet incompetents like Tillerson and Immelt somehow get it in their heads that chasing government freebies is somehow preferable to doing what their companies have done for over a century.
So no need to question Caterpillar. Just sit back and laugh at the ruin they have brought up on themselves by buying into entitlement dogma. Terex will be happy to pick up the extra market share.