The Chrysler Corporation has been down this treacherous road before, encountering a word that causes shivers to rise up the spines of many a wary soul: bankruptcy. History is about to repeat itself, and not for the better. Chrysler’s senior management is not planning to go the way of other beleaguered Big 3 members. Consider this anecdote: facing rising oil prices and an underdeveloped line of compact cars, late 1979 saw Chrysler tapping former Ford executive Lee Iacocca to extricate itself from the brink of the “B” word. A $1.5 billion petition for U.S. government-backed loan guarantees was drafted, but Iacocca’s ego wouldn’t stomach being saddled with massive amounts of debt for long. Under his watch, the military bought thousands of Dodge pickup trucks which entered military service as the commercial line M-880 Series. Its defense line was shored up to General Dynamics for $348.5 million. He prodded workers to meet the challenge head-on, and the ultra-profitable (and ultra-efficient) K-car and the minivan concept were born. Within 3 years, all loans were paid off and Chrysler was back in the black. Fast forward to the last couple of years. Chrysler again is on the chopping block, this time due to Read More …

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals could be undergoing a further shift towards the center, a far cry from its century and a half tradition of judicial liberalism. The largest of 13 appellate courts, it sees cases emanating from 9 western U.S. states ranging in topic from civil law, criminal law, immigration to the death penalty, and bankruptcy. The most notable of the latter is a case which I have (and will) continue to cover with intense scrutiny, namely the J. Howard Marshall/Anna Nicole Smith estate feud. As would be expected, this trend is not without its detractors and supporters. Those opposed fear that the court will lose its signature element of jurisprudence rooted in empathy and human emotion, a facet that attempts to steer clear of rote, by-the-book, procedural-based decision-making. Those in favor argue that the leftist leanings have historically created deformities in the justice system, such as “forum shopping” by plaintiff, and frequently use the Marshall/Smith case as an example. Some vacant judicial openings are forthcoming, and the first challenge could be the most important of their lives. June 26, 2009, could be a watershed date. This date is when the aforementioned ponderously overanalyzed case from the Read More …