Fewer Chinese Auto Brands in U.S. Than Predicted
Ten years ago, as new-vehicle sales were slipping and incentives were rising, auto manufacturers faced a potentially greater issue: Chinese brands were gearing up to sell low-cost vehicles in the U.S. that threatened to undercut the established brands. The first Chinese vehicles were due to arrive as early as 2007, and industry analysts said it was almost certain they would be here by 2010. Fast forward to 2016, and the only Chinese...
Consumer Confidential: Obama’s Budget Plan Would Allow Greater Scrutiny Of High Drug Prices
Buried deep within President Obama’s $4 trillion budget plan are a couple of health care proposals that could change everything for U.S. consumers. The fact that the drug industry wasted no time in dismissing the ideas — and that their Republican friends in Congress said they wouldn’t even look at them — should tell you something big was afoot. The Department of Health and Human Services broke out Obama’s health care proposals in a...
John Deere Appeals Inclusion In Auto Dealer Protection Law
Concord— John Deere and other farm and heavy equipment manufacturers told the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday that a new state law looping them into protections designed for automobile and truck dealers unconstitutionally interferes with their existing and future contracts with dealers. Lawyers for John Deere and the state faced off over the so-called Auto Dealers Bill of Rights law, which lawmakers expanded to encompass...
Baby Boomers, Better Economy Drive Up RV Sales
Milwaukee — If you’re seeing a lot of travel trailers and motor homes on the highway these days, it’s more than a sign of summer. For the first time in a decade, the recreational-vehicle industry is poised to break production records. RV manufacturers are expected to ship 380,000 units this year, up 6.5 percent from 2014 and nearing the previous peak, set in 2006 before the recession. The spending strength of baby boomers craving the...
U.S. Factories Still Haven’t Recovered
Washington — It took less than a year for America’s factory output to rebound from the 1991 recession. It took three and a half years to bounce back from the 2001 recession. Now, six years clear of the Great Recession, manufacturing output still hasn’t returned to the pre-crisis levels it reached in 2007, according to revised economic data from the Federal Reserve. The downward revisions highlight the persistent weakness in a sector...
