Metal-headed cartels: Cold steel. (Citings)."WE HAVE AN answer for the crisis in American steel," Robert S. Miller Robert S. (Steve) Miller; Was hired as Delphi chairman by General Motors and Delphi Corp. to file bankruptcy. Miller was hired to slash costs and close unprofitable operations. Miller - a restructuring expert who was hired in July 2005 filed Saturday, October 8 2005. Jr., the recently installed CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of the bankrupt Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation (1857–2003), based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, once was the second largest steel producer in the United States (after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based US Steel). Corp., told The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times in December. "It is the consolidation and the rationalization of the integrated steel industry by a combination of four or five companies to come together as a large integrated steel company." The plan on the table is for the merger of USX-U.S. Steel Corp. and Bethlehem, with the possible inclusion of Weirton Steel Corp. and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel is a steel manufacturer based in Wheeling, West Virginia, which is located at the edge of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. In December 1968, Pittsburgh Steel Company was merged into Wheeling Steel Corporation to form the current company. Corp. The new company would account for roughly 30 percent of U.S. steel production. That would certainly help things in the notoriously fragmented and oversupplied industry. But as usual, there's a catch. Miller, who helped craft the 1979 federal bailout of Chrysler, wants the government's help: He says the new company will need protection from imports. Taxpayers must also pick up the $13 billion tab for the industry's pension and retiree health care benefits. It's a gutsy offer. The captains of this floundering industry are asking for nothing less than national industrial socialism, a government-protected cartel that benefits a few producers at the expense of the rest of the country. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill is already acting as if he were an OPEC OPEC: see Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC in full Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Multinational organization established in 1960 to coordinate the petroleum production and export policies of its production minister. "O'Neill has been seeking greater balance among global steel makers by encouraging countries and companies to reduce production to stabilize prices," reports the Times. "He has also threatened to restrict the entry of steel imports to the United States." Is protecting the steel industry a national security interest? Nope: The U.S. military uses very little, only 0.02 percent of domestic steel delivered. "The military argument is not only bogus," notes Dan Griswold, associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, "but insofar in·so·far adv. To such an extent. Adv. 1. insofar - to the degree or extent that; "insofar as it can be ascertained, the horse lung is comparable to that of man"; "so far as it is reasonably practical he should practice as it's significant it cuts the other way." Why, after all, would we want our military to pay inflated prices on a major purchase? |
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