Posted on 06/28/2005 5:07:18 PM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Chinese suppliers and an agent of China's government are poised to take control of Huffy Corp. (HUFCQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) , a venerable U.S. brand name, as the bicycle maker restructures under bankruptcy protection, it said on Tuesday.
Huffy, making bikes for Americans for more than a century, said it had agreed to a reorganization plan which would allow it to terminate its staff pension plans. The company would turn responsibility for the benefits over to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a unit of the federal government that insures pension plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The cheerleading section should be in here any minute now to instruct us on that.
Just remember, we photocopy little green pieces of paper, send them to China, and get a pony in the box back!
And then Life is Wonderful, everyone dances together holding hands singing "we are the world".
Or, "we are the weird", depending on your level of cynicism.
Have you priced a bicycle lately? They cost less - in absolute dollars, let alone accounting for inflation - than they did in the 1970s - and have more features. It's like going out to buy a new car, and paying $3,000 for it. For 80 bucks each, I got my children 21 speed mountain bikes with front and rear shocks, and reasonably good components, for their purposes, anyway. Had I wanted to, I could have gotten them aluminum frame versions for not much more.
Had there been American produced bikes available, for a reasonable price, I would have bought them - but I was not about to go drop $1000 on two Trek bikes for children who will outgrow them in a couple of years.
"What are we going to make/produce in sufficient volume here in america? How many things left are actually "Made in USA"?"
Oh, I don't know: SPITBALLS?
Retirees covered by PBGC take a pretty healthy screwing.
Bad habit, damn expensive the peddles cost $200 and the shoes and clips cost more than any real shoe I have ever had.
I think Huffy still uses steel to make frames.
That has not been high end for 25-30 years.
A heavy steel bike was just right for a paper route ;^).
Everybody alughs about this but this is sad.
Let's see China bankrupts our manufacturing base by their 88 cent per hour labor then buys the company then the pensions get pushed upon the PGF which comes back to us taxpayers. Oh boy isn't free trade great!!
Did I not read somewhere that Wal mart was Huffy's biggest client then screwed them somewhere along the line?
Our government is in the pension business too, huh?
The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp is not backed by the full faith of our Gvmt...(no tax money goes there)
Did not the gov't bail them out last year to the tune of 13 billion???
i could deal with an iron frame. it was the crimped rear wheel seatstays from that turned me off. a sure sign of cheap, and downright dangerous for real off road...
If we keep handing over our industry to China, it wont be long before the sun begins to set on our great nation. I hope we snap out of our malaise soon.
Maby an invasion of Taiwan would do the trick. Come on invasion. But the democRATs would only wont to analise them.
Well at least we have a legal, insurance and medical industries to rely on. (Sarcasm)
...and dont forget ebay!! I can sell you my stuff and you can buy mine.
Law firms are starting to outsource to India, instead of hiring new law school grads as law clerks and for research.
Insurance is also going into outsourcing in a big way: collections, billing, claims, etc. There is no need to have high priced americans doing paper work or paper shuffling, which is what most of insurance is.
In medical, radiology is now being outsourced to India, as well as billing, collections, and medical transcription.
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