GM Cutbacks Due to Offshoring, Not Tariffs

General Motors is having a very good year in 2018. That’s right. You read that right, a good year. Maybe even an excellent year. In Q3, its earnings performance knocked it out of the park. Wall Street was expecting earnings of $1.25 and the carmaker delivered $1.87. On the Oct. 31^st conference call with investors, CEO Mary Barra (pictured) was bullish on the full-year outturn, forecasting the company’s outcome this way: “We expect full-year EPS [earnings per share] to be at the top of our previously-communicated guidance range with potential for further upside..”

But, if you read the news, you might ask: didn’t GM announce the shutting of five auto plants in November, and the likely layoff of up to 14,000 workers in the US and Canada due to the tariffs? That’s drastic surgery. Isn’t GM hurting?

Top Five Cases of Huawei IP Theft and Patent Infringement

Last week, Canadian authorities arrested the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, Sabrina Meng Wanzhou. The US government alleges that she was involved in a plot to circumvent US sanctions on Iran by using a dummy company, secretly owned by Huawei, to sell networking equipment to Iran. 

Some of the US and European press have labeled Huawei a Chinese “national hero,” praising the company as one of China’s top technology companies. The reality is that Huawei has been a leading player in stealing western technology by blatantly using it without paying royalties for patents. Huawei also hires western engineers to gain access to their confidential knowledge, and often directs engineers to steal documents from US and other western technology companies. 

The Tariffs Are Working

Since January, the Trump administration has implemented five major tariff policies, on the solar panel, washing machine, steel, and aluminum industries, as well as the so-called Section 301 tariffs affecting $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, chiefly in intermediate manufactured goods. 

And so far, the evidence is that the tariffs are working. Economic growth is up, inflation is under control, many of the tariffed industries are enjoying strong recoveries in output, profits, and employment. And as optimism spreads across manufacturing, other manufacturing sectors are also enjoying better growth than they’ve seen in years.