well there goes your American made Cooper tires

India's Apollo Tyres to buy Cooper Tire for $2.22B

Another 10 or 20 years of this chit and there won't be a dang thing made in this Country!! Just bruns Me up.

Exide battery operations just filed for chapter 11 for their operations here in the US. They claim losing Wal-Mart's business to Johnson Controls broke the camel's back. It only affects their US operations. The article I read claims they have 10,000 employees in 80 countries but it didn't say how many of those jobs are in the US. I don't know where exide batteries are made nor do I know where the Johnson batteries are made. Jim

They had a plant in Plano (I think). They were forced to close. Housing additions that were built close by raised a fuss over possible pollution from lead.

Heard Cooper stock jumped 40% earlier today.

They also have a battery plant in Salina, Kansas. Bankruptcy doesn't mean they are going to immediately close, it means they are reorganizing. I've had Exide batteries and I think they should close.

yup - it was inevitable.

We are going the way of the UK. Heard on a tv program that at the end of WW2 UK only imported 2% of what they needed now its 98%.

Leonard

Well, just wait till foreign countries start buying up our Hospitals, and start collecting all the out of control rates they charge, and cash in on external_link Care. Scarey ain't it?
Loren, the Acg.

I think Apollo will now be the 7th largest tire producer in the world. Also heard IBM doing major "restructuring" (layoffs) in U.S. Don"t now where it"s going to end!

...so are they still going to be made here by our people? I don't care who "owns" it as long as that's all that changes. Damn good tires.

Johnson Control has a battery plant in Middletown Delaware

Most publicly traded manufacturing-based companies in the US will eventually do one or more of the following:

1. Be bought by or merge with another publicly traded US company. CEO's and boards of directors of successful companies see strength in numbers/bigger is better, $$$$$, and an extremely unstable and uncertain future and try to cash out. Take the money and run. Sometimes millions or much, much more is spent to simply buy a successful brand name.

2. Move most or all production overseas. Easier to pay employees less than $1/hour and not have to deal with OSHA, EPA, pay for healthcare, etc.. Easier for US companies to hide revenues from US taxation when mfg. is being done elsewhere, too.

3. File bankrupcy, restructure, screwing over and financially stressing their creditors, or fail totally.

4. Be bought by a company in a foreign nation or a foreign nation disguised as a company. Same "cashing out" "bigger is better/strength in numbers", and "brand name" statements as #1 above.

4b. See #2 above.

There's little or no future for manufacturing most products in the US and little or no reason for US ownership of these companies continuing on this path we're on. Wages and other production costs are too high for most of the world market and constant pressure (and fines) from "regulatory agencies" cause companies large and small to pack up and go elsewhere or throw in the towel totally. Few US manufacturing companies can compete and market their products worldwide. When it comes to the majority of the goods we depend on for everyday life, we are soon destined to be slaves to the world.

Cargo ship captain might be a good job to transition into.

AG

You forgot option #5, go bankrupt and have the government seize the company to give to the Unions as payment for getting a certain man elected president, maybe all the companies are going overseas because domestic companies can walk away from secured debt and let the government give the companies assets to the unsecured creditors, I don't hold bonds anymore.

Sears switched to Johnson batteries about the same time.Hard to say one companies battery is better than anothers.

Wished they would quit selling junk tires regardless of where they are located. 10 years ago they made a great cheaper tire to a Michelin. The past 3 sets I have purchased have been junk. After 10,000 miles all tires starting cupping badly. It got so bad I had to replace them with only 20,000 miles wear. Not to mention the loud roaring sound they made (even when new). Yes, I rotated and balanced them regularly. I don't buy anything but Michelin tires now.