2019 Auto Show: Trucks Are Key To Industry Growth

The 2019 Auto Show in Chicago is the latest indication of where the industry is headed, and it is certainly pivoted toward growth in the truck segment. The growth of trucks, especially heavy- duty model types, or HD as the industry abbreviation denotes; represents a significant margin opportunity for auto makers.

This all comes within the backdrop of Ford announcing recalls for safety on over 1.5 million F-150 trucks from model years 2011 – 2013. This is a reminder that production realities still exist, and that no amount of money ensures that any particular vehicle will be fully free from defects or issues.

The truck market has evolved to where not just contractors, farmers, or other heavy labor job types utilize them. The HD truck market has become more mainstream over the past few years and is a trend that is expected to continue. The style of truck that was once exclusively for work has attracted casual drivers because of the towing power.

The ability to pull heavy loads is the key driver for HD truck models, according to industry experts, towing ability is the top priority for the consumer. The secondary priority is for the truck to have high tech options for entertainment and for driver and passenger comfort. Those types of examples would be a radio capable of attaching devices or heated seats.

The truck market has numerous options from small cabs, medium truck beds, and extended cabs. The heavy-duty class of trucks provide the best profit margin opportunity for automakers, especially American manufacturers. The market is dominated by Ford, Chevrolet is in a distant second, and Ram (parent company Daimler Benz) is in third.
The selling price on the new Ford HD is approaching six-figures it is hovering around $90,000 for the 2020 models. The demand is there and that is how the heavy-duty truck segment of the industry is going to move units and solve for other profit and revenue shortfalls within domestic automakers business models.

The Ram lineup of trucks is slightly less costly with their base HD Ram model at about $68,000 and the upgrades to the enhanced tech and other features packaged out at about $77,000 including the destination fees. The tech in the trucks provide amenities that passenger vehicles have currently: surround-view cameras, rear view cameras, lane warning systems, and bed-lowering systems.

It should be noted that Ram also issued a recall on their trucks on Wednesday as well for a problem potentially with the steering linkage system. The Ram series has the ability of getting a consumer into a HD model at a more modest price point than Ford, but Ford would counter with the amount of amenities and towing power that their packages provide to the consumer.

Chevrolet offers the Silverado HD with packages starting at $37,000 and with enhanced packages that drive the price up to around $70,000 per unit. The Chevy brand story is reliability, long-lasting truck performance, and the flexibility of financing the payments through GM Financial.

The Chevy also offers two V8 engine options and towing and hill assist features. They also have an “Infotainment” center option to bring entertainment to the driver and passengers for long hauls.

The Chicago Auto Show featured these Heavy-Duty trucks and Adventure SUVs and those are the two biggest trends in the auto industry. The American automakers desperately need something to differentiate themselves from their European and Asian competitors. These two categories have the added bonus of profitability.

The trend to watch will be what is already occurring at GM/Chevrolet where they are discontinuing making several passenger cars in favor of making more trucks. The executives at Ford are also weighing the streamlined approach to their regular automobile line to focus more on production of trucks, especially HD truck models.

The demand for HD trucks continues even as the price tag goes up, which for the automaker is a good situation for their profitability. The impact on the environment for these gas guzzlers and the impact of having people that are not regular truck users driving larger trucks for everyday use remains to be seen.

Giving Tuesday: Being Charitable To Those In Need

The Tuesday following Thanksgiving is known as Giving Tuesday. It was a movement started about six years ago by a New York City YMCA on 92nd Street in concert with a component within the United Nations.

The movement has gained international following and is a time when people are called upon to be charitable to those in need. The worthy causes out there can be overwhelming, so it is important to think about what resonates the most with you.

This is particularly important when you have a budget with which to give, which is the case with most people. The causes that are the “closest to your heart” will become the priority. In the event that you are new to donating, then check out Charity Navigator or Guide Star, two websites that inspect and rank charities based on their financial responsibility, transparency, and the amount of funds that go to the cause versus administrative/fundraising costs.

The past holiday weekend featured news and promotions for stores and for online shopping deals. The weekend is an ideal time to get gifts for your loved ones for Christmas. The point of today, Giving Tuesday, is to give back to those who are less fortunate, to help advance research of various diseases, and to pool our resources to help solve the problems in our society.

The act of charity is seen by some as not a popular thing in what many people portray Americans as consumed by materialism or their own self-gain. I disagree with the portrayal and know that many Americans are very generous, and although we are the wealthiest nation, we are also the most generous nation on Earth.
The platform of social media will be used to raise awareness and funds on Giving Tuesday as Facebook, Twitter, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will all be doing matching of some kind based on the gifts given today by generous Americans.

This is a good time to take a personal inventory of all that you have in your life that you are grateful for, and to think about how you could give of your excess resources to help those causes or people that really need assistance. Your generosity will help many worthy organizations to provide services and programs to people who are struggling and suffering.

Here are some worthy causes and four star rated charities that could be a potential partner for your donation activity today:
Salvation Army: www.salvationarmyus.org
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America: www.alzfdn.org 866-232-8484
Catholic Charities 800-919-9338
Food For The Poor: www.foodforthe poor.org 800-427-9104
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-8255
Samaritan’s Purse: www.samaritanspurse.org
Zero- The End of Prostate Cancer: zerocancer.org 888-245-9455
MAP International : www.map.org 800-225-8550

Thank you for your support of Giving Tuesday and for giving to “the least of these”. God bless you.

“Names” – A Tribute to 9/11 – Poetry by Frank J. Maduri

“Names”

All of these names read aloud
Some read quickly and others –
More measured, more deliberate
All of these names mean something
Most of the names have many titles:
Husband, wife, mother, father
Grandfather, uncle, aunt, sister
Brother, cousin, nephew, niece
Friend, colleague, client, citizen
All of these names represent a life
A life extinguished far too soon
A life taken by a tragic event
Seventeen years ago on a bright
Sunny September morning
The names just keep going
And going, being read by
Family members, friends of those
Lost in the attacks that fateful day
The names and faces all unique
From older men and women
To mid-life professionals
To recent college grads
To firemen and police
The names reflect all ethnicities
All races, all colors, all walks
Of life and religions
With a common thread
They all left this world
On 9/11 and they left behind
A legacy and an imprint
A promise we made as a nation
And need to always keep
We will never forget

Copyright 2018 – Frank J. Maduri – All rights reserved

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to all of you and your families. I want to thank you for your support of this blog. I really appreciate the feedback after posting on this site for over five years now.

The birthday of America is a special day, and for all of the service members in our military forces I thank you in a special way. Thank you for your sacrifice for us, so that we may live in peace and freedom.

I just finished recording a 4th of July podcast for Life Coach Radio Network. Some of you know that I host a podcast series called, “Undivided” and the show is one year old now. It has been a blessing to reach people with messages of hope, unity, harmony and peace.

My latest episode was on America: Individualism versus Community. Many people think that individualism is a “good thing” and certainly individual freedoms are the core of American society and should be celebrated.

However, it has come at the expense of our communities and our sense of community. We have lost that collective and shared responsibility for one another, that sense of community, was once a bedrock of American society.

There are many causes for that disconnection: technology, the economic phases, and other sociological situations. The podcast looks at the role of the individual contrasted against the collective. It provides concrete ways to move beyond your own individual focus and find pathways to increased community involvement.

I invite all of you to listen to my podcast and I hope it helps you to foster better connections to your community. That is how we can truly move America forward in unity and harmony.

Please use this link to listen:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lifecoachradionetwork/2018/07/03/undivided-episode-25–america-individualism-versus-community
Thank you all for your support. I wish you and your families a safe and Happy 4th of July!

“Parkland” – A Poem by Frank J. Maduri

Here is my poem on the tragic events today in a Florida High School

“Parkland”

Alerts on my phone, alerts on my computer screen;
Reveal an unfortunately familiar type of scene.
A school with kids fleeing, hands raised high;
Under a clear, innocent looking sky
High school kids – their lives a clean page
Some lives lost, others altered, in an act of rage.
The news broadcast talked about the reaction –
Of the students being so collected, calm
To the horrible situation they were in
Because they have drills for shooters or a bomb –
In schools like this one outside of Miami
A usually very safe place called Parkland
A place where you would want to raise a family
A place now failing to grip or to understand;
How this could have happened, how a student
Could open fire on other kids this afternoon
How others feel that gun control isn’t prudent
Except when you’re the parent of a child taken too soon
Then that perspective changes, it alters
As our society, our government routinely falters
Parkland, it sounds so idyllic, yet it joins a list;
A list of American places where kids have died:
Columbine, Paducah, Newtown, Virginia Tech, Roseburg
A list nobody wants their town to be mentioned
Our country’s values have to be questioned
How can this behavior persist without consequences?
How have we all collectively lost all of our senses?
The events today should not be tolerated
A school is a safe haven not to be desecrated –
By violence, hatred, or anything destructive
It should foster thoughts that are positive, constructive
The terrible images today in Parkland
Are among the tragedies I will never understand
I will take time tonight to solemnly pray
For those families effected by a shooting on Ash Wednesday
To ask God above to help us all to find –
Our way back to a place where we are humble and kind
To a place where we can all live in peace
Where violence and hatred all will cease
Where hope and freedom will last, will glisten
I pray that God above will listen

(c) 2018 Frank J. Maduri – All rights reserved

Follow Up: Flint Water Crisis – Officials Criminally Charged & The Fallout Ahead

In a follow up to previous articles on this tragedy, the Flint, Michigan water crisis is back in the mainstream news cycle. A total of five government employees have been charged with manslaughter including the head of the Michigan health department.

These charges stem from their role in the water crisis where lead contaminants left residents deathly ill. The residents got sick from Legionnaires disease, which is a respiratory condition and type of pneumonia that is caused by a few factors, but was connected to the lead contamination of the water supply in Flint.

The news media was speculating about who may be charged next in this investigation into one of the worst public health disasters in American history and whether those charges would reach the Governor of Michigan. It is not known how much the Governor knew, or when he was informed of certain developments surrounding the crisis with the water supply in that beleaguered city.

The water crisis in Flint represented a calamity on so many levels between the negligence being alleged, the lack of adequate training for local city water officials, and then the steps taken when the problems with the contamination were verified. The result is a massive problem with the water supply of an entire city and reports of illness across the demographics from the elderly, to women, teenagers, children, and babies.

It is a very public example of failure of public governance in the area of public health and safety. That is the key message behind the charges handed down to the five public officials accused of these serious offenses. The fact that the water from the Flint River supply source was not treated properly caused lead to be emitted from the older pipes in the system. The damage is costly with estimates running at around anywhere from $55 to $95 million to replace all of the pipes which provide drinking water to residents and other structures in Flint.

Most of that money is going to come from lawsuits filed by the residents against the EPA primarily and the state has pledged to replace the water lines that connect to the main distribution and pipe systems for 18,000 homes by 2020.

That is all well and good but the question remains: what will residents do in the interim? The water crisis has decimated an already depressed market for real estate in Flint. In essence, nobody wants to move there and the residents cannot sell their homes to relocate elsewhere. It is a total mess, with the fallout so far – reaching it is hard to fathom.

There have been accounts of government officials concealing evidence regarding the toxicity levels of the water, which is greatly concerning for obvious reasons. The entire situation has both frustrated and saddened Americans across the country as well as triggered the investigation into lead levels in other cities and counties.

The situation in Flint is tragic and heartbreaking and is unique to other public health issues that came before it for a variety of reasons. First, it was widespread and encompassed an entire American city which is rare for a public health issue which are usually confined to a specific area or neighborhood.

Second, it was so intricately covered up for years by different levels of government from the local, county, and state level as well as involving the EPA. The levels of lead and other toxins in the Flint River have now been well documented. The situation with that water supply was so bad that General Motors stopped using that water supply for their factory in Flint.

The final main component of this whole disastrous situation, at least in the scope of the general public, is that the damage is already done. The water supply has made many people sick with some unable to work, children have been so ill they have dropped out of school, and some people died in relation to the contaminated water supply.

The city and state level of government can issue all the statements they want about how the water supply has been changed back to the Detroit water supply which Flint used for decades before the cost-cutting switch to the local supply took place. The damage has already been done, just because the supply has changed, the pipes are still leaching chemicals and lead so they must be replaced.

The people who are sick and who have sick children or sick parents from tainted water cannot be cured by a switch in water supply or by issuing statements about correcting the problem three years from now. They are sick, that damage has been done, and there is no going back.

Some within the media have dubbed the situation in Flint as the “crisis with no end in sight” because of the sheer scope of the problems caused by the tainted water and the brazen way that the government tried to prevent the people from knowing about the problems which existed.

The attorney general for the State of Michigan has vowed that he is not done with the investigation they are conducting into this disaster. He stated after these first four arrests were announced that they will have more charges handed down to others involved in the coming months.

The federal government has taken no responsibility for helping the effort to be resolved, and some feel that they should provide some type of funding more than the band-aid funds sent about a year ago.

The “crisis with no end in sight” will continue on in a variety of levels in Flint between the government, the public health implications, and the restoration effort for their water supply pipe system. The investigation into this horrible tragedy has a long way to go before it is concluded. In the interim, thousands of American families have had their lives altered in terrible ways and also see no end in sight.

Flag Day and The Cost of Freedom

In marking the observance today, June 14, of Flag Day I join with my fellow Americans to commemorate the anniversary of the Second Continental Congress adopting our nation’s flag back in 1777. I put up the flag this morning outside the house here under sunny skies, grateful for another day of freedom living in America.

The events of this morning with the shooting in Northern Virginia as well as the workplace shooting this afternoon at a UPS site in San Francisco serve as stark reminders of the way that freedom can be used for evil in an open society.

I saw other acts of kindness today that also demonstrate that freedom can be used to achieve so many positive things, so much good in our world.

In addition, I am reminded always when I look at our American flag, of the cost of freedom. I think of all those who have served our country and have died defending that flag, both at home and abroad. I will forever be grateful for their service and their sacrifice.

The events of today can serve to make some people lose hope. I will remind them that good always triumphs over evil, light always conquers the dark, and our American values and ideals will endure. Freedom will outlast tyranny.

May God bless you all and May God Bless the United States of America.

Follow Up: Honeybee Population Decreases In U.S.

In a follow up to a previous article, the news on Friday is not good regarding the honeybee population. In a report by USA Today about one third of the honeybee population in the United States died in the past year. This decline in the population levels can have far-reaching consequences for our domestic food supply.

The honeybee is responsible for an estimated one out of every three bites of food that the average American consumes each day. The combination of pesticides, environmental changes, and parasites have triggered a dramatic decrease in the population of this crucially important insect.

This survey does report that the winter seasonal losses were the lowest for American bees in a decade. The winter is a characteristically a period where honeybees will die in larger numbers due to the climate conditions. The experts analyzing this report stopped short of saying that the winter loss number was good news because the overall population numbers have declined so precipitously in recent years.

Some crops are almost completely dependent on the honeybee, and those shortages in supply levels are going to result in higher demand. This higher demand with smaller supply levels will result in higher prices that will passed along to the consumer. This includes items such as almonds, raspberries, and other fresh fruits or produce.

The rise in the growth of the organic and farm-to-table movements put a premium on beekeeping and balancing the protection of the bees from parasites against the utilization of harsh chemicals or pesticides. There are certain pesticides and herbicides that are widely used in agriculture that attack the central nervous system of bees causing them to die.

The greater emphasis should be placed on decreasing the chemicals and pesticides used in the production of certain crops. Some states have already initiated areas for honeybee preservation as well, so those areas have many restrictions as far as the use of pesticides and other airborne agents.

The honeybee is vitally important to our food supply and while the winter losses in 2016 were better than recent annual findings, the population is still depleted by one third. It is clear that steps need to be taken to preserve the honeybee colonies in the United States. It is unclear at this point what those steps will be moving forward.

Preserving The Legacy: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It is on this day that America pauses to reflect on the life and legacy of a great leader and an amazing citizen, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The impact that his example made on generations of people is so profound that it cannot be fully explained in words.

Dr. King worked for the equal rights of all people regardless of skin tone or what they looked like, he also embraced a peaceful and diplomatic approach to change. His words and his actions were guided by Christian ideals and centered on love and hope conquering fear and hate.

The America that we live in today is very different because of the actions of Dr. King, and the civil rights movement that he and some other leaders inspired. It is a country that has such incredible potential and though we have made strides, like any society we have room for improvement and growth.

On a personal level, I have always had an affinity and respect for Dr. King and for his approach to tackling such fierce opposition and his courage in the face of unbelievable personal attacks. His Letter From A Birmingham Jail was a book that impacted my life very significantly. I put myself in his place and could not imagine the emotions he must have dealt with at that stage of his life.

Many of you also know that on Martin Luther King Day four years ago I decided to start this blog, Frank’s Forum, I made the determination to go out on my own and start a new business. I also made the choice to begin to write more pieces for the general public and really put myself out there into the world.

I remember having some fear about it, but then I thought of all that Dr. King faced and had to deal with in his life. I remember that being the inspiration for me to get beyond my own fears, which seemed so insignificant in comparison, and to hit the “publish” button on this blog.

In the years since, I have been blessed to have produced written work that has been published in over 40 countries throughout the world. I have been blessed that this blog has had posts distributed in shared globally as well. I have been invited to write my own blogs for several websites and to contribute news stories on a variety of subjects.

In the years since, I have been fortunate to write about important issues such as: Hurricane Sandy, corporate mergers, the GMO debate, environmental issues, factors impacting our food supply, the Flint water disaster, the refugee crisis, the war in Syria, and to raise awareness of diseases such as Scleroderma.

In the years since, I have been blessed to write about the plight of the honeybee, the Clean Air legislation, and issues facing veterans of foreign wars. In addition, I have been fortunate and humbled to contribute work to major websites and to cover my favorite sports teams and topics facing the sports that I love to watch and write about, which has been very fun to undertake.

In the years since, I have published articles in the Catholic media area which have inspired and encouraged others. I have also shared my creative work in publishing poems to this blog, a major poetry site, and in publishing a collection of poems on Amazon which is entitled The Promise of Tomorrow.

I never thought it could be as successful as it has been, but my leap and my belief in myself has taken me to places I never expected. I only dreamed of having some of this come true, and I am honored and humbled that it has taken me down the roads that it has in the last four years.

I will continue to work to share with you, the audience, stories that inspire and provide you hope. I will continue to work to help others to embrace the Christian ideals of love for one another, and still fervently believe that we all can live together in peace.

I will continue to work to preserve the legacy of Dr. King, so that one day, his dream for America can be realized. Thank you all for your tireless support and I hope this story inspires you to make a difference in your neighborhoods and your communities. May God bless you.

The Inevitable Demise of An American Icon: Sears

Sears has been in the news again this week with news regarding the potential sale of one of their iconic brands. I wrote a post for another site a few months ago when Sears first decided to put three of their mainstay brands up for sale: Craftsman tools, Kenmore, and Die Hard. This is most certainly an effort to increase cash flow through both the sale of the brands and through the almost certain jump in Sears stock as a result.

The news that an as yet unnamed bidder (rumor has it the bidder is Black & Decker) is interested in paying a significant amount of money for the Craftsman name with some estimates in the $2 billion range; has Sears stock trading at an increased level in the past two days. Craftsman is a symbol of uncompromising quality in tools and related hardware products that is well established in the consumer marketplace.

The unfortunate other side to this transaction is that many industry experts and financial market insiders with great knowledge of the situation indicate that even if Sears divests Craftsman in this deal, the cash flow is not enough to make a reversal of the outlook for the company.

In fact, those same experts as well as some other reports I reviewed state that even if Sears sold all three of those brands at a premium it still would not help their cause. This is where the Sears merger and acquisition of Kmart stores again looms large in the negative outlook for the company.

In my understanding of the situation having covered this as well as other failing retail brands in the past is this: essentially while the sale of the brand, in this case it is Craftsman, may help Sears in the short term; Sears will lose the profit generated by the sale of those branded products which it currently owns outright.

The mere fact that Sears put these three well established brands on the block to be sold is (if some of you remember my previous work on this subject) an indication that the times are desperate there. It is an indication that the company is definitely preparing for “reorganization” (i.e. bankruptcy) in the near future.

Sears also owns a great deal of real estate between the buildings of their brick and mortar retail stores and the land that those stores are situated on which contributes to their profit and loss situation. It is expensive to maintain both buildings and land, so Sears has either been divesting itself of one or both, as well as determining some other methods of cost reducing those components of their business model.

A couple of prime examples of these strategies are right in my backyard in New Jersey. Sears owns the building that is home to their Freehold Raceway Mall location, in order to control some of the costs the company consolidated their inventory from multiple levels of the store onto one level. They subsequently rented out the other two levels to an Ireland based company called Primark, a retailer of discounted products, mostly clothing brands.

In Middletown, the Sears location and the large piece of land it sits upon was sold to Investors Bank. The bank is now constructing a new branch location at that site, and most certainly has some kind of long range plan for the development of that land in the future. Most retail and financial market experts put the time frame for the bankruptcy and demise of Sears at 18 to 24 months from now.

It still boggles my mind that Sears, such an iconic retailer will cease to exist in potentially that short a period of time. I always think of those employees who will be out of work, some of whom have undoubtedly served the company for many years. These same workers have a set of skills and experience in the retail field which is shrinking and may have a difficult time finding new employment.

Conversely, Sears could not seem to get it right, they were missing that connection with the consumer. They were the retailer that was an afterthought in the minds of the average consumer. Sears is thought of as a place where you get tools or tires or a dishwasher; and not where you would get a television, a jacket, or a pair of sneakers. They could not seem to connect the value of their full complement of products to the consumer in the way that Wal-Mart and Target most certainly have accomplished.

The management at Sears keeps telling Wall Street that they are in the middle of a “turnaround” but that has not seemed to materialize. I liken it to the professional sports team that is in seemingly a constant rebuilding mode and never seems to turn that corner where the results manifest themselves tangibly.

Sears CEO, Eddie Lampert, has stated again this week that the company will not close down the Kmart division of the business, which is seen as an anchor around the neck of the entire business operation. They will continue to close Kmart stores that are “underperforming” as they recently closed my local Kmart here in New Jersey. They will not shutter the entire division. I think that this is a mistake and that there is a point where you have to start bailing the water out of the ship before it sinks further.

The business model for Sears in this turnaround phase is a case of “too little, too late” as the saying goes. The damage has already been done. The executive team is now focusing on selling off the brands that are most profitable, closing down lapsed consumer credit lines, and whittling down their overhead costs through the sale of real estate holdings or through sublet type agreements as I mentioned similar to the location in Freehold.
Those are all signs that the executives are trying to maintain what little profitability remains in the business. Therefore they can divide up those revenues when it comes time for them to take the “golden parachute” ride before the operation shutters the doors for good.

The demise of Sears is inevitable it seems, and it is sad because I am sure that most of us at a certain age have memories of shopping there, or of our parents bringing home a picture of the new Kenmore refrigerator. I remember going in the garage and seeing all of my father’s Craftsman tools or getting a Die Hard battery for one of the cars during a harsh winter. My mother would take me to Sears to get clothes for an athletic team I had joined.

All of those instances and so many more will remain memories that other generations of American children will never have. That is due to poor business decisions by Sears, marketing campaigns that consistently missed the target, and the societal shift towards online shopping and away from traditional retailers. It is a scenario where it is essentially “adapt or fail” and Sears failed to adapt in time to save an iconic American retail brand from joining the long list of other retailers who no longer exist. It is a sad trend overall, but one that is a harsh new reality.