The Death of the Big Three

I posted this earlier but it is worth revisiting given recent events with Chrysler and GM:

Richard Florida on the inspiration for his concept of the Creative Class:

I have long said that the inspiration for my theory of the creative economy isn’t hip cities, or gay neighborhoods, or even Apple or Google. It comes from my early, ground-level studies of Toyota where top management essentially told me more than 25 years ago: “We will win and the Big Three will lose. The problem is in your heads and the way you manage. You think the key to success is having a big-shot CEO, lots of engineers, and scads of high-priced MBAs. We know better. The key to our success lies in mobilizing the collective knowledge, intelligence, and creativity of our factory workers.” [emphasis added]

From an excellent post.

On a more humorous aside, P.J. O'Rourke's been all over the media (NPR, WSJ) about the end of our love affair with the automobile. He is also promoting his new book, Driving Like Crazy, which sounds like a wonderful summer read.