Commentators criticize GM’s executives for being “out of touch” and “detached from reality.” Nonsense. Reuters reports that GM’s COO (and CEO in waiting) spoke the truth before jobbing journos at the opening of a $200m production plant in Talegon, India.  Yes, after revising its ’08 sales estimates gently downwards– twice– and talking about an “economic recovery” at every possible opportunity,  Fritz Henderson has finally admitted that GM’s biz is on the skids all the way into ’09 [as stated above]. In fact, it’s so bad that he might even stop saying the rest of the world is enough. “The most important thing we can do is to turn around the North American business,” Fritz  pronounced. Unfortunately, old habits die hard. Henderson returned to Ye Olde developing countries Spin. “We see greater consumer resilience in emerging economies. We expect growth in China, India and other emerging markets will continue.” Nick Reilly (another GM executive) rogered that. “We are on track for full-year profit growth in Asia despite the hit we took in Q2.” Characteristically, Mr Reilly didn’t state a time line for this recovery. But GM’s got big plans. Forbes reports GM’s new Indian plant can crank out 140k units a year. With The General’s total regional sales running at about 72k units p.a., they’ve got some work major ahead of them. Either that or a shitload of surplus production capacity.

Bailout bucks moved one step closer to Detroit pocketbooks yesterday, as Senator Barack Obama cozied-up to pro-taxpayer-tit-sucking organized labor. Harley Shaiken outlines the cunning plan to The Detroit News: "Senator Obama is using the Detroit Labor Day kickoff to emphasize three messages," the professor of labor studies at the University of California-Berkeley said. "Addressing the needs of working people, the key role unions play in the election, and the role of manufacturing and the auto industry." Three key areas of Obama's seduction of the UAW and other unions: getting that $50b into Motown's coffers, backing a bill in Congress making it easier to organize new members and renegotiating parts of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Unions' other suitor, Senator John McCain, believes the best way to an organized laborer's heart is getting that $50b into Motown's coffers, cutting taxes and  creating more jobs (through cutting taxes, strangely enough). Is it enough? Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are swings states and the key voting bloc are union members. The presidential candidate who turns up for their date with nothing more than a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates and $50b is at real disadvantage.

Fresh from the quality gains made in recent surveys (some of which they bought and paid for), Ford isn't resting on its laurels. The Detroit News reports that The Blue Oval Boyz have committed to training seventy hourly workers from each of its United States' factories to become masters in six sigma, the "gold standard" in quality proficiency. "They are doing it during pretty hard times," says Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California-Berkeley "This would be an easy thing to cut." Don Lowery, a plant worker on the six sigma course, is a believer. "Before, I was just putting on car parts. Now, I get to deal with the finished product." Just for perspective, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli was a GE-trained, Six Sigma uber alles kinda guy, and we all know how that turned out…

Despite the economic downturn in North America, the future looks bright in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). So bright, in fact, that there's been an almighty shift. According to Reuters, Toyota has upped global sales stats by 2.2 percent. The increase further cements their number one slot worldwide. That's because GM's global sales have contracted by three percent, trailing Toyota by 278k units. [Note: GM "gooses" its figures by including minority-held joint ventures.] Volkswagen has grown by an astonishing 5.8 percent. As Ford's sales have shrunk by six percent, they've surrendered third largest automaker props to VeeDub. Further commendation goes to Hyundai for increasing sales worldwide by a whopping 10.8 percent, scooping fifth place in the global ranking.