I don't know about that. In certain geographies and sectors things are surely bad but others are improving. In my industry (tech) things are considerably better than they were 6 months ago.

For HD to only be down 12% is actually pretty amazing given that what they produce are expensive toys for the vast majority of their customers. Given the collapse of the consumer based economy they seem to be holding up pretty well, especially if you compare them against the autos.

Still it sucks azz if you get laid off and I feel badly for those people.

 

To save money they're gonna move /build a plant [that they already have] in another state. That must be cheap to do, and lay off 2000 people, look how much money they'll save. And use the employee's that they keep like slaves, because they laid off 2000 and somebody has to build the bikes. The thing to watch is after this whole circle jerk, will the cost of a bike be lower because they "cut" costs?. If not, they need to add more diverse models to the lineup, and keep the workers they now have and build models that sell. And when they meet the quota, move the workers to another model, and not flood the market with more bike models that don't sell. A bakery doesn't keep baking cakes when people want to buy pies.,,

 

Obviously I would love to see HD open a plant in Indiana...as some of you have said, this should come as no surprise to anyone. The fact that they are looking to cut costs is a tool to survive. They work for the shareholders.

 

Greed? You mean like the motor company hiring thousands since the early 90's and providing those people a job to make a good living the past 20 years or so? The stockholders invest their money in the company and get it back when the company does well. That's how it works.

There are no guarantees in a free market. No one is owed a job. What are they supposed to do, keep paying these newer hires and lose money? They cut management jobs. They've cut production jobs. They've cut advertising and promotion.

We're in a recession. This happens. It's cyclical. When it picks up they will hire more workers.

 

Can you give a reason to own a piece of stock if not to make money from it? And what do you do if you do not make enough money from it, you sell it. Do you even realize that if you have a 401k, an IRA, a mutual fund, or any other type of investment or retirement account then you own stock yourself whether you are aware of it or not. Certainly you want your retirement portfolio to grow instead of decline. Stop being so damn greedy!

 

Its a dam shame.

 

I'm a HOG stock holder that has worked his *** off in the same job for the last 18 years and bought stocks and mutual funds to save for my retirement. Am I greedy? Nope, I'm a hard worker trying to right by my family. I also own stocks in oil companies and insurance companies. When the government says they want to take profits from those companies they really mean take money out the retirement accounts of hard working people like me.

It's true that Harley will pay workers in the South less money, but the cost of living is way cheaper in the south. Less taxes, cheaper houses and land, and milder winters means less utility costs. Plus, workers in the South have a much different attitude than people up North.

 

Actually, Harley just toured our auto plant here in lansing MI. We have the most effecient GM plant in the USA. We run with about 200 trades and I think about 1200 production on two shifts. Spring hill has twice as many trades. Harley is looking to run lean. I would be more concerned over the demographics, as Harleys are expensive toys for the well heeled well paid set. What I am seeing here in MI is the conversion of good paying factory jobs to poor paying jobs with no benefits. Most of GM is already there. Half or more of the people who make these cars work at suppliers making about ten bucks per hour and no benefits. The new GM contract for new hires is for 14 with no benefits. I am not saying that we are as important as we used to be, but it is clear that the people here are making and spending less than in the past. Furthermore, the futher is not better, but worse as the high paid tier one employees retire and are replaced gradually with 14 dollar per hour workers. We will get to see if the Republicans were right about how much better life is without the unions here. Because at the rates they will be paying we will in effect have no union. The first thing I have noticed is that you can buy a nice house for about twenty thousand bucks here now. I guess if Harley wants to sell a nice bike for a grand, and can make money doing it, then they will be good to go. People tend to forget that we only need about ten percent of the population to make food. After that it is just a money game. 90% unemployement anyone?