14 September 2020

Bend It Like Henry - part the first

Henry Ford has been mentioned at various times in these missives. He represents the archetype of the vertically integrated manufacture. The River Rouge plant is the exemplar: raw materials in one end, automobiles out the other.
Construction began in 1917, and when it was completed in 1928, it was the largest integrated factory in the world.

Decades later, the American CxO class invented the conglomerate of today
Conglomerates were popular in the United States, in the 1960s, due to a combination of low interest rates, and a repeating bear-bull market, which allowed the conglomerates to buy companies in leveraged buyouts, sometimes at temporarily deflated values.

Gulf and Western was notorious.
Problems with the 45-story building's structural frame gave it unwanted fame [sic] as its base was scaffolded for years and the upper floors were prone to sway excessively on windy days, even leading to cases of nausea akin to motion sickness.

What I had long forgotten, if I ever noted
The 1997 renovation into a hotel and residential building, the Trump International Hotel and Tower (One Central Park West), by Costas Kondylis and Philip Johnson involved extensive renovation of both interior and facades. For example, the 45 stories of the original office tower were converted into a 52-story residential building, enabled by the lower ceiling height of residential spaces.

From one malignant narcissist, Bluhdorn, to Batshit J. Moron. Birds of a feather, and all that.

These days, a bear-bull cycle doesn't really exist. What we have had are a series of unrelated events disrupting the Mr. Market's tummy. And, thanks to the Fed and incompetent government (some times the Congress and some times the Administration and some times both at once), the low interest siren song continues to play.

But in semi-conductor, while there's been much consolidation, it's been, for the most part, horizontal. Now, NVIDIA has gobbled ARM. Of course, neither owns a (commercial production size) fab.

So, what happens to all those other companies having ARM licenses of various sorts? Only The Shadow knows. But I wouldn't bet on the situation becoming better for them.

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