kscarbel2

Reuters / November 7, 2016 Illinois filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen for tampering with emissions controls in Volkswagen and Audi diesel vehicles, becoming the 19th U.S. state to take legal action against the German automaker. The complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court by Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Monday, charges the company's American unit and seeks civil penalties for violations of state environmental laws. The German carmaker admitted last year to cheating U.S. vehicles emissions tests using sophisticated software. About 29,800 cars sold in Illinois were affected, Madigan said.

You'd walk into it knowing that you were buying a hood, 30-year old cab, Maxitorque transmissions, steer axles and drive axles. As you said, all showing their age. Then again, the American truck is due for massive evolvement, and what better marque to lead than (drum roll here).............Mack.

. .

I personally thoroughly enjoy Jay taking us around his ongoing projects every few months.

An original Mack 6MF519P2 looks very good...........on a R-700 or an F-model.

If an entity offered a financially challenged Volvo a reasonable amount of money for the Mack brand right now, I do believe they'd give it serious thought. I suspect, given a choice between keeping Volvo Bus or Mack, they'd keep Volvo Bus (Several Chinese busmakers would like to follow in Geely's footsteps and acquire Volvo Bus). If they could sell Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) right now, which is what board chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg wants, they would probably want to hang on to Mack a bit longer. But the construction segment worldwide is at a low point so they can't get anything for it now. At any rate, they certainly are selling everything that isn't nailed down.

Volvo Group to divest Governmental Sales Volvo Group Press Release / November 4, 2016 Volvo Group intends to initiate a process in order to divest its Governmental Sales business area. Volvo Group has conducted a strategic review of the Governmental Sales [military truck] business area and intends to initiate a process to divest this business. “Governmental Sales has built a very strong position over the last few years with a positive development and a record order book. There are great opportunities to grow the business even further, HOWEVER, we believe that a new owner may be better placed to take the business to the next level. Consequently, we intend to start preparations to divest the business,” says Jan Gurander, Deputy CEO and CFO at Volvo Group. Governmental Sales is a part of Volvo Group’s operations and its sales correspond to approximately1.5% of total sales. The business, which has about 1,300 employees, most of whom are in France [Renault/ACMAT,Panhard*], manufactures and sells specially designed vehicles to governments, the defense industry, peacekeeping forces and aid organizations. The initiation of a divestment process is subject to the finalization of mandatory consultations with staff representative bodies. * http://www.renault-trucks-defense.eu/ http://www.acmat.fr/ http://www.panhard-defense.eu/

Gustaf Tapper, Dagens Industri / November 4, 2016 Volvo withdraws from the defense industry. The attention surrounding dealers in Russia and the Middle East was too much for the anxious directors at the headquarters in Sweden. The most natural buyer of Volvo Governmental Sales lies in France, and French government-owned weapons manufacturer Nexter Systems* is likely to be interested. The positive is that Volvo is now evidently in a restructuring phase that can release billions. * http://www.nexter-group.fr/en On a Friday when half of Sweden is on the autumn holiday, Volvo decides to send out this press release on a sensitive topic with only a brief text that is particularly well-sharpened: "The Volvo Group has made a strategic review of the business area, Governmental Sales and intends to initiate a process to sell the business." Towards the end there follows a sanitized description of the activity: "... manufactures and sells custom-designed vehicle for governments, armed forces, peacekeeping forces and aid agencies." Sure, Volvo Governmental might sell one or two trucks to help UN-type organizations, but a much bigger deal is the armored vehicles. One example is the billion contract in February for 100 VAB Mk3 and 100 Sherpa combat vehicles for delivery to Lebanon - a deal managed by the French state arms export agency Odas and financed by Saudi Arabia. At Eurosatory defense exhibition in June, Volvo had one of the largest booths with their military vehicles lined up. There were stacks of the New York Times wrapped in an advertisement on the four sides of Volvo. The cover - a jeep model Sherpa Light with heavily armed soldiers from the Special Forces. You could describe it as someone in France had concocted the ultimate branding nightmare of Volvo Group’s Executive Board in Sweden. With such friends, you don’t need enemies ... And one can only imagine the reactions to related parties at Volvo Cars’ marketing group. On the inside of the advertisement, Volvo governmental head Emmanuel Levacher told how the strategy for Volvo's growth in the defense looks, including an active role in the structure of business with competitors in the defense industry. Now it will also be so in the end, but perhaps not in the way Emmanuel Levacher had imagined. He will not stand as a buyer. The core of Volvo Governmental is France-based Renault Trucks Defense, and the country's liberal views on arms exports are not the only culture clash over the years. At the head office in Gothenburg, it has been difficult to keep up with their creative French arms dealer export business, the challenging advertising, and the maneuvers that Volvo will participate in structural transactions. The other year, Renault Defense ventured into cooperation with Russian tank producer UVZ to develop the Atom, a new combat vehicle armed with a machine gun. A giant order from the Russian army was in the pot. Also in 2014, Russian troops had just occupied Crimea. After a few weeks, it was decided to put cooperation on ice, but only this year the Volvo/Renault Trucks partnership with UVZ was terminated. It is easy to understand if management related Volvo Cars had comments on the cooperation and the other arms deals. The risk is that the Volvo brand, owned jointly by Volvo Car and Volvo Group, could easily be affected. Finally, the difficulties in controlling the French proved to be too much for the anxious Swedes at Volvo's headquarters in Gothenburg. Now the defense business is sold. The most natural buyer is state-owned French company Nexter which produces combat vehicles, artillery and ammunition. Nexter cooperates with Volvo on several products, including the “véhicule blindé de combat d'infanterie” infantry fighting vehicle and the Caesar howitzer*. Another possible buyer is Germany’s Rheinmetall. The French government will closely monitor the sale and has the last word. The other day, Volvo sold real estate for billions. Friday's initiative strengthens the impression that CEO Martin Lundstedt has launched a major streamlining. It is positive for shareholders and will release capital. Last year, Di did a survey that showed that Volvo can withdraw 60 billion by selling assets odd, stock items and their properties. In several cases, companies with losses. With this development, there is surely more to come. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9hicule_blind%C3%A9_de_combat_d%27infanterie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAESAR_self-propelled_howitzer .

Improving truck fuel economy with new engine oils Sean Kilcarr, November 4, 2016 / November 4, 2016 Here’s a question for you: how much is a 1% gain in Class 8 fuel economy worth? Can you put a dollar figure to it? Apparently Gary Parsons, the global OEM and industry liaison manager for the products and technology division at Chevron Oronite Company, can – and according to his calculations a 1% improvement in fuel economy is worth $500 to $700 per year in cost savings. And that’s why Parsons believes truckers – be they owner-operators or big fleets – should embrace the impending changeover to CK-4 and FA-4 diesel engine oils on Dec. 1; the official names for oils developed over the last five years under the Proposed Category 11 or “PC-11” label. “Unlike with aerodynamic devices or low rolling resistance (LRR) tires, you can change the kind of oil you are using with low cost and implement it across entire your fleet immediately – affecting fuel economy overnight,” he explained during a webinar this week hosted by Chevron Lubricants. If a fleet switches from current CJ-4 15W-40 oils to the new CK-4 10W-30 grade, Parsons said they’ll attain 1% improvement in fuel economy. If the fleet switches to the lower viscosity CK-4 5W-30 grade, the fleet would see an extra 0.2% gain in fuel efficiency. And if the fleet decided to switch to the new super-fuel efficient FA-4 5W-30 grade – a grade, however, that will only be allowed right now for use in a few select engine models – the fleet would get another 0.2% on top of that, for an overall gain of 1.4% versus the current CJ-4 15W-40 grade. [As an aside, Rommel Atienza – North American Delo commercial brand manager – added that Chevron Lubricants plans to keep supplying CJ-4 for at least a year following the rollout of CK-4 and FA-4, providing a good length of time for customers to switch over to the new grades.] Yunsu Park, the program manager for confidence reports at the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) added that fleets his group works with that’ve already switched to current CJ-4 10W-30 blends are seeing some significant gains in fuel economy. He said NACFE’s partner fleets experienced fuel economy gains ranging from 0.5% to just over 2% in some specific cases by switching to the 10W-30 grades currently on the market. “The data is very consistent,” Park stressed during the webinar. “We recommend fleets implementing this change; going from a 15W-40 grade to a 10W-30 grade in same [oil] category.” Interestingly, NACFE’s research into engine oils found this is one area where even so-called “forward-thinking” fleets are actually reluctant to make changes. “Over 40% of the NACFE fleets still use the 15W-40 grade, and these fleets are typically fairly aggressive with new technology,” Parks noted. Industry-wide, less than 20% of Class 8 fleets are using something other than the 15W-40 engine oil grade, he added. A separate conclusion NACFE derived from examining FA-4 grade field test data over the summer indicates fleets could get a further 0.4% to a 0.7% improvement in fuel economy over current 15W-40 blends, but Parks stressed that his “information is still very limited” and that more testing is needed to confirm that potential gain. But Parks also remains “confident” in NACFE data that that higher viscosity oils don’t provide better engine protection than the 10W-30 and thinner viscosity grades. “We believe the 10W-30 grade provides good protection,” he stressed. Yet there is a challenge: price. For while there is no upfront investment to the level required by adding aerodynamic devices or LRR tires, Parks said fleets moving from a 15W-40 oil to a 10W-30 or 5W-30 grade will see a cost increase. “Your return on investment [ROI] can be achieved, but you need to investigate that on your own,” he noted. [Len Badal, the global Delo brand manager for Chevron Lubricants, said much the same thing to me in an earlier interview you can read here.] Part of that ROI calculation needs to include longer drain intervals, for both the CK-4 and FA-4 grades. For example, one fleet attending the webinar noted that the drain interval on its 200 trucks using CJ-4 grade oil is around 35,000 miles. With CK-4, that interval could be over twice as long. PACCAR, for instance, recently announced a drain interval of 75,000 miles for its 2017 model MX-11 and MX-13 engines – a boost of over 15,000 miles from its current 60,000 miles limit – though that number may need to be pulled back if a fleet’s engine idle time is greater than 20%. Cummins is allowing for a drain interval extension in its new X15 engine line of up to 80,000 miles – with something similar in the works for its X12 engine as well, which will be introduced in 2018 – if fleets use its new OilGuard oil analysis service. Yet NACFE’s Parks also noted that the potential for easily-attainable fuel economy gains is there with the new CK-4 and FA-4 grades and he expects thinks truckers will take advantage of that opportunity. “We really see the new oils coming on to the market [Dec. 1] as a chance for fleets to re-evaluate their choices based on the fuel economy impact of low viscosity oil,” he said. We’ve got less than a month to go before we start finding out which fleets will switch and which will stand pat.

German KBA greenlights 29 cent Volkswagen fix for 1.6-liter EA 189 TDI engines Green Car Congress / November 5, 2016 The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has approved Volkswagen’s technical solutions for 2.6 million vehicles equipped with the EA 189 1.6-liter TDI engines affected by the emissions-cheating issue. The modification in the case of the EA 189 1.6-liter TDI engines involves a software update. In addition, a [magic 29 cent] flow conditioner (aka. flow transformer) is being fixed directly upstream of the air mass meter. The implementation will take less than an hour of working time. Implementation can soon begin on the first of the vehicles of this third and final engine size. The vehicle owners will be notified in succession over the coming weeks. All affected customers can then book their vehicle in for the modification at an authorized workshop at a time of their choosing. The KBA has said without qualification that the implementation of the technical solutions for these models causes no detrimental changes to fuel consumption levels, performance data or noise emissions. The KBA had previously already affirmed this for all other models approved for the recall. After the modification, the vehicles also fulfil all statutory requirements and the duly applicable emissions standards. The modification of vehicles with affected 2.0-liter TDI engines began back at the start of the year. The implementation of the technical solutions for affected models with EA 189 1.2-liter TDI engines is also under way. With KBA approval now having been given for the final engine size group as well, work will shortly begin on the modification for vehicles with the affected EA 189 engine. It is thus now possible to bring affected models with 1.2-liter, 1.6-liter and 2.0-liter TDI engines up to due standard. In Germany customers are being informed in a two-stage process. In stage one, all of the owners concerned were already notified this spring that their vehicle is affected by the modification program through a letter agreed with the authorities. As soon as the technical solutions for a model have been approved and are available, the customers are being asked in a second written communication to book their vehicle in with a partner business of their choice. This communication has now been sent to the owners of vehicles with the 1.6-liter TDI engine as well. The vehicles affected are technically safe and roadworthy. Between now and their modification, they can continue to be used on the road without any restrictions. The required technical solutions are being implemented across Europe based on a schedule and action plan agreed with the KBA. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VW's surreal fix turns Dieselgate drama into a comedy Automotive News / November 16, 2015 Two months into its Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen says it finally has found a silver-bullet solution. In receiving the blessing of the KBA, Germany's type approval authority, to clean up hazardous emissions from the 1.6-liter diesel, VW has now resolved the hardest aspect of its massive recall as that specific engine required technical modifications. Not only does the proposed new component bring the cars into compliance in Europe, VW Group believes the fix will not even impede fuel efficiency or engine output. Fitted directly in front of the air mass sensor, this part is equipped with a mesh that calms the swirled air flow and thus decisively improves accuracy when measuring current air mass throughput, a very important parameter for optimum combustion. That last passage is taken almost word for word from the company's statement. Pretty darn impressive even if I have absolutely no clue what that means. The component comes complete with a cool name, too – “flow transformer." It sounds kind of like the fictional Flux Capacitor that allowed a DeLorean to travel through time in the 1980s film "Back to the Future." VW even put quotes around the name, as I just did, as if they patented the whole idea in the first place. In German it's even better since you can squish the two words together to form Stroemungstransformator. All I can say is, "Wow!" So imagine my surprise after watching the company's helpful accompanying video on its website. When a bookish-looking VW manager complete with a properly long job title -- head of diesel development of derivatives and fuel injections systems -– explained the merits of said device as he held it up to the camera for all to see, I was stunned. Here is a German engineer who can probably plot the torque and horsepower curves of his engines from memory cradling in both hands a plastic tube as if were pure gold. Low-tech doesn't even begin to describe a part that looks more like something a plumber might install in a kitchen sink to keep it from clogging. Granted, the media had already reported that VW was working on a low-cost solution, but these days something as comparatively complex as DRAM memory chips manufactured under the most stringent cleanroom conditions can cost only a few dollars each. VW still doesn’t have an answer for its U.S. diesels, but can you imagine then how the less-trusting Environmental Protection Agency might react had it, and not the KBA, been confronted with VW's Flux Capacitor? Sorry … “flow transformer." Of course just because it looks cheap doesn’t mean it won’t work. -- I have to assume it does. Volkswagen cannot possibly be dumb enough to announce a fix that doesn't work. They know that environmental advocacy and consumer rights groups won't take them at their word, preferring instead to carry out their own tests to verify the authenticity of VW's claim. There’s no reason a fix should be ludicrously expensive either, but at least retrofitting all engines with completely different injection nozzles as VW Group CEO Matthias Mueller had initially warned might lead one to understand why engineers were not forming lines to be the bearer of bad news. Given that, the implication of the fix is truly staggering. For most of the 8.5 million illegal diesels on European roads, all Volkswagen had to do to ensure it was not breaking the law, polluting the environment or deceiving customers was simply update their software? And for the rest – the 1.6-liter versions that required technical modifications –- a quick run to their local do-it-yourself chain to pick up a plastic drain trap would have sufficed? Total service time required according to VW: less than one hour, if that. It's almost surreal. The whole scandal is beginning to sound more and more like a very, very expensive exercise in tragicomedy. .

Autoblog / November 4, 2016 Restomods, Pro Touring, tributes, replicas, copies... whatever. They used to be called hot rods. And it seems there's at least one shop in every county striving to pump modern ability under old sheetmetal and sell the result as something new. Write a big enough check to companies like Detroit Speed (which is, for some reason, in North Carolina), and you'll get a '69 Camaro much faster than a new one. Sign up with Icon 4x4, and that Los Angeles company will create a hyper-detailed version of, well, almost anything you like. Then there's the subject here, climbing out of Legacy Classic Trucks in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a re-creation of the beloved four-wheel-drive NAPCO Chevrolet pickup produced in small numbers during the 1950s. That's NAPCO as in Northwestern Auto Parts Company, a Minneapolis firm established in 1918 and well known for supplying four-wheel-drive components during World War II. With the war over, and at a time when most OEMs weren't yet building their own 4x4 pickups, the company put its expertise into building conversions. Most famously, NAPCO was selling kits that upgraded a Chevy or GMC half-ton truck to four-wheel drive. When GM introduced its own factory-built 4x4 pickups for 1960, NAPCO's conversion business dried up. Throw in a few rounds of corporate shenanigans, and eventually NAPCO was absorbed into the Dana Corporation and the brand died. "I called Dana about the brand," sighs Legacy founder and owner Winslow Bent. "No one there seemed to know." Such is the fate of all things to fade into obscurity. Well, not that obscure. There's a cult that has arisen around those NAPCO conversions. First because they're mechanically interesting and second because jacked-up GM "Advance Design" (1947–1955) and "Task Force" (1955–1960) trucks are spectacular-looking pieces of mid-century industrial design. For Legacy's Bent, whose company made its truck bones re-imagining and re-engineering early Dodge Power Wagons, reviving the NAPCO legacy would be, from a legacy point of view and legacy-wise, a good business for Legacy's expansion of its legacy. In the foothills that climb out of Southern California's Ojai Valley, the Legacy NAPCO looks as if it sprang naturally from the landscape. At least putatively a 1957 Chevrolet 3100 stepside pickup, the gloss of its paint, athleticism of its stance, and 33-inch-tall Toyo tires all belie that there's some magic at work. Impressions matter, and this truck is so gorgeous you can practically hear your pupils dilating at first sight. But there are some visual nitpicks worth making. First, the lack of chrome badges leaves the truck looking a bit stark and anonymous. It's missing the subdued jewelry that distinguished the Task Force design as both a part of its and one of the best truck designs of that time. Also, Legacy equipped this truck with a Borla Corvette-style, center-mounted, four-outlet exhaust system that awkwardly overwhelms the entire rear view. It simply destroys the illusion that this truck is a serious tool and not a rich man's toy. Stock 1957 truck chassis aren't robust structures. So Legacy has had TCI build a whole new one for its NAPCO-ish beasty. Mandrel bent and full-boxed with its steel coated in epoxy, the frame is so pretty it's a shame there's a truck covering most of it. The suspension looks tough enough to take photon torpedo hits and couldn't be simpler in concept: solid axles on leaf springs. Those axles are Dynatrac "ProRock" parts based on classic Dana 60 and 40 designs. Warn locking hubs make the power go where it should go. The brakes are four-wheel discs squeezed by dual-piston calipers and pressurized by a GM Hydroboost master cylinder. But the best mechanical improvement is the GM LS-Series 5.3-liter V8. The LS engine is small, powerful, economical, and has a torque curve friendlier than a Fruehauf full of puppies. Legacy claims that the one used in this truck makes 350 horsepower alongside 350 pound-feet of peak torque. If that's not enough, GM's LS3 "E-Rod" crate engine is also available, rated at 430 hp. Lashed to an Aisin AX15 five-speed manual transmission, the 5.3 is a happy camper in this NAPCO. Compared to a modern truck, old trucks aren't that heavy and 350 horses are plenty to scoot this one around. Especially since it's sort of tippy-toeing on its tall tires and the Saginaw recirculating-ball steering gear can be hazy. It's a blast crawling up trails, though it's less sure-footed on-road. The interior is trimmed in elegant leather and stuffed full of everything the modern aftermarket can provide. That includes a Glide Industries bench seat, a Nardo wood steering wheel, and instrumentation from Classic Industries. The Vintage Air air conditioning blows so cold it's practically disdainful. But the cockpit is also the Legacy NAPCO's Achilles instep. The major problem with the Legacy NAPCO isn't anything Legacy has done, but the limitations baked into the truck way back in the early 1950s when GM was designing it. Even compared to trucks built only a few years later, the cab is narrow and short. There's not a lot of leg or shoulder room, the atrocious aerodynamics lead to plenty of wind noise, and old hinge and latch designs mean the doors don't always like to close tight. My legs were practically cramping up against the pedals because they're too closely positioned for my six-foot-one-inch frame. Almost anything about an old vehicle can be improved upon with the application of cubic dollars. But almost anything isn't everything. And at some point the only way to get a better truck is to buy a newer one. Ultimately, the same things that make an old classic truck so ridiculously charming are what hold it back from ever being as comfortable and efficient as a new pickup. And that alone marginalizes the Legacy NAPCO as something of a plaything rather than an everyday driver. That's before considering cost. And with prices starting at $120,000, the Legacy NAPCO demands a lot of consideration. With the aftermarket now moving into areas it has never dared consider before – chassis, suspension, air conditioning, and whole new bodies, for instance – it's possible to indulge yourself if you have the wallet mighty enough to back up your whimsy. The Legacy NAPCO is a nice tribute to a bygone product, but it's not a necessary tribute. How much do you value paying tribute? Photo gallery - http://www.autoblog.com/2016/11/04/legacy-chevrolet-napco-4x4-conversion-review/ .

Ryan Beene, Automotive News / November 6, 2016 A pivotal 8 years for the auto industry President Obama may be remembered as the first auto industry executive to serve as president of the United States. He happened to do both jobs at the same time. And no matter who is chosen to succeed him on Tuesday, the eight years of the Obama administration will be recognized as one of the most pivotal periods in U.S. automotive history -- not just in terms of the structural and technological changes that bolstered the industry during Obama's tenure, but also in terms of the government's profound role in determining its course, from investment priorities to competitive dynamics to the basic components of modern vehicles. For evidence of that, look no further than the Ford F-150, America's best-selling light vehicle. There's a new one rolling off the assembly line every minute. And every one has a body made of aluminum. If there was a guidepost for the administration's approach to the auto industry, it's a line attributed apocryphally to Winston Churchill, and co-opted by Obama chief-of-staff designate Rahm Emanuel. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Emanuel told a gathering of corporate executives during the tumultuous weeks after the 2008 election. "It's an opportunity to do things that you could not do before." At the time the country was facing many crises: a wealth-destroying housing crisis, spiraling health-care costs, a financial system in tatters, surging unemployment, bloody wars in two theaters. The auto industry had crises of its own -- existential ones in the case of General Motors and the former Chrysler Group, plus big unknowns surrounding the impact of climate change, the nation's dependence on imported oil and unrelenting competition from Toyota. True to Emanuel's credo, Obama wasted no time. On Day 6 of his term, while General Motors and Chrysler clung to a lifeline extended by the Bush administration, the new president instructed the Department of Transportation to finalize new fuel-economy rules for the 2011 model year, and asked the EPA to review whether California and other states should be able to write their own greenhouse gas rules. "Our goal is not to further burden an already struggling industry," Obama said then. "It is to help America's automakers prepare for the future." Automakers had fought hard against previous attempts to raise fuel economy standards, but the promise of a consistent national standard helped win their support. "GM and the auto industry benefit by having more consistency and certainty to guide our product plans," GM's then-CEO Fritz Henderson said in a statement at the time. By mid-May, Obama was with executives from 10 automakers in the White House Rose Garden, proposing rules that would boost average fleet mileage to 35.5 mpg by the 2016 model year. Two years later, the target rose again: more than 50 mpg by 2025. A midterm review will determine whether that target should stick, but beyond some nervousness about the timing and costs, both automakers and regulators have signaled that they're committed to the course they've set. Surge in investment The new rules, along with toughening regulations elsewhere around the world, ignited a surge of R&D investment that has ushered in a new era of innovation in powertrains and lightweight materials, from the aluminum F-150 to the mixed-material construction of the Cadillac CT6. Nearly half of the 2015 model year fleet used direct-injection engines, compared with 2 percent in 2008, according to the EPA. Six-speed transmissions jumped to 57 percent of the fleet from 19 percent, while gearboxes with seven or more speeds grew to 17 percent from 2 percent. In addition, automakers now offer 12 battery-electric vehicles and 13 plug-in hybrids, according to the EPA. Of course, little of that investment would have been possible without the government-led rescues of GM and Chrysler, which not only revived the fortunes of the two automakers but sustained a supply chain that served the entire industry. GM and Chrysler had scrambled for months to restructure on their own, but having deemed their work insufficient, the Obama administration's auto task force took the wheel, ultimately pushing the two companies through government-orchestrated Chapter 11 reorganizations and onto more stable ground. The bankruptcies were quick but far from painless. Workers were fired. Brands were killed. Plants were shuttered. More than 2,000 dealer franchises were terminated. Bondholders were stiffed. To this day, many critics say the administration and the task force abused the bankruptcy law to benefit certain favored constituencies, and that the extent of their involvement in corporate affairs set a dangerous precedent, even if the industry is better off today. But the administration claims credit for forcing the reckoning that the industry had long avoided. "There was clear-eyed recognition that we couldn't sustain business as usual," Obama told the Detroit News in 2015. "That's what made this successful. If it had just been about putting more money in without restructuring these companies, we would have seen perhaps some of the bleeding slowed, but we wouldn't have cured the patient." As pivotal as this chapter was in their survival, the rescued automakers appear unwilling to revisit it. The very fact of the bailout soured many consumers on GM and Chrysler vehicles. And both companies felt stigmatized by having to endure the federal government as a shareholder well after they emerged from bankruptcy. GM and FCA declined to comment for this article, as did the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the Washington trade group that counts them among its 12 members. The industry's crises didn't end in 2009. In some quarters, they were just beginning, opening new avenues for government intervention. The subsequent string of safety problems at Toyota, General Motors and Takata led to a reinvigorated National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under chief Mark Rosekind, who came to power in December 2014 pledging to ensure that the industry and the agency arm themselves to avert safety crises instead of just reacting to them. "NHTSA is truly successful not when we catch safety violations and hand down penalties, but when we work together with industry to prevent that kind of crisis from ever occurring in the first place," Rosekind said in a speech this year. NHTSA's consent decree with GM following the 2014 ignition-switch crisis set a precedent for federal monitoring of an automaker's internal safety operations. Under Rosekind, NHTSA would extend this oversight and continue to invoke rarely used powers, summoning Fiat Chrysler to a public hearing to explain its handling of recalls, and taking control of the complex Takata airbag case to schedule recalls and coordinate the distribution of replacement parts. Obama's DOT has assumed a similar posture in its approach to autonomous vehicles, reserving the right to assert new authorities, even as it stops short of issuing new regulations. The recently issued draft proposal calls for manufacturers to disclose significant detail about their self-driving cars and systems before they're introduced to the market, a departure from the way auto safety has been regulated to date. The visible hand Automotive businesses that came under a consent decree or some form of government oversight, or that settled regulatory or criminal charges during the Obama administration: BMW: Two-year consent order signed in 2015 required the automaker to retain an independent safety consultant and reform safety practices after it failed to recall 30,000 Mini Coopers in a timely manner. Fiat Chrysler: Agreed in July 2015 to three years of oversight by an independent safety monitor after mishandling more than 20 recalls since 2009. Separately, FCA's sales reporting practices were being investigated by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. General Motors: Agreed to make sweeping safety reforms and submit to close NHTSA scrutiny in a 2014 consent order stemming from ignition switch crisis. The oversight has been extended through mid-2017. In addition, GM installed an independent monitor under an agreement with the Justice Department. Honda: Submitted in January 2015 to stricter oversight and agreed to complete several remedial actions after failing to report more than 1,700 deaths and injuries linked to potential defects in its vehicles over an 11-year period. Hyundai-Kia: Agreed to spend $50 million to establish an independent fuel economy certification group as part of a 2014 settlement to resolve a two-year EPA probe into inflated mpg ratings. Takata: Submitted to five years of additional NHTSA oversight and hired an independent monitor as part of a November 2015 consent order for failing to properly notify regulators that its airbag inflators were defective. Toyota: Installed an independent monitor in 2014 as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department to settle charges that Toyota misled regulators and consumers during its unintended-acceleration recall crisis. Volkswagen: A VW engineer pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges tied to his role in VW's emissions cheating scandal, a rare example of an individual being charged in connection with a corporate scandal. Electric vehicle vision As for the vehicles of the future, the administration won't see its vision fully pan out, at least not in time for move-out day on Jan. 20. Obama's goal of putting 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015 (backed by billions of dollars in federal loan-guarantee programs for electric-vehicle projects and startups) has come up short by half. Compelling offerings from Nissan and Tesla Motors remain virtually off limits to people who have long commutes or short credit lines. But the cost of electrification is coming down, and the potential for affordable, longer-range vehicles is growing. As the Obama administration cleans out its file cabinets, General Motors will be rolling out the Chevy Bolt, a 238-mile-range electric vehicle and technological descendant of the plug-in hybrid Volt, which despite its groundbreaking powertrain became an early symbol of the administration's unrealized expectations. Meanwhile, an alternative version of the administration's vision is playing out on America's roads. The restructuring of the auto industry was geared toward spurring production and sales of high-quality small cars, the kind that Toyota and Honda were using to beat up the U.S. auto industry. And for a time, the recession and wobbly recovery helped wean consumers off costly gas guzzlers. Ford's Michigan Assembly factory became the poster child of this movement when it retooled from the big Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs to build the Focus compact in 2010. Yet, thanks to the expansion of domestic oil drilling, which has kept gasoline prices low, the uptick in domestic small cars was eventually overtaken by surging sales of crossovers -- family-size utility vehicles that could be built on the same platforms as smaller cars. In a way, it's an unintended consequence of the administration's fuel economy quest: Americans have always preferred bigger cars, and thanks to the current rules that require greater efficiency from all vehicles, consumers can now have both. "By and large, the majority of the domestic automakers have found a good balance in creating fuel-efficient products that people want," said Ed Kim, an analyst with AutoPacific Inc. He added: "I absolutely do think that there was an important role that the government took in bringing these well-balanced products to the marketplace."

. .

Send them back to Africa Reuters / November 6, 2016 German Interior Ministry says EU should intercept asylum seekers at sea The German Interior Ministry wants to stop migrants ever reaching Europe's Mediterranean coast by picking them up at sea and returning them to Africa, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday. The ministry says the European Union should adopt an Australian-style system under which migrants intercepted at sea are sent for processing at camps in third countries. "The elimination of the prospect of reaching the European coast could convince migrants to avoid embarking on the life-threatening and costly journey in the first place," a ministry spokeswoman said. "The goal must be to remove the basis for people-smuggling organizations and to save migrants from the life-threatening journey." The ministry's proposal calls for migrants picked up in the Mediterranean - most of whom set off from conflict-torn Libya - to be sent to Tunisia, Egypt or other north African states to apply for asylum from there. If their asylum applications are accepted, the migrants could then be transported safely to Europe. The ministry is headed by Thomas de Maiziere, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. Merkel has been under fire for her open-door refugee policy, with her party losing votes to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in recent regional elections. “The Ministry of the Interior treats refugees as a contagious disease,” Green Party co-chair Katrin Goering-Eckardt told Welt am Sonntag. Bernd Riexinger, head of the leftist opposition Die Linke party, branded it “a humanitarian scandal and a further step toward elimination of the right to asylum.” “The asylum check must take place in Germany, because the right to asylum also means the right to legal resources, that is, to lawyers, counseling centers, etc. The handling of refugees in Australia is absolutely unacceptable, and Germany and the EU must not be guided by it,” Riexinger stressed.

Sex offender who chained up woman killed at least seven The Guardian / November 6, 2016 Todd Kohlhepp admits shooting four people in South Carolina and shows police graves of two others on his property A South Carolina man killed at least seven people in a hidden crime spree that lasted more than a decade and only was uncovered when police rescued a woman chained at the neck in a storage container. Todd Kohlhepp accepted responsibility for an unsolved massacre in which four people were killed, one day before the 13th anniversary of the deaths that stumped authorities, said Sheriff Chuck Wright. On Sunday, relatives of those killed in the massacre gathered in a Spartanburg courtroom. They sat a few feet away from Todd Kohlhepp, 45, as he was denied bond on the murder charges. It was their first chance to face the man accused of the killings. After the hearing, magistrate judge Jimmy Henson thanked the families for their civility and composure. “I know there’s a lot of hurt ... beyond what a lot of people understand,” he said. Authorities have charged Kohlhepp with four counts of murder in the 2003 deaths at the Superbike Motorsports motorcycle shop in Chesnee. Kohlhepp’s role in those killings was uncovered after a woman was found last week chained in a locked metal container on Kohlhepp’s property in rural Woodruff. “We got ‘em today. We got ‘em today,” Sheriff Wright said. “I’m rejoicing that this community can know that four people who were brutally murdered, there’s no wondering about it anymore.” A Spartanburg County sheriff’s investigative report from Saturday said Kohlhepp “confessed to investigators that he shot and killed” the owner, service manager, mechanic and bookkeeper of the motorcycle shop, giving details only the killer would know. Now, investigators fear they will make more disturbing discoveries as they unwind a hidden crime spree that unfolded over more than a decade. Kohlhepp is also charged with the woman’s kidnapping, and prosecutors say more charges are expected. Kohlhepp is a suspect in at least three other deaths. Authorities were searching again on Sunday on the suspect’s 95-acre Woodruff property. Wright said Kohlhepp had shown investigators where he says he buried two other victims there. Those are in addition to the body found on Friday at the site. Authorities identified that victim as 32-year-old Charles Carver, the boyfriend of the woman found on Thursday. Carver, who died of multiple gunshot wounds, went missing with the woman at the end of August. Before Kohlhepp emerged as a suspect, investigators said all four victims were killed with the same pistol. They have theorized that the killer came in the back and killed mechanic Chris Sherbert, 26, as he worked. Bookkeeper Beverly Guy, 52, was found just outside the bathroom, in the middle of the showroom. Thirty-year-old shop owner Scott Ponder was found just outside the door, in the parking lot. He was Guy’s son. Brian Lucas was in the doorway of the shop. Kohlhepp was released from prison in Arizona in 2001 and registered as a sex offender. As a teenager, he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old neighbor at gunpoint and threatening to kill her siblings if she called police. .

American democracy’s gravest trial Edward Luce, The Financial Times / November 6, 2016 The system is teetering whatever the outcome of the US election Fair enough, there was the US civil war. Amid all the carnage the Yankees still went ahead with the 1862 and 1864 elections on schedule. Other than then, there is little in US history to compare with what is at stake on Tuesday. Donald Trump, one of the possible next presidents, forecasts that the vote will be rigged. A Trump victory could still happen, which makes it so odd that he plays the sore loser before actually losing. Hillary Clinton believes the US system is working fine except for the threat posed by Mr Trump. In its way, Mrs Clinton’s outlook is almost as deluded as her opponent’s. America’s system of democracy is teetering, whether or not Mr Trump wins on Tuesday. Imagine two kinds of threat: one where a bear breaks into your cabin, the other where termites eat it from within. Mr Trump is the bear. The upside to a Trump victory is that he would be unable to claim the election was stolen. Far from it. The 2016 vote count would be the cleanest in world history. America would be great again! That aside, it would be a disaster. Many serenely predict US democracy would emerge intact from a Trump presidency. Their reassurance comes in two parts. The first is that Mr Trump would surround himself with experienced advisers who would curb his worst instincts. The second is that even if Mr Trump’s team were crackpots, the US constitution would correct any over-reach. They are too complacent. Most of those advising Mr Trump are as unsettling as he is. First among these is Mr Trump. “My primary foreign policy adviser is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff,” he says. Bear in mind he has questioned the point of nuclear weapons unless they are used. He has also recommended China’s neighbours acquire their own. [Officially] The decision to play the nuclear card is the president’s alone. The Pentagon can only advise. Virtually every Republican with national security experience signed a letter in August warning that Mr Trump would be “the most reckless president in history”. Then there is his political team. We need go no further than Stephen Bannon, his campaign chief, who is former head of the hard right website, Breitbart News. Anyone who cherishes America’s first amendment rights should be very afraid. Mr Bannon would be in line to become Mr Trump’s White House’s ideological director. Second, America’s system of checks and balances relies on those upholding it. Leaving aside his character, Mr Trump has no respect for constitutional boundaries. The last president to breach their limits was Richard Nixon. He was forced from office in 1974 for covering up his administration’s complicity in the burglary of the offices of the Democratic National Committee. The system worked, but it took two years. Nixon had an expansive view of the president’s powers. “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal,” Nixon said. That is also Mr Trump’s view. But Nixon’s secret lawbreaking pales against what Mr Trump openly vows to do. He has publicly urged Russia to burgle Democratic databases. He has also threatened to jail Mrs Clinton, reinstate torture, cancel treaties and start a global trade war. Some of this is illegal. Some of it is legal. Much of what Mr Trump promises lies in between. Either way, it could take the US courts months or years to rule on his actions. By then, much of the damage would be done. How could a Clinton victory possibly compare? If she won by a landslide — and the Democrats regained control of Congress — all bets would be off. But that is not going to happen. No poll has put her close to 50 per cent since the election began. The dangers of a Clinton presidency are no less troubling for their subtlety. Before Mrs Clinton is elected, Republicans are vowing to block whatever she tries. John McCain, her closest Republican friend, says he will oppose any Supreme Court nominee she submits. Others have threatened impeachment hearings. The Republican party is hopelessly divided. It spans pro-globalisation multiculturalists and nativist protectionists. In most other democracies, it would have split into different parties. The one glue keeping Republicans together is abhorrence of Mrs Clinton. This is without mentioning Mr Trump’s threat to cry foul if he loses. Either way, Republicans aim to make a desert of Mrs Clinton’s presidency and call it democracy. They have the means to do so. Four more years of gridlock would only deepen America’s popular frustration. The good thing about a bear is that you can see it coming. Termites are invisible. It is hard to pinpoint when they began to eat away at the foundations. When and why did Americans lose faith in their system? There is no consensus on this either. Some point to rising inequality. Others blame the growth of government. It does not mean Americans cannot regain the trust they have lost. But for the time being, the US is becoming steadily harder to govern. As Abraham Lincoln said, a house divided cannot stand. Though he faced far deadlier challenges, Lincoln’s observation is as true today as when he said it. The basis of US democracy is co-operation. Whatever happens after Tuesday is unlikely to fit that description.

Volkswagen Scandal Takes New Twist With Audi Cheating-Software Claim The Wall Street Journal / November 6, 2016 California authorities say Audi engines were rigged to produce lower CO2 emissions in tests than on road Volkswagen’s efforts to resolve its emissions-cheating scandal faced a potential setback Sunday with a fresh allegation that California authorities discovered cheating software on popular Audi models, while the company said a German criminal investigation has widened to include its chairman. Officials from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) discovered four months ago [Why are we only just now told....after the June settlement?] that some Audi engines were rigged to produce lower CO2 emissions in labs than in normal road use, potentially opening a new front in U.S. and European investigations. Volkswagen, Audi and CARB officials [secretly] discussed the allegation “some months ago.” The allegation is the latest twist in a broader scandal that has embroiled Volkswagen. U.S. environmental authorities disclosed on Sept. 18, 2015 that the company installed software on about 500,000 diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. that American authorities consider illegal. Volkswagen later admitted to installing the software on nearly 11 million vehicles world-wide. Volkswagen agreed in June to a $14.7 billion settlement with state authorities and owners of 475,000 two-liter diesel vehicles affected in the U.S. The company is still in talks about a settlement for owners of 85,000 vehicles with three-liter diesel engines that were built by Audi, its luxury-car unit. The Volkswagen diesel scandal involved the hiding of excessive emissions of smog-producing nitrogen oxides. The new allegation focuses on carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. U.S. environmental officials caught Audi’s alleged cheating through lessons from the Volkswagen investigation. CARB technicians conducting lab tests on Audi’s vehicles made them react as if on a road by turning the steering wheel. When they deviated from lab conditions, the CO2 emissions rose dramatically. The account was confirmed by two people. The Audi defeat device was discussed in some detail in the second half of February 2013 by Volkswagen’s top brass during the annual test drive of new cars in South Africa, dubbed “Summer Drive.” According to the minutes, Axel Eiser, the head of Audi’s powertrain division, said, “The shifting program needs to be configured so that it runs at 100% on the treadmill but only 0.01% with the customer.” Audi refused requests for comment from Mr. Eiser. Such test drives were elite events at Volkswagen. That Audi’s CO2 cheat was openly discussed by the company’s most senior management could increase criticism that Volkswagen insiders are still in positions of power at the company and able to influence the investigation. That Audi was allegedly cheating on CO2 emissions is likely to be of most interest to European officials. The issue came up earlier this year when Volkswagen admitted that 800,000 cars sold in Europe had understated CO2 emissions, only to recant later and promise to pay any bill for any customer who is required to pay additional taxes for higher CO2 emissions than stated in the vehicle’s paperwork. The new allegation says hundreds of thousands of gasoline and diesel Audi A6 and A8 sedans and Q5 sport-utility vehicles equipped with the AL551 automatic transmission contain software calibrated to cheat on emissions tests and have higher CO2 emissions than allowed by law. The allegation could also raise fresh questions in Europe, where regulators have been stricter on greenhouse gases than on nitrogen oxides. Volkswagen insists that its software didn’t violate European law. In Germany, Volkswagen hasn’t been charged with any breach of law. Criminal and civil lawsuits are instead focusing on whether Volkswagen’s management violated securities law or committed fraud and should be held liable for damages suffered by investors and consumers. Prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig, near the company’s headquarters, have widened their investigation to include Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch. Investigators say Volkswagen management willfully kept the company’s shareholders in the dark about the U.S. diesel investigation and the potential financial risks. Before becoming chairman in September 2015, Mr. Pötsch was Volkswagen’s finance chief, responsible for communications with financial markets. He became chairman in a management shake-up following the diesel disclosure. News of the U.S. investigation last year sparked a massive selloff in Volkswagen shares, causing the company to lose 35% of its market value by Sept. 22, when Volkswagen first warned investors of financial risks in light of the U.S. investigation. Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn resigned under pressure the next day. Mr. Winterkorn and Herbert Diess, the head of Volkswagen’s passenger car brand, are also named in the Braunschweig investigation. Mr. Diess has acknowledged the investigation but declined to comment. Mr. Winterkorn has declined to comment through his attorney. Volkswagen faces nearly $9 billion in damages claims from hundreds of investors, including Calpers of the U.S., Norway’s huge oil fund, and several German states that hold Volkswagen shares. The plaintiffs allege that Volkswagen’s top executives intentionally withheld information from shareholders, who later suffered huge losses when Volkswagen’s shares plunged. Volkswagen said no evidence has emerged to suggest that the company’s management failed to disclose the diesel issue to markets as early as possible, saying the company reaffirmed its belief that its management board “duly fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law.”

What Happens When the Most Important Pipeline in the U.S. Explodes Bloomberg / November 4, 2016 The 5,500-mile Colonial delivers about half of the refined products used on the East Coast. On Monday, a construction crew in Alabama triggered a massive explosion when a track-hoe struck the biggest fuel pipeline in the U.S. The blast killed one person, injured several, and sparked a wildfire that burned for nearly a day across 31 acres. It also stopped the flow of millions of gallons of gasoline that move up the East Coast each day, from refineries in Houston to tanks in Linden, N.J., outside New York Harbor. The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline delivers about half of the refined products used on the East Coast. It consists of two lines—one that carries gasoline, the other that carries distillate fuels such as diesel and jet fuel. Think of it as the country’s fuel aorta. The consortium that owns Colonial includes private equity behemoth KKR, industrial conglomerate Koch Industries, and oil-and-gas supermajor Royal Dutch Shell. The fact that it’s so little known, yet such a vital piece of infrastructure, is a testament to how well Colonial has been run over the years. But this is its second outage in two months. In September, a spill leaked 250,000 gallons of gasoline and caused states of emergency to be declared in Georgia and Alabama as gasoline ran out in some areas. The Colonial was down for 12 days. The U.S. has plenty of gasoline in storage. Tanks are brimming with near-record levels of supply. But that was true in September as well, when the outage caused all kinds of disruptions and price spikes. “All that supply does you absolutely no good if you can’t move it around,” said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst with the Price Futures Group in Chicago. By Tuesday morning, Colonial’s Line 2, the distillate pipe, was up and running. By Tuesday afternoon, news broke that its main line, Line 1, would be back up by Saturday afternoon, an optimistic timetable, according to some traders, given the level of destruction at the site. Still, the news helped cool the initial spike in the price of gasoline futures, which had jumped the most since 2008, fueled by a record level of trading that day. Traders in Houston working for big refineries have had to find a place to put all the excess barrels of gasoline and diesel they normally would send into the Colonial. That has set off a bidding war for the limited number of tankers and barges available to move products between U.S. ports. An obscure maritime law called the Jones Act requires that only U.S.-made, U.S.-flagged ships can deliver goods between ports. According to Bloomberg vessel-tracking data, about 27 Jones Act vessels were in service around the U.S. Gulf and the East Coast as of Thursday morning. Ship owners have been able roughly to double the price they charge to lease their tankers and barges, said Court Smith, a research analyst at MJLF & Associates, a shipping brokerage in Connecticut. Depending on how long the outage lasts, the federal government could waive the Jones Act, as it did after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, to alleviate fuel shortages in the Northeast. Traders who can’t get their hands on Jones Act ships will have to find tanks on land. Floating storage has also become a thing, where people lease ships to store their product. Refiners along the Gulf can also start changing the slate of products they make. The worst option for them is to throttle back and produce less, which would eat into their profits. If it’s anything like the September outage, a fleet of vessels bringing imported gasoline will start heading to the U.S. East Coast, where they can probably fetch higher prices. During the second half of September, gasoline imports to the East Coast jumped from about 500,000 barrels a day to 800,000 barrels a day. One vessel, the Flagship Violet, made its way from India eventually to New York harbor. It never unloaded and has been sitting outside New York harbor ever since, laden with 500,000 barrels of alkalyte, a distillate used to raise the octane in gasoline, according to data from ClipperData, a petroleum market research firm. On Nov. 1, the vessel changed its destination for the first time in a month, to a location within New York harbor. The outage is good news for refineries on the East Coast that can take those imported barrels. “The clear winners here are the Philadelphia-area refiners,” said John Mayes, director of special studies at Turner Mason, an energy consulting firm in Dallas. Shares of PBF Energy, which owns a large refinery outside Wilmington, Del., spiked on Tuesday by 12 percent in early trading, though they have since come down. Given the assurances from Colonial and what has so far been a more muted market response, some participants think the outage will be less severe than the one in September, when gas stations in Alabama and Georgia ran out of fuel. “We’re not going to see pumps getting bagged,” said Ernie Barsamian, a principal at the Tank Tiger, a tank-storage broker in New Jersey. The September outage prompted a cannonball run as tanker trucks raced to deliver gasoline from the Midwest to the Southeast. “You saw trucks driving all night from Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, down to Alabama and Georgia,” said Tom Kloza, chief analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. Although the outage is supposed to be contained by Saturday, Kloza is expecting the impact to be similar to what happened in September. No matter how long it lasts, the Colonial outage will probably lead to higher gasoline prices in the days leading up to the presidential election in states such as Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Normally, spiking prices at the pump as Americans go to the polls could spell trouble for the incumbent party. But the impact will likely be smaller, given how cheap gasoline has been over the past two years. “I think gasoline prices on Election Day will be 15¢ to 20¢ higher than they were last year,” Kloza said. “But let’s remember, that’s still $1.35 lower than they were in 2012.”

FBI again won’t recommend charges over Clinton email The Washington Post / November 6, 2016 FBI Director James Comey notified key members of Congress Sunday afternoon that after reviewing newly discovered Hillary Clinton emails the agency stands by its original findings against recommending charges. Comey wrote that investigators had worked “around the clock” to review all the emails found on a device used by former congressman Anthony Weiner that had been sent to or from Clinton and that “we have not changed our conclusions expressed in July.” A spokesman for the FBI refused to comment beyond Comey’s letter. A Department of Justice spokesman said only that the department and FBI had “dedicated all necessary resources to conduct this review expeditiously.” The three-paragraph letter was sent to the chairman of the Homeland Security, Judiciary, Appropriations and Oversight and Government Reform and was copied to the ranking members of those committees. Comey said the FBI had performed an “extraordinary amount of high quality work” to conduct the review. .

Why Trump Could Be Like Ike Christian Whiton, The National Interest / November 6, 2016 Donald Trump is unique in American history, but there is a president he resembles: Dwight Eisenhower. Trump’s caution about foreign military adventures and his revival of economic nationalism echo the five-star general who successfully guided America through equally perilous times. Everyone knows that Ike warned Americans about a military-industrial complex that had dangerous influence. Less known is that Eisenhower refused to engage the United States in what he regarded as a military sideshow: the communist insurgency in Vietnam against a vestige of French imperialism. As France lurched toward a final defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, President Eisenhower remarked of Southeast Asia: “I say that I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for America than to get heavily involved now in an all-out war in any of those regions…” Eisenhower knew that the main contemporary threat to the United States was the Soviet Union and that Europe was the central battlefield, both in terms of where combat might occur and where the battle of ideas between freedom and communism was taking place. He did not neglect developments elsewhere, but he avoided getting U.S. troops bogged down in other people’s wars in order to focus on what was critical. (His successors tragically reversed course in Vietnam.) Trump exhibits Eisenhower’s caution and clarity of thought. The New York businessman wants to defeat ISIS and is the first presidential nominee to take radical Islam and its underlying ideology seriously. However, he has rejected calls for jumping into the Syrian Civil War from those ranging from Hillary Clinton to John McCain—essentially today’s military-industrial complex. When a biased ABC News moderator badgered him about Syria and Iraq in a debate, Trump stood his ground: “Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS. We have people that want to fight both at the same time... I believe we have to get ISIS. We have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.” This type of common sense is viewed as unsophisticated by the Washington foreign policy establishment, but Americans by more than two-to-one rightly believe that we do not have a responsibility to get involved in someone else’s civil war. Trump also wants good relations with Russia, which is anathema to Clinton, who previously was spurned by Moscow and takes it personally. McCain and the neoconservatives also demand U.S.-led confrontation of Moscow, even though the Europeans in proximity to Russia spend a pittance on defense. Trump’s observation of this imbalance only deepens their rage, but it harkens to Ike’s refusal to write a blank check for the French in Vietnam. Eisenhower’s economics also had a place for nationalism in a manner similar to Trump’s. Eisenhower talked up free trade in his State of the Union addresses, but he was careful to call only for “profitable trade” and expanded foreign manufacturing only for mutual defense with goods “not seriously competitive with our own normal peacetime production.” He emphasized “the flow of private American investment abroad”—the opposite of what has prevailed since mid-70s, when America started running serial trade deficits. Eisenhower also commissioned the building of the interstate highway system and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Both projects offered combined economic, security, and political goals: facilitating business and bringing America closer together. Just as important was what Eisenhower did not do: interfere with the massive housing boom during his tenure. Americans who finally had the resources to flee squalid cities for the suburbs in the 1950s caused housing stock to increase 27 percent nationally, which itself contributed to economic prosperity from a building boom. Ike allowed consumer-led free choice to prevail in contrast to Hillary Clinton and other would-be central planners who want to dictate our health care and energy sectors. Ike’s approach to trade and expanding domestic growth stands in stark contrast to recent trade and visa policies established by our elite, which facilitate the flow of manufacturing abroad and employment of foreign workers. Trump and Eisenhower would agree that we have today is not free trade, but managed trade—and managed poorly at that. What Trump offers is a set of economic and defense policies aimed at putting America first. That sounds terribly trite to many experts, as well as corporations that want cheap foreign labor. But many American voters think otherwise. Christian Whiton was a deputy special envoy at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. He is the author of “Smart Power: Between Diplomacy and War.” .