In 1968, I was a senior at Michigan State University.  At the time, GM, Ford and Chrysler were counted among the pillars of the American economy and they owned the domestic auto market.  Also at that time, Honda made small motorcycles.  Recently, I came across the set of note cards for a Business Policy class I took that year.  On one of the cards was a quote from a February, 1968 issue of The Wall Street Journal.  The quote read:  "Domestic automobile sales down; foreign automobile sales up.  Japan could be big player someday."  Well, it's forty years later and "someday" is definitely here; in fact, it's been here for a long time.  Whoever wrote that article had incredible insight.  It should have served as a wake-up call to the American Auto industry.  Instead, it produced only belly laughs.  As a result, what we used to refer to as the "Big Three Auto Makers" are now on the verge of collapse--all because they failed to take advantage of this very early waning.  Let's hope other American businesses can learn from their mistakes. - Ross / RossReck.com