Boeing is once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. This time, a door plug fell off an Alaska Airlines jet mid-flight. So, what's going on with Boeing? Glenn reads a piece from author Porter Stansberry, who breaks down 2 major decisions Boeing made that took the company from a poster child for engineering to a company facing possible bankruptcy: First, Boeing switched its focus from engineering to "financial engineering," and then, it fully embraced ESG. "We will continue to have planes fall out of the sky" as long as ESG is king. But that isn't just true for airlines, Glenn says: "Until our government gets away from this craziness, America's republic will keep falling out of the sky."
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So I got something from Porter Stansberry.
And I want you to listen to this.
A year ago, we published a tire warning about a mega cap American stock.
This was the only mega stock we told investors to avoid. It's no ordinary business.
It's America's most strategically important company.
Listen to that. America's most strategically important company.
We said it would soon collapse.
On January 27th, 2023, the headline was, coming soon, the Boeing collapse. How did we know?
Well, for the last 20 years, there hasn't been a company in America, that has embraced more bad ideas from financial engineering to ESG. Than Boeing.
In 1997, Boeing merged with fellow aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas in a $13 billion stock swap. It was a match made in hell. Boeing was known for quality, McDonald was known for financial engineering, with a focus on cost-cutting.
And the company share price.
Although the Boeing name survived, it was McDonnell Douglas' attitude that prevailed.
McDonald's CEO Harry Stonecipher, who took over the day to day operations of Boeing immediately took a carving knife to Boeing's highly paid engineering staff.
In May 2001, Boeing management made a physical break with its engineers, manufacturing headquarters. Stated Seattle while corporate moved to downtown Chicago, 1700 miles away.
That split symbolized the growing stance between the builders and the bosses. To say the company's engineers were disenfranchised, doesn't describe it. Boeing Boeing's entire culture was erased. CEO stone cipher even bragged about what he had destroyed. Quote be when people said I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent. So that's like a business. It's run like a business, rather than a great engineering firm.
Hmm. I don't know if you know this, but making airplanes fly really requires a great engineering firm. But maybe that's just me.
Today, both Boeing's CFO Brian West and CEO David Calhoun are formerly senior GE finance people, and they've done to Boeing, what they did to GE: Destroy the balance sheet.
From 2010 to 2019, Boeing spent $44 billion on buying back its own shares, while adding $50 billion in debt.
This reduced the share count by 23 percent, and sent the stock price up 200. But the underlying business, bean counters cannot build airplanes. Boeing's planes began falling out of the sky. As a result, free cash flow plunged to negative 4.3 billion annually by 2019. Today's bankruptcy of Boeing grows more certain. Cumulative net income over the last three years, is negative 20 billion.
And the company has $52 billion now in total debt. Interest expense is currently 2.5 billion a year.
But that's going to move much higher as Boeing's at the time will be downgraded to junk. But never fear. Investors have nothing to worry about. With one of America's greatest and most important companies spiraling towards bankruptcy.
Stephanie Pope is the chief operating officer of Boeing.
She holds a bachelor's degree in accounting, from Southwest Missouri State University.
And an NBA from another intellectual powerhouse, Lindenwood University.
She also has zero engineering background.
Now, why would someone with this kind of background be placed in charge of operations, in the world's leading aerospace engineering firm?
Maybe it's because she is the executive sponsor of Boeing's women inspiring leadership. A group dedicated to increasing gender diversity, awareness.
Boeing's planes keep falling apart.
These outcomes are the results of years and years of bad ideas.
Starting with the intentional destruction of Boeing's engineering culture. Followed by GE-style financial engineering. Now the company's full embrace of modern Marxism ESG. Like we predicted a year ago, Boeing is going to collapse. When the debt gets downgraded, the stock will drop by more than 50 percent to below $100. And that's just what we warned about GE and GM.
Boeing is a wonderful metaphor for our entire society. When -- now, listen carefully, boys and girls.
When we promote people, because of their political views, or their race, or their sex. Even if that sex is completely made-up, instead of what they know and who they are, the content of their character. We will continue to have planes fall out of the sky.
Whatever company is involved in all of this stuff, their, quote, planes whatever it is they build will fall out of the sky. Until our government gets away from this craziness, America's republic will fall out of the sky.
Help me just give you a couple of things.
First of all, do you think this is a good idea?
The NIH has spent millions on equity, LGBT issues instead of researching cures.
How do you think that's going to work out for us?
DEI, the boon toggle cost us millions.
And yet, in all of these -- all of these universities. All of these countries, I'm sorry. Companies. That are embracing DEI. University of Michigan, is paying probably a total of about $80 million a year for their 142 employees, to promote DEI and all the programs. Okay?
So how is it working out? $85 million was spent on DEI. At that one university.
Black student's experience on campus hasn't improved. Hispanic and Asian enrollments increased. But black enrollment dropped slightly from 4.3 to 3.9, with percentage of students who were satisfied with the overall campus climate. It decreased 72 percent to 61 percent.
Your education plane is about to fall out of the sky. How about energy?
Let's all go EV. And, in fact, let's have a government that thinks they know better. Thinks that they are God!
And so they are going to reduce the oil that we can pump.
Starve us for anything that we know historically works.
To give us a bunch of crap that doesn't work. That we still have to have the energy to propel.
We still have to make electricity, so the car can plug in!
Where is that coming from, gang?
Oh, don't worry about it. These cars are so great.
Really? Did you hear?
I think it's Hertz is getting rid of all their EVs. They're turning in their entire fleet. And that's happening over and over and over and over again.
Meanwhile, hey, let's be more like Europe. Let's be more enlightened like France. France is dropping its renewable targets to fully embrace nuclear energy.
Why?
So they have energy sovereignty!
Sovereignty, how dare France separate itself from the collective.
And, meanwhile, of MSNBC. Chris Matthews, on Wednesday, claimed that -- and I'm quoting.
Rural Americans are essentially members of a cult, who will vote in, quote, their craziness.
If Democrats don't show up at the polls.
Our craziness.
Our craziness.
I've had enough. I've really had enough.
What is our craziness, Chris, that we want to vote in?
How about the president actually has to go to Congress, to ask if, hey. Can we get into another war?
That's not Republican craziness. That's currently democratic craziness. As we are now backing into a war, in the Middle East. Another one!
Is that crazy to ask?
Is it our love for history, and heritage, that's so crazy!
The mission statement in our Declaration of Independence. That all men are created equal?
That we don't believe that to be antiracist, you must indeed be racist!
To do the opposite of what Martin Luther King preached.
No. I don't think that's crazy.
I think that's settled science. Are we crazy for demanding that our border be shut down, until we can get control!
Is it crazy to say, 10 million new people have come across our border.
We don't know who they are.
They're -- we're building shantytowns. Our kids are being kicked out of their own schools.
So we can put illegals, in a nice home, because we're out of hotels.
Is that crazy?
Is that crazy.
We don't even know who is in our country, Chris!
Mark my words.
The intelligence offices in the United States, just came out with a warning. They said that Hezbollah, Hamas, they have a -- probably some operatives here in the United States.
Oh, do you think so?
So does every country that hates us! They're lining up at the border. And we let them through. And, boy, it's really crazy to ask why the Biden administration said, oh, if they're from China, pretty much just let them through.
Did we learn nothing from 9/11? Or did I just dream that up, in a crazy fever dream, Chris.
Is it crazy to insist the Constitution be followed. And the Bill of Rights!
That maybe we don't have secret courts. Maybe we're not spied on. That our CIA and other intelligence agencies don't conduct cognitive operations, quote, unquote.
On our fellow citizens.
Is it crazy to say, we need to be energy independent. At a time when oil tankers are being hijacked by Iran. When whole fleets of electric cars are being sold. And the old combustion engine is back.
Because the tech isn't there. Is it too much to ask, in a country like ours, to allow the citizens of the country, a republic. To make their own decisions on what they buy. What they eat. What medicine they inject in their own bodies. Is it really all that crazy to demand that the government rein in spending, when we're at 34 trillion dollars in debt. And our deficit. Just our deficit in December alone, was 50 percent higher, than they said it would be.
Is it really crazy to question authority, when that authority has lied to you, about serious issues? Too many to even -- even count.
Corruption, at the highest levels. Laptop, Russia. Clinton servers. January 6th. Ray Epps. ESG. Collusion with big tech, to silence and censor those that do question, is that really -- is it really crazy, Chris?
Because to me, it doesn't sound all that crazy. How about some accountability?
It's so crazy to ask for some answers on what happened in Afghanistan. Losing at least a billion dollars now, just reported of our hard-earned money in Ukraine.
And dare I say, the lab leak.
Our role in that. As well as all the lies from the government and the companies like Pfizer and Fauci?
It isn't crazy for those of us who actually believe in the Constitution.
For those of us who actually believe in the Declaration of Independence. And the Bill of Rights. And the rule of law. Not to be dismissed, demonized, called traitors, insurrectionists, or crazy. And, Chris, until you and your elitist, leftist friends, who despise half the country. The half that actually works hard. Plays by the rule.
Pays their taxes. Fight and dies in our country's war. Stop acting like all of your new ideas, like 100-plus genders, teaching of history. That destroys the actual truth. Until you abandon your elitist attitude, that we're all rubes. And only you know better. Well, I guess we'll continue to be crazy in your eyes.
But in our ours, it is your indeed clinical, mental illness, that is the real danger to freedom. Ten months. Or dare I say it, the republic.
