Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors: the fall and rise of an automotive empire

I remember when Japanese cars first landed on our shores in the 1970s. American cars were large, long, and powerful. Designed to make owners feel and look successful. The Japanese cars were small and the initial reaction to them was scorn. They're so tiny, no American would buy one. The Japanese made junk and no American would have one. But the oil embargo of 1973 created shortages of gasoline and the economy was stuck into stagflation. So, the compact, energy efficient, higher quality Japanese cars were successfully introduced into the U.S. and after a few years, cut deeply into the market share of General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford. During the 80s and 90s, almost no executives knew what to do in the face of rising worldwide competition. The mantra of the day was better, faster, cheaper. The easiest to understand was cheaper. Outsourcing labor was easy, which resulted in mass layoffs at home. The basic attitude had become employees are costs and costs must be cut. And Detroit, the home of GM, Ford, and Chrysler,