SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

WILL MICKEY BE CHOPPED?  FROM CNBC:  Disney will begin layoffs this week, the first of three rounds before the beginning of the summer that result in about 7,000 job cuts, according to a memo sent by Chief Executive Bob Iger.  The cuts are part of a broader effort to reduce corporate spending and boost free cash flow. Disney said last month it plans to cut $5.5 billion in costs, including $3 billion in content spending.  "This week, we begin notifying employees whose positions are impacted by the company's workforce reductions," Iger wrote in the memo, which was obtained by CNBC. "Leaders will be communicating the news directly to the first group of impacted employees over the next four days. A second, larger round of notifications will happen in April with several thousand more staff reductions, and we expect to commence the final round of notifications before the beginning of the summer to reach our 7,000-job target."  The layoffs were initially announced in February. The job cuts will be cross-company, hitting Disney's media and distribution division, parks and resorts, and ESPN.  Disney is following the lead of Warner Bros. Discovery and other legacy media companies that are cutting jobs and spending. Disney has said its streaming business, led by Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, will stop losing money in 2024. Disney shares are up about 8% this year after falling 44% last year.  It might be a good idea for entertainment companies to get back into the entertainment business and rebuild their audience.  I hope they have learned that giving viewers and moviegoers a steady diet of woke propaganda is unhealthy for the bottom line.  It's amazing, but Americans aren't really interested in being told how terrible their country is.  Bring back comedy.  Bring back musicals.  Bring back family stories. 

AH CAMARO, YOU DID GOOD:   A revered automotive name will be going to the great parking lot in the sky, but may be driving back.  From Daily Mail:   The Chevrolet Camaro, for decades the dream car of many teenage American males, is going out of production.  General Motors, which sells the brawny muscle car, said Wednesday it will stop making the current generation early next year.  The future of the car, which is raced on NASCAR and other circuits, is a bit murky. GM says another generation may be in the works.  'While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured, this is not the end of Camaro's story,' Scott Bell, vice president of Chevrolet, said in a statement.  The current sixth-generation Camaro, introduced in 2016, has done well on the racetrack, but sales have been tailing off. When the current generation Camaro came out in 2016, Chevrolet sold 72,705 of them. But by the end of 2021 that number fell almost 70 percent to 21,893. It rebounded last year to 24,652.  At least the car might have a future, but the story goes on to say that it will almost certainly be an electric vehicle.  Horror!  Who needs a muscle car that runs on silicon cells?  What kind of a nation are we, anyway?  Find a way, Chevy!  I want to hear cylinders!

March 27, 2023