Blog opportunity lost

One of my great pleasures in blogging is looking into the future and getting it right. I won't be so vain as to list the times of done that, but I've a had a few. I'm kicking myself today, though. On Friday I was sifting through some papers and found something I wrote earlier this year. In it, I chastized the American auto industry for trying to forestall the inevitable drop in demand through discounting. By pulling forward demand, all they were accomplishing was a more painful hit when they finally pulled as much demand forward as they could. Instead of having a disappointing year in 2001 or 2002, they are now faced with a crisis. Of course, saying this now isn't all that insightful. Had I said it then, when I wrote it down, it would have been. Drat.