Blast From The Past

Tam mentions motorcycle tariffs in a post she put up this morning, so I have to go look it up. Among other things I found this line:

[Harley-Davidson] turned to the government for aid, and consequently, in hopes of forestalling any protective measures, the Japanese motorcycle industry offered to help the company. "According to the sources, the Japanese said they would provide technological assistance valued at about $10 million and would guarantee $20 million of bank loans." Harley turned down the offer.

This was back in the early 1980's, when Reagan was the US President and after Vaughn Beals and Harley had broken with AMF. Whether Harley would have survived without the tariff is debatable. The one thing that stands out in this whole debacle is that giant American corporations have no soul and should not be trusted near anything or anyone who does.