Harley Davidson

I am breaking my heart laughing at the latest Harley Davidson provoked story.

The humor comes from HD’s icon status as an American Company which will gradually be unraveled to show a normal multinational company, born in the USA, but owing no real loyalty to America. This is true of all US Multinationals but to watch it laid bare in an icon of American Virility that had been picked on as an example to follow by Trump is just rib tickling funny. 

That he picked it in the first place shows his shallow approach to research and his fascination with shiny objects and symbolic horse power between his legs.

That it is unraveling shows how little he, and to be fair most of us, understand about the simple inexorable logic of global supply chains. Harley Davidson is a microcosm of most US multinationals and the gradual unraveling of its story is going to shine a light on the fundamental truth that “Multinational means – no loyalty to the country in which you are incorporated”

So, what are the dominoes to fall: 

1. 1. HD has sourced parts from all over the world. My friends who love product say that its gears have been Japanese for years 
2. 2. I am sure it will be discovered that their steel and aluminum will be caught in the antidumping import tax 
3. 3. They sell into Europe and so are a target for import tariffs aimed at US manufacturing. It makes sense therefore to manufacture for that market outside the US. HD have manufacturing plants outside the US 
4. 4. I have not looked but I am asking if they have previously low taxed cash located outside of the US 

I should point out that there is nothing illegal in what they are doing, and I am not even sure that it is unethical, unless you think that multinationals born in America should prioritize America over logic.

Well... do you?

My guess is that there are other dominoes to fall. I look forward to watching and I am hoping that the microcosm of the fall will concentrate out collective mind on how to allow Multinationals to operate. 

as the French would say “On verra.”