3 ms·

I have not had a chance to read the paper, but I would be surprised if the findings really tell us about some new trend in the U.S. economy. Here are the 30 co

I have not had a chance to read the paper, but I would be surprised if the findings really tell us about some new trend in the U.S. economy. Here are the 30 companies that were in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 30 years ago [1], with an asterisk indicating the companies that are still in the DJIA: Allied-Signal Incorporated Aluminum Company of America American Can * American Express Company * American Telephone and Telegraph Company Bethlehem Steel * Chevron Corporation (formerly Standard Oil of California) E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company Eastman Kodak Company * Exxon Corporation * General Electric Company General Motors Corporation Goodyear Inco * International Business Machines International Harvester International Paper Company * McDonald’s Corporation * Merck & Co., Inc. * Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Owens-Illinois Glass Philip Morris Companies Inc. * Procter & Gamble Company Sears Roebuck & Company Texaco Incorporated Union Carbide United Technologies Corporation U.S. Steel Westinghouse Electric Woolworth Only 10 of the 30 companies are still in the Down Jones. Some of these companies may be represented in merged companies under new names, but you can still see the huge change in the makeup of the U.S. economy compared to 30 years ago. This is not to say that income inequality is not a big problem, but I believe that it's premature to say that the U.S. economy has lost its dynamism and competitiveness. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_components_of_the_Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_components_of_the_Do...

Retric 12y ago
Globalization killed several of those, but that's not a recent change. 4 being steel or aluminum companies. Walmart seems to be the only real disruption on that list. AT&T was split up and now occupies 2 spaces (AT&T, Verizon). Texico is part of Cheveron which is still on the DOW. So one split and one merge. Several like Philip Morris are on the S&P 500. (allied-signal incorperated = Honneywell, E I du Point = DoPont, Goodyear, GM, union carbide is part of DOW, Owens-Illinois) PS: If anything the average age significantly increased.
supercanuck 12y ago
* Next to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company which is DuPont.
mikeyouse 12y ago
That list is entirely misleading, of your non-asterixed list: - Allied Signal purchased Honeywell (but adopted their name) and is currently a $72B company. - Alcoa is still a $20B company. - American Can became Primerica, which was the foundation of Citigroup which is a $150B company. - Bethlehem Steel was mostly shuttered but is still operating under foreign ownership. - Dupont is still a $60B company. - Kodak we all know, but still a $1B company. - GM had its issues but still employs over 200,000 people directly and is a $55B company. - Goodyear is still a $7B company. - Vale Inco is still a $75B company. - International Harvester was merged into Navistar which is still a $4B company. - International Paper still employs over 60,000 people and is a $21B company. - OI is still a $5B company. - Phillip Morris rebranded / merged to form Altria group which is an $80B company. - We all know Sears' issues, but they're still a $4B company. - Texaco's production operations were merged into Chevron ($250B company) and their retail operations were merged into Shell ($150B company). - Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide for almost $10B and the combined company is today worth $60B. - United Technologies is still a $100B company. - US Steel is still a $5B company. - Westinghouse bought CBS and rebranded to CBS Corp. ($35B company) and sold off its power business overseas and the rest of its electrics business to Toshiba. - Woolworth rebranded to Foot Locker and is still worth $7B. So maybe two on the list no longer exist, but the vast majority are still massive companies collectively employing millions of people with hundreds of billions (trillions?) in revenue. Their inclusion on or exclusion from the DJIA doesn't mean much about their competitiveness or their success.

Retric 12y ago

Globalization killed several of those, but that's not a recent change. 4 being steel or aluminum companies. Walmart seems to be the only real disruption on that list. AT&T was split up and now occupies 2 spaces (AT&T, Verizon). Texico is part of Cheveron which is still on the DOW. So one split and one merge. Several like Philip Morris are on the S&P 500. (allied-signal incorperated = Honneywell, E I du Point = DoPont, Goodyear, GM, union carbide is part of DOW, Owens-Illinois) PS: If anything the average age significantly increased.

supercanuck 12y ago

* Next to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company which is DuPont.

mikeyouse 12y ago

That list is entirely misleading, of your non-asterixed list: - Allied Signal purchased Honeywell (but adopted their name) and is currently a $72B company. - Alcoa is still a $20B company. - American Can became Primerica, which was the foundation of Citigroup which is a $150B company. - Bethlehem Steel was mostly shuttered but is still operating under foreign ownership. - Dupont is still a $60B company. - Kodak we all know, but still a $1B company. - GM had its issues but still employs over 200,000 people directly and is a $55B company. - Goodyear is still a $7B company. - Vale Inco is still a $75B company. - International Harvester was merged into Navistar which is still a $4B company. - International Paper still employs over 60,000 people and is a $21B company. - OI is still a $5B company. - Phillip Morris rebranded / merged to form Altria group which is an $80B company. - We all know Sears' issues, but they're still a $4B company. - Texaco's production operations were merged into Chevron ($250B company) and their retail operations were merged into Shell ($150B company). - Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide for almost $10B and the combined company is today worth $60B. - United Technologies is still a $100B company. - US Steel is still a $5B company. - Westinghouse bought CBS and rebranded to CBS Corp. ($35B company) and sold off its power business overseas and the rest of its electrics business to Toshiba. - Woolworth rebranded to Foot Locker and is still worth $7B. So maybe two on the list no longer exist, but the vast majority are still massive companies collectively employing millions of people with hundreds of billions (trillions?) in revenue. Their inclusion on or exclusion from the DJIA doesn't mean much about their competitiveness or their success.