DEAD CAT ON THE LINE

There’s a dead cat on the line. I was first acquainted with this old adage in the early 90’s while living in Augusta, Georgia. Apparently it is an old expression referring to the likelihood that something, somewhere is wrong. Very wrong. I thought about this expression after Chrysler  (soon followed by General Motors) announced they would be closing down many of their dealerships. Since these are “franchise” operations that do not represent significant, if any,  expenses for the company, but instead represent streams of revenue, it seemed mighty strange that they would have a desire to close any of them. To the contrary, they should be encouraging as many of these businesses as possible to stay open since they represent the public face of the company during this economic downturn that has created such a malaise for the auto industry. Instead of putting the best face they can to the public, they have curiously chosen to do exactly the opposite and essentially lower their public profile. There certainly seems to be a dead cat on the line…and there is.

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