Richard Aboulafia Quotes

"Keeping costs down and getting close to the customer makes an awful lot of sense when the revenue environment is flattening."

"These guys are basically taking oil money and trying to convert it into a long-term value-added business. That's not dumb."

"This is a good way to address the shrinking number of dollars out there in the defense business. The defense game is definitely changing."

"No one was told that there was a choice between Iraq and recapitalizing the nation's military."

"Both sides can claim victory. It looks like a reasonable compromise."

"The devil will be in the details."

"Basically, we're going to either have a hollow force or a truncated force structure -- the message here is that we couldn't really afford Iraq and our current military. If Boeing and Lockheed Martin aren't thinking like that in public, they are in private."

"The fact that the Chinese government is placing these orders shows how close they are."

"It's more about service, information and customer relations than metal- bending. It's also a fragmented market, ripe for consolidation."

"The one thing that gives (the union) that power is that outsourcing jobs takes a lot of time, but if you make life very difficult for the manufacturer these jobs are leaving,"

"If Airbus can't get a key A340 victory soon, there will be serious questions about that program."

"Not to say, 'Hurray, we all win!' but both sides can claim victory."

"The money makes no material difference to either side -- there is no reason for this strike to be happening."

"It's a relatively inconsequential cost increase from the corporate perspective. From the union side, they got better than Boeing's best offer."