Boeing burns billions, now begs for a $15 billion lifeline



Boeing is a company in crisis and plans to return to the capital markets to raise up to $15 billion in cash to address its liquidity problems. Unfortunately, Boeing squandered over $43 billion on stock buybacks in the previous decade — cash it could desperately use now.

I don’t want to debate the pros and cons of stock repurchases so much as highlight another example of how Boeing’s management, dominated by finance executives fixated on cost reduction and stock valuation, has undermined what was once a leading American engineering and manufacturing company.

In 2018 and 2019 alone, Boeing squandered $11.7 billion of cash to repurchase 33 million shares, which comes out to more than $350 per share. Incredible.

That said, I generally disagree with my pro-capitalism friends on the practice of stock buybacks. I’ve observed for years how harmful this management tactic can be. Companies often conduct stock repurchases when they’re doing well, they are flush with cash, and their stock price is high, using buybacks to further boost the price. But when bad times come and the stock price drops, companies are forced to issue new shares at a much lower price.

The argument for stock repurchases is that a company flush with cash returns excess funds to shareholders by buying back shares. This action increases the value of the remaining stock, as the company’s market capitalization is spread over fewer shares.

The trouble is that the money from buybacks primarily goes to former shareholders — those who sell their stock. In contrast, a dividend would benefit ongoing shareholders. Even better, retaining the cash to invest in the company can lead to better products, new revenue streams, and ultimately higher profits. Other smart alternatives include paying off debt or simply holding the cash for future needs.

But those options don’t provide short-term boosts to stock prices. Not coincidentally, today’s senior executives often receive substantial compensation based on stock performance. In other words, draining a company’s cash reserves through buybacks can help an executive move from earning seven figures to eight figures, but it doesn’t build long-term value or support future growth.

Over the past few years, there has been a litany of awful stories involving Boeing, including planes falling out of the sky, the 737 MAX being grounded, doors blowing out in flight, astronauts being stranded in space, etc. It’s all starting to impact operations and cash flow.

CNBC reported last week that Boeing plans to cut 10% of its workforce, about 17,000 people, amid a machinist strike that has shut down manufacturing for over a month. The launch of Boeing’s critical new 777 variant has now been pushed back until 2026. It’s already several years behind schedule. Boeing has paused flight tests after discovering structural damage in an aircraft.

That’s a polite way of saying the company discovered negligent engineering and poor design. Once upon a time, negligent engineering would have been unthinkable at Boeing. But the business-school types now in charge have long since rid the company management of those who prized high-quality design and production.

According to CNBC:

Boeing expects to report a loss of $9.97 a share in the third quarter, the company said in a surprise release Friday. It expects to report a pretax charge of $3 billion in the commercial airplane unit and $2 billion for its defense business. In preliminary financial results, Boeing said it expects to have an operating cash outflow of $1.3 billion for the third quarter.

Despite all this chaos and neglect, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun made $32.8 million in total compensation in 2023, up from $22.6 million in 2022.

To be fair, Boeing’s executives have been able to loot the company and redistribute shareholder equity to themselves because Boeing’s board of directors allowed it to happen. They are complicit.

The table below shows a breakout of Boeing’s $43.5 billion in stock repurchases from 2013 to 2019. Of note, the current Boeing stock price is about $150 per share.

Here are a few key observations:

  • The $43.5 billion of cash that Boeing flushed away over seven years to improve the stock price had an average price per share of $172.
  • $15 billion of stock at $150 per share will mean 100 million shares are being reissued at $22 per share less than they were originally repurchased. To summarize the math, Boeing will have flushed away a net $2.2 billion of critically needed cash by buying high and selling low for the same 100 million shares. That is some impressive financial wizardry.
  • In 2018 and 2019 alone, Boeing squandered a combined $11.7 billion of cash to repurchase 33 million shares, which comes out to more than $350 per share. Incredible. The cash is gone, and Boeing stock is now trading, again, at just $150 per share.
  • Boeing critically needs cash to service its debt of more than $55 billion. That $43.5 billion it flushed away would be mighty helpful right now.

Boeing’s costly and deadly mismanagement, which prioritized cost-cutting and stock price manipulation, would make an excellent case study for business schools. Unfortunately, the very management practices that have so damaged Boeing are the same ones being taught in our elite business schools today.

NASA nightmare: Boeing astronauts to be rescued by SpaceX after 2-week mission stretches to 8 months



Two astronauts finally know their fate after NASA formally announced it would send them back to Earth on a SpaceX craft.

NASA launched Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in early June 2024, crewed by astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The mission to the International Space Station was originally meant to take around eight days to complete in a best-case scenario.

It didn't take long for helium leaks and thruster-control problems to quickly put that timeline in jeopardy as the astronauts were unable to fix the Starliner's issues.

'Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine.'

Now, after more than two months with their astronauts stranded at the ISS, NASA finally announced it will accept help from Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 to bring Wilmore and Williams home safely.

However, the SpaceX craft hasn't even launched yet. Crew-9 was initially meant to launch for the ISS on August 18, 2024, but has since been pushed back to no earlier than September 24, 2024, per Spaceflight Now.

As well, the mission operated by the rival company will not be returning until February 2025 at the earliest. This means the NASA astronauts will have spent at least eight extra months in space than originally intended.

Boeing representatives did not appear at a NASA press conference, CNN reported, but later released a statement:

"We continue to focus, first and foremost, on the safety of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft for a safe and successful uncrewed return," the defense and space contractor wrote on X.

— (@)

NASA, on the other hand, was more forthcoming in its statements:

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing's Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at the presser. "I'm grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work."

These comments were quite a jump from NASA's statements in early August 2024, which made it seem like they were hoping to avoid a crossover with SpaceX.

"Our prime option is to complete the mission," NASA program manager Steve Stich said at the time. "There are a lot of good reasons to complete this mission and bring Butch and Suni home on Starliner. Starliner was designed, as a spacecraft, to have the crew in the cockpit."

Boeing even said in a blog post on August 2 that the company's "confidence remains high" that the Starliner would make its return trip with its crew.

"We remain confident in Starliner and its ability to safely return to Earth with crew based on an abundance of testing conducted by our teams and NASA in space and on the ground," Boeing wrote on X.

Of course, NASA and Boeing eventually agreed with the situation and accepted the ride home from the Musk-owned craft. SpaceX had reportedly been testing for scenarios with additional astronauts in early August, anyway.

The Crew-9 flight will leave two empty seats and a pair of space suits for Williams and Wilmore so they can join the ISS mission and then eventually return home.

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NASA And Boeing’s Failure Is A Shameful Reminder Of What’s At Stake In The Election

America's space program is no longer a nationalist vanity project but a serious matter of strategic interest.

NASA's DEI training under fire for linking 'objectivity' and 'individualism' to white supremacy



A diversity, equity, and inclusion training video posted online allegedly showed a NASA engineer expressing guilt over not being equally welcoming to all races.

The video begins with the supposed engineer discussing her desire to "create spaces where people can be all they want to be."

The woman then said she regretted not making her projects as inclusive as possible.

'All of these things can really limit the way we go about doing our work.'

"And in doing this work of examining my own intentions and my own actions and their impact, I can see that there's so much more that I could have done to make the projects I've led equally welcoming to black, indigenous, and people of color as the white people they have engaged."

"I feel a lot of shame and regret about that," the woman continued. "So I'm looking forward to today's event and to this whole series as steps in my personal and professional journey to make my work more anti-racist and therefore more effective in reaching my aspiration," she added.

The video then cuts to a slide in a lesson plan with the heading "white supremacy culture," which focuses on words and phrases such as "fear of open conflict," "objectivity," and even "individualism."

A person leading the discussion is heard saying how these terms are more important to white people and, as such, are a product of white supremacy.

"All of these things can really limit the way we go about doing our work, and they can really limit the way we are able to connect with communities that come from different cultural backgrounds that don't value these things the same way that white supremacy culture values them."

The date of the unearthed video, posted by Tenet Media, is unknown but reflects other lesson plans revealed by the Wall Street Journal in 2022.

The outlet pointed to NASA training regarding "allyship," which described the term "African American" as making black people feel excluded as if the word meant "other."

The lesson plan went on to claim that being "colorblind and gender-neutral" is limiting.

"Over the years, we have been taught to act as if we are colorblind and gender-neutral and that no differences exist between people. But these efforts actually limit us," the lesson claimed.

The slideshows were pointed out by an X user, who noted one of the training modules included a 45-minute session (requiring 50% attendance) regarding "unconscious bias & micro-messages" and "equity & privilege."

NASA is entrenched in some of the most extensive diversity training of any government entity. Each sector of NASA seems to have its own DEI mission statement on top of an exhausting amount of planning and resources.

NASA's Astrophysics Science Division, for example, published a breakdown of its demographics in 2022 to promote equity and inclusion.

The results showed that the majority of the division is still male (64%) and white (54.1%). The second-highest demographic is actually "foreign national" at 12.2%, while "Asian" was third-highest with 10.2% representation.

The space agency's dedication to diversity has, of course, not helped its latest mission on the Boeing spacecraft known as the Starliner. The vessel has been in space for about 12 weeks after what was supposed to be an eight-day mission.

After weeks of delaying announcements about how crew members might return home, NASA finally admitted that it will rely on SpaceX's Crew Dragon to bring them home no earlier than February 2025.

While crew members learned they would be spending at least an extra nine months in space, Boeing announced that its Starliner spacecraft would be returning to Earth in an uncrewed mission.

— (@)

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Trump Campaign Suffers Second Plane Mechanical Issue In A Week After JD Vance’s Flight Declares Emergency

'The pilot advised there was a malfunction with the door seal'

Boeing astronauts may be stuck in space until 2025 waiting for SpaceX rescue



Boeing astronauts are still stranded at the International Space Station, and the timeline for their return is becoming more unclear as time passes.

Blaze News previously reported on aerospace and defense corporation Boeing and its launch of the Starliner spacecraft in early June 2024.

A mission to the ISS by crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams was initially slated to return to Earth in as few as eight days after launch. The mission failed even within a generous grace period, and it has been over eight weeks since the vessel was launched into space.

With a return date up in the air, speculation had begun about how the astronauts would return home after it was revealed that helium leaks and thruster failures were hindering the Starliner and preventing its re-entry.

As TMZ reported, NASA says the astronauts may need to make their return on the Dragon Crew-9 mission operated by rival company SpaceX, headed by Elon Musk.

Crew-9 was initially meant to launch for the ISS on August 18, 2024, but has since been pushed back to no earlier than September 24, 2024, per Spaceflight Now.

With that in mind, most reports suggest SpaceX's six-month mission will not return until at least February 2025, but given the delayed start time, it could also be March 2025. This would potentially extend Boeing's mission from approximately two weeks to about nine or ten months.

Despite previous uncertainty as to whether or not Starliner would be relying on SpaceX for a return mission, NASA has clarified that the SpaceX launch delay is directly related to the Boeing mission.

"This adjustment allows more time for mission managers to finalize return planning for the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test currently docked to the orbiting laboratory," NASA stated.

However, Boeing's most recent mission update stated that the company's "confidence remains high" that the Starliner will make its return trip on its own.

"We remain confident in Starliner and its ability to safely return to Earth with crew based on an abundance of testing conducted by our teams and NASA in space and on the ground," Boeing wrote on X.

— (@)

SpaceX has reportedly been testing scenarios in which it would accommodate two extra crew members on the return to Earth on Dragon Crew-9 and has already identified flight suits that would fit the two Boeing astronauts.

The original Crew-9 mission was to launch with four astronauts from Kennedy Space Center. The astronauts identified for the mission are Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and Russian cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov.

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'I'm sure we've lost passengers': Alaska Airlines flight attendants detail terrifying panel blowout incident



The Alaska Airlines flight attendants, who were on Flight 1282 from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, on January 5 when a door panel flew off the aircraft mid-flight, recently shared details of their experience, Fox Business reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board held a hearing on Tuesday about the terrifying incident involving the Boeing 737 MAX 9 airplane that was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members.

'Safety culture needs a lot of work.'

The aircraft ultimately landed safely at Portland International Airport; however, the incident remains under investigation. Eight passengers reported minor injuries.

Interviews conducted with the flight attendants onboard the aircraft that day were shared at Tuesday's hearing.

According to officials, one attendant thought that some passengers had been sucked out of the airplane after she saw the door panel was missing and noticed five empty seats around it.

The attendant testified, "I said there is a hole in the plane, in the back of the plane, and I'm sure we've lost passengers."

Additionally, the employee expressed concern about an unaccompanied child who was on the aircraft.

"All I could think of was that he was sitting there, and he was too small to reach the mask and was probably really scared," the flight attendant said.

Another flight attendant on the plane told officials, "I think I was able to (blurt) out, 'I think we have a hole, and we might've lost passengers.' And then it seemed like I just lost contact. I tried calling back, tried speaking loudly into the phone. I couldn't hear anything."

"Probably the scariest thing was I didn't have exact communication with my flight deck, and at first I didn't know if the decompression was in the front, if we have pilots, and not being able to fully communicate with the back," the second flight attendant remarked.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated Tuesday that neither the board nor Boeing has been able to determine who was responsible for previously removing the door plug on the jet to perform maintenance work before it was reinstalled and delivered to Alaska Airlines.

According to Homendy, the board has not been able to speak with the door plug team manager, who may have been one of the individuals responsible for inspecting the panel before it was delivered to Alaska Airlines with all four bolts missing.

"The safety culture needs a lot of work (at Boeing)," Homendy said. "It is not there from the evidence itself, from what you see in the interviews. There's not a lot of trust, there's a lot of distrust within the workforce."

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Musk's SpaceX may need to rescue Boeing crew after being stranded for weeks on space station



Boeing's spacecraft may require a rescue from Elon Musk's SpaceX program but has yet to publicly ask for help, reports have stated.

Aerospace and defense corporation Boeing launched its Starliner spacecraft in early June 2024 with the intention of having the craft and crew travel to the International Space Station and return within two weeks. It has now been eight weeks since the vessel was launched.

At the time of the launch, NASA officials reportedly said that crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams could come back to Earth as soon as June 14, just eight days after launch.

'Our prime option is to complete the mission.'

Also around that time, a report from ZeroHedge noted that it was actually the third attempt at launching the Boeing CST-100 Starliner. The first attempt was scrapped due to a leak, and then the month after another launch was pushed back a few days due to what was described as a computer glitch.

The Starliner's trip to the space station apparently involved helium leaks and failing thrusters, but officials downplayed them as minor distractions.

Mark Nappi, vice president and manager of Boeing's Commercial Crew Program, said the issues were "pretty small, really, issues to deal with," according to Ars Technica.

"We'll figure them out for the next mission. I don't see these as significant at all," Nappi added during a post-docking news conference.

After testing, NASA officials declined to state whether or not they would seek outside assistance should the Starliner's thrusters not be reliable enough to return home.

"Our prime option is to complete the mission," NASA program manager Steve Stich said. "There are a lot of good reasons to complete this mission and bring Butch and Suni home on Starliner. Starliner was designed, as a spacecraft, to have the crew in the cockpit."

However, an alleged inside source told Ars Technica that there was a greater than 50/50 chance that the Starliner crew would return to Earth on a Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is operated by SpaceX.

When asked about that possibility, NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told the outlet, "NASA is evaluating all options for the return of agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station as safely as possible. No decisions have been made and the agency will continue to provide updates on its planning."

While it has all but been confirmed that a plan involving SpaceX is being mapped out, NASA posted in a recent blog that it is "continuing to prepare for undocking by participating in integrated simulations with space station operations teams."

"Following the completion of Starliner's return planning, which is expected to continue into next week, more information will be shared about the agency's return readiness review preparations [in the] subsequent media briefing."

At the same time, SpaceX has reportedly been testing scenarios where it would accommodate two extra crew members back to Earth on Crew Dragon, and has already identified flight suits that would fit the two Boeing astronauts.

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We Can’t Know What Boeing Really Did Without A Trial

Boeing won’t stop until a judge makes it stop by rejecting a DOJ plea deal and calling for a criminal trial.

Boeing agrees to plead guilty to criminal fraud over fatal 737 MAX crashes: DOJ



The Department of Justice reported on Sunday evening that Boeing plans to plead guilty to criminal fraud stemming from two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, the Associated Press reported.

Boeing was accused of violating a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ that protected the company from criminal charges for more than three years. Under that settlement, Boeing was asked to revise its compliance practices and submit to regular reporting.

'Set the matter for a public trial.'

Last week, the DOJ offered Boeing a plea deal that required the aircraft manufacturer to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration and pay a fine. Boeing allegedly "deceived" the FAA's Aircraft Evaluation Group "about an important aircraft part called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) that impacted the flight control system of the Boeing 737 MAX," the department reported.

Boeing has reportedly agreed to the deal and will pay $243.6 million, the same amount the company paid in the previous 2021 settlement that the DOJ claimed it violated. The company must also submit to third-party safety and quality audits for three years.

According to the DOJ, the plea agreement only pertains to Boeing's actions before the two fatal crashes and does not provide immunity for incidents that occurred afterward, including a mid-flight door panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this year. Additionally, the agreement only covers the corporation and does not include its current or former officials.

The 2021 settlement was slated to expire two days after the incident with the Alaska Airlines flight. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that the aircraft likely left Boeing's factory without the key bolts needed to hold the panel in place.

Boeing is expected to enter its guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Texas. The judge overseeing the case accused the corporation of "egregious criminal conduct."

Boeing said in a recent statement, "We can confirm that we have reached an agreement in principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the memorialization and approval of specific terms."

Relatives of the victims of the two fatal crashes were briefed last week about the DOJ's plea offer to Boeing. At the time, Paul Cassell, an attorney representing the relatives, said they plan to ask the judge to reject the "sweetheart plea deal," Blaze News previously reported.

Cassell stated he would ask the judge to "simply set the matter for a public trial, so that all the facts surrounding the case will be aired in a fair and open forum before a jury."

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