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CNBC: You used to joke that you were sort of a 19th century investor because you were investing in steel and coal. Can you talk in general terms about this shift from investing in steel, coal, and textiles to the financial?
WILBUR ROSS: My wife Hillary sometimes accuses me of trying to reinvent the 19th century. In some ways she's right because I like things that I can understand and that aren't too complicated. So we don't really do high-tech things. We never did CDO's, CLO's, and all these very sophisticated products. We do fundamental industries, steel, coal, textiles, auto parts, etc… We don't do high-tech industries. We do industries that we can understand, that are much more fundamental. So we do steel, coal, textiles, auto parts, and now, financial services. Those are all fundamental industries. They're big industries and they're not going away. They are essential to the functioning of the economy, so they have a kind of ongoing potential vitality, and a critical mass. The problems differ from company to company. Generally speaking there are some similarities. There are always labor-management issues, there are always balance-sheet issues, and there are always strategic decisions that perhaps were not as well considered as they might have been. So there is some commonality among all of them. We actually are very open in dealings with the unions and that's different. Many managements hire battalions of lawyers, and then that makes the unions hire battalions of lawyers and everybody tries to outsmart everybody else. We don't do it that way. We think business people should negotiate the terms with the union leaders, and then give it to the lawyers to write it down and make it a formal document. We're very open because we're not trying to play games with the unions we are very open with them. We make full financial disclosure in the beginning, and let them send their accountants in to do whatever they want to double-check, and that's true on an ongoing basis. They know practically every month what's going on in each one of the factories. That is very important because it's the only way we know of to try and build trust. To have a fair commercial relationship with the union, and then to be very open about it, so that they know that there's no game and there's nothing being hidden.
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