The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images)

Boeing is really bad at lots of very complicated things

That means it’s really good at losing money. Now it’s raising tens of billions of dollars and trying to sell its space operations.

Jack Raines

10/29/24 1:19PM

A couple weeks ago on the Snacks Mix podcast, we contrasted Boeing’s recent miscues with SpaceX’s recent successes.

Boeing just posted a $6 billion quarterly loss (its second-largest quarterly loss on record), it is losing $50 million per day while its factory workers are still on strike, it made plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, it has $60 billion in debt, it had to raise $21 billion in a stock issuance to stave off a credit downgrade, and after years of PR crises thanks to its Boeing 737 MAX issues, Boeing left two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station after NASA deemed thruster failure and helium leaks on Boeing’s Starliner too risky to make the return trip with astronauts onboard.

Now, SpaceX, which just caught a 232-foot rocket booster with a set of “chopsticks” built into its launch facility, is handling the astronauts’ rescue mission in February.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Boeing is exploring a sale of its space business, which includes its Starliner spacecraft, as part of new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s plan to cut back the company’s financial losses. As noted above, Boeing lost $6 billion last quarter, and it’s currently losing $50 million a day as this strike drags on.

A big portion of that loss stems from the company’s Defense, Space & Security segment. This segment, which includes Boeing’s space program, lost $2.4 billion on $5.5 billion in revenue in Q3 this year, including a $250 million charge reflecting “schedule delays and higher testing and certification costs.”

News of this potential sale comes two months after Reuters reported that Boeing and Lockheed Martin want to sell the United Launch Alliance, their joint-venture launch provider that launched Boeing’s Starliner mission to the ISS in June. Given Boeing’s precarious financial situation (high debt load, mounting losses, etc.) and uncertainty surrounding its space business following the recent issues with its Starliner spacecraft, it makes sense for the company to focus on its core business of plane manufacturing, which has been dealing with its own problems. With Boeing’s former CEO stating in 2022 that Boeing had no plans for a new plane until the mid-2030s, and the company’s factory workers still costing it $50 million per day while they strike, one has to wonder when the bad news for Boeing will finally end.

Max Knoblauch20h

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.