Their supporters maintain that they play a uniquely important role in the economy in spurring investment and restructuring.
A major investment in restructuring care, and a willingness to take unpopular decisions, is the only long-term solution.
He has been quietly wooing a number of high-profile partners and advisers, focusing on specialties like economics, foreign investment and restructuring.
Yet instead the chief executive has opted for a brave £190m investment and restructuring plan called Core Plus that puts off the jam until 2008 at the earliest.
"The corporate sector is going through a great deal of pain, slashing investment and restructuring," said Julian Callow, who tracks the European economy for Credit Suisse First Boston.
In a statement to co-incide with its annual meeting, the company blamed the shortfall on the fact its operating profits are heavily weighted to the second half, as well as investment and restructuring costs, and the sale of its stake in information group FTSE International.
"It's effectively saying that Chrysler is not worth the investment of restructuring".
The immediate economic impacts are obvious: the pound fell off a cliff, a sudden decline in foreign direct investment, international restructuring to move jobs elsewhere.
Since perceived size of investment and restructuring needed to develop a systemic change is a barrier to production-oriented interventions (RaEng, 2010), the emphasis on demand-side interventions may reflect greater possibilities to intervene in a distributed manner.
Berlin is locked in a dispute with Paris and Rome over plans to breach spending limits to boost spending on infrastructure and business subsidies to spur investment and restructure the banking sectors.
With more than $3 billion in debts and other commitments coming due over the rest of the decade, Elan has promised to limit its capital investments and restructuring costs to $120 million for the rest of 2003.
