Rick's Place

摘要

In the closing shots of "Casa-blanca", Rick Blaine escorts Captain Louis Renault from the airfield with the compliment that "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." This week a different Renault addressed a different Rick, but the words were the same. France's largest carmaker, which already has an alliance with Japan's Nissan, said the pair of them would consider taking a 20% stake in General Motors, run by Rick Wagoner. There is no mistaking the ambition of this. The resulting alliance would command 22% of the world car market, twice as much as its nearest rival. But ambition alone does not amount to a hill of beans.