My name is Jerry Flint. I was born and educated in Detroit, Detroit proper, not any suburb. Tough town. I've been covering the auto industry forever; you could call me The 2,000-Year-Old Auto Writer. I learned the business from men like Robert McNamara, George Romney, Lee Iacocca, Ed Cole (creator of the great GM small block V-8 engine), Robert Lutz, Walter Reuther (who led the UAW), Ralph Nader. I won't say "they don't make them like that anymore," but they, and many others I could name, were giants.  I worked 12 years for the Wall Street Journal, 12 for The New York Times--Detroit bureau chief, trouble shooter in New York, chief labor writer--and 17 years with Forbes--including a stint as Washington bureau chief--before becoming a columnist back in 1996.  But covering the car business wasn't everything. I was a soldier--enlisted during the Korean War, but they sent me to Europe (I'm not complaining) as a radio spy. As a reporter I covered everything from race riots to politics (I was part of the NY Times presidential election team in 1968). I was never a foreign correspondent but had plenty of foreign assignments: Cuba (met Fidel), Europe, Japan, Africa and Central America when the Communists tried their takeover. I know the car business, not from quoting officials, but because of half a century of seeing what works and what doesn't. There was a saying in the old days, perhaps you remember it: "You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing."  I'll try to never let you down.
Shortly before his death, the longtime Forbes columnist filed a biography for his new blog in his trademark style.