Maven: GM, Take Note

So let's review: Being No. 1 in market share means nothing if profits are elusive. The quest to be No. 1 in business, sports or even white whale hunting often involves the sort of overreaching that leads to mistakes. And in the particular case of General Motors and Proton, when you're losing money, it's hard to make it up on volume.

On to other, equally unhappy subjects: The beat goes on in the chip price war between Intel(INTC Quote) and AMD(AMD Quote). As you know, The Business Press Maven has wanted to stamp his feet until his nerve endings were damaged at how, when it comes to this topic, the business media have held fast to their belief that wars have one winner and a corresponding loser.

Reality, of course, is that in a price war everyone is a loser, especially investors. Really, only the customers win.

The latest report from that front came in last night, and guess what? More carnage. AMD revealed depleted margins after the close.

Geez, what do you know? You cut prices, you cut profits. Same thing happened to Intel just a few weeks ago. This all comes after the business media spent months talking about who would win the price war. Who wins a price war? No one. Business media, you strip the bones off my back.