This article continues on the various other articles highlighting that Boeing focussed way too much on financials over anything else. Engineering had way less of a say into things.
See e.g. this article https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing...
This article has the interesting bit that Boeing chose to buy back shares instead of e.g. reducing their debt. This probably made sense at the time, as the rating giving to Boeing was high. As a result, Boeing interest rate for loans was low.
As a result of the groundings the rating for Boeing was downgraded. So their interest goes up. Meanwhile, Boeing needs to lend more and more, likely leading to another downgrade of their rating (even more interest).
So this is article is another pointer that engineering had taken quite a bit of a step back.
