Cadillac

"Strengthened by successive salary increases and increasingly interesting tasks, Ruben remained in SLT. During the depression of 1920–1921, Ruben understood that in Carl Ramström he had a kin in terms of the effects of inflation on businesses. When inflation was at its worst during World War I - at times the inflation rate was up to 40 percent - Ramström decided that no goods in stock should be accounted for at higher values than they had when the war broke out. In this way, he had built up a fund “behind the inventory” that was not visible in the accounting. Carl Ramström made sure that the board never found out how the inventory values were reported. If the partners found out that there were assets that were not visible, they would demand the corresponding amount in dividends, he feared. Instead, he dampened the board’s dividend appetite by giving each member a brand new Cadillac as soon as the economic situation had stabilized. If Ramström’s measures had not succeeded, there would not have been any buffer when the depression struck in 1920. Ramström’s action probably saved SLT. When demand fell during the depression, the group could ride out the crisis thanks to the fund."

"There were few items we couldn’t take apart and put back together. When he got his ’47 Fleetwood, we dropped the oil pan and changed the main bearings. Just going and buying bearings for his Cadillac was too easy. He was convinced a new quasi-exotic metal was better for bearings than the usual metal coating, and that’s how the bearings got to be too tight: he electroplated them with just a touch too much metal. One family vacation we spent hours sitting by the side of the road waiting for the Cadillac to cool. My parents would never fight in front of us, but you could almost see the smoke coming out of my mother’s ears. My dad was only mildly embarrassed. That was Dad."