Big Three Ask Bush to Intervene With Japan

The top executives of the U.S. Big Three auto manufacturers have sent a rare joint letter to the White House, asking President Bush to appeal to the Japanese government to stop weakening the yen to boost the profits of Japanese auto makers.

The chief executives of General Motors Corp. , Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler, which together account for nearly 4% of the U.S. economy, said in the letter sent last week that the weak yen was a threat to U.S. economic recovery.

U.S. auto makers charge that Japan, in an effort to stimulate its weak economy, has purposely weakened the yen to make Japan’s auto makers more profitable from their sales of new cars and trucks in the U.S. market.