Well, here's my 2 cents. The guy that wrote the article hardly comes off as having much education or business savvy. Here's a hint: if you think you have to cuss to make a point, you might try a more intellectually compelling argument. As for his business assessment, countless businesses have had boom times, and struggled with leveraged debt. GC may or may not end up in bankruptcy, that will largely depend on how management steers the company through our severely depressed economy, and for the near future, the elections in November. As noted above GC owns Musician's Friend, so like AIG, some of their organization is under-performing, but others are sustainable.
As for Fender, it certainly seems to me that their quality is extremely poor. Then again, Gibson seems to suffer from the same ailment. When I went Bass shopping a few years ago, I started on a quest for a Fender Jazz Bass. I tried a bazillion of them including uber expensive stuff from the "custom shop". I found crappy fretwork, plastic parts that were cheap junk, lousy pots, poor intonation, bad set-ups... you get the idea. And that was the custom shop stuff. I was extremely disappointed. I tried a few boutique basses but just didn't want to spend that much. I had and parted with an old Jazz bass, and I will say that the old stock one was 100% better than the junk they make now.
I love old Gibsons. When looking for a hollowbody, I tried a lot of Gibson's high end archtops (L5 etc). Then I found a used Heritage Sweet 16 in a little shop here in TX. It blew away ALL of the new Gibbys I tried. Traded a Historic 335 for the Sweet 16. Never regret it. The Sweet 16 is WAY better than anything coming out of Gibson now. If you like archtops, you have got to try the Heritage. Awesome guitars. After a few years, I got t missing my 335 so I started on a quest to find another. I tried vintage ones (yikes on the price) and new ones. Quality on the new guitars was crap. Then I tried a Heritage 555. It is stock but loaded with Seth Lover pu's. Absolute killer guitar. WAY better than any Gibby I tried. Until Fender, and Gibson figure out why their old used gear sells for 5 times the price of their new stuff, they will continue to die in the marketplace. To quote a famous politician, "It's the quality stupid".