was.

That is definitely - at least for now - a thing of the past. I'm pretty sure they could regain that position if they really went for it but at the moment they are as much an asset as they are a liability. If they weren't also that 'huge defense supplier' they would have been in far more trouble than they are and by rights they should be.

It is precisely for that reason that people should be going to prison for fucking with it. Sending Boeing people to prison for fraud would protect the strategic value of Boeing, not threaten it. When a metallurgist was found to have fraudulently signed off on steel for US nuclear submarines, she was sent to prison for it. That's the way it should work at Boeing too, but unfortunately the short-term financial concerns are drowning out the long term strategic concerns.