Be careful with any German university - they tend to have very strict rules about prior qualifications and it can be difficult to get them to accept foreign ones as equivalent to German degrees. Look for the Promotionsordnung for Literature (probably the Dr.Phil one) and check you aren't going to have any problems or if they can be resolved by perhaps taking the odd course before starting. As far as I know in LMU they still demand that you are examined in your Hauptfach (literature) and a Nebenfach so you also need to check that you have a good knowledge of a second subject on their list (I suspect that as business would be a different faculty, it may not be one of them).

Mmm what sort of college would you want to teach at? I have heard SLACs are not keen on hiring non-US PhDs because we're too research-focussed in Europe, and community colleges are even worse because they don't want the expense of flying someone in. If a more research-based career then I think it would come down to the PhD project itself - can you give a good reason why you did it in the UK and why this university? E.g. access to archives, supervisor, area where UK has research advantage. It goes without saying that you'd have to have publications, teaching experience etc like any US candidate but you need that for UK universities anyway. Final thing - do you already have an masters in the area you'd want to teach in? I think some states demand so many completed taught postgrad courses for you to be able to teach at a college.

3) Are you prepared for the fact that your supervisor might be your age or even younger? And that you will be a student not an equal with the faculty? The unhappiest person my friend knows is a mature student who assumed her management experience would enable her to do a PhD effortlessly and that she didn't need the research training. Five years on, she is being told to write up for an MPhil and is deeply miserable.
4) A lot of the PhD process is about having your work criticised so that it improves. This can be a nasty shock if you've been in a management role previously.
5) academia isn't a nicer, less competitive world than industry. It's not very family-friendly in the hours you are expected to work and it's surprisingly cut-throat and very bureaucratic.
6) You will be taken seriously as a mature student but you won't be trated differently to younger students.
PS She doesn't regret her choice to do a PhD but says it was certainly not a financially sensible thing to do...

I think really thinking it through in terms of the financial and career implications are key. There are a lot of older PhD students - you certainly won't be alone (although some have done their degrees as mature students and just carried straight on). I read your message earlier and having just had coffee with a friend who started her PhD after seven years in industry, I asked her what she thought you needed to think about and this is what she reckoned:
1) It's not just the financial implications of doing a PhD, it's what happens afterwards - make sure you are fully aware of the relatively poor pay, difficulty of getting academic jobs, the need to be geographically mobile to maximise chances and the fact that most academic jobs immediately after a PhD are fixed term contracts aka job insecurity. Oh and think through pension implications!
2) If planning a return to industry afterwards, try to do a fairly applied topic and keep all links and contacts open. They will be invaluable.

Are you looking for funding? If it's ESRC then yes you do need to have a recognised social science research MA (if you go to the ESRC website then there's all the information on what they do and don't accept - but I have a friend with a DEA from Sciences-Po and they didn't accept that for a Politics PhD...).

Nope it's not true. I'm a postdoc and had to renew my UK passport almost straight after finishing. I was advised to put doctor on the form as I have to do overseas fieldwork and it helps establish you are who you say you are in awkward situations. My new passport has a note on the page before the photo saying 'the holder of this passport is Dr bewildered'.

If there's specific comments like you suggest, she'll have read it. The sign that it hasn't been read are lots of random ticks and a generic 'good effort - try to develop your theoretical framework more' type comment! Oh and a mark you won't complain about...
I'd calm down before you go to see her and just ask for clarification - it may be one of those cases of miscommunication whereby both parties think they've made something clear and in fact it's not at all. Look on it as practice for the sometimes moronic comments you'll get on journal article submissions. I was told to put them away for at least a fortnight and only then look and decide what's reasonable, & what's not.

It's definitely worth using it with banks and applying for mortgages - makes you seem like a better credit risk apparently. It has other uses, particularly for women it cuts through that irritating Miss/Mrs/Ms thing. Unless you go around being arrogant about it, I don't see the problem.

Maybe because people looking to do postgrad degrees in those areas have slightly different aims that most postgrads? The rank of the university seems far more important than who's teaching there for those subjects in a way that doesn't seem to be the case with other ones.

You're probably right - there are limits to how far someone with a masters can get in that area of business. I have a friend who has found that with Bayer and is really frustrated (you simply can't get promoted without one) but has got used to having a decent wage and doesn't want to go back to student living. But if you're a good candidate for a PhD now, you will also be one or two years down the line plus you'd have industry experience. Does your firm even sponsor PhD work? You could have the best of both worlds - some experience, a better financial position before starting a PhD and the PhD.

I think many academics are genuinely so caught up in their research and fascinated by it that it is their life. They just don't understand that others find the hours too much - they don't necessarily intend to be mean, even if it feels that way, they just assume everyone is like them. Although to be fair, to get everything done that universities expect of lecturers nowadays, you do have to work 60 hour weeks.

How about scheduling some 1 to 1 meetings with these new members of your panel and try to get them to be specific about the problems and what they think needs doing? You haven't got that personal relationship with them so it might be easier for you to stay composed.
You could tell your main supervisor that obviously your priority is to fix the problems so you have her advice now, you're going to get advice from the other two and then think it over for a few weeks and get back to her with new ideas. That would give both of you a break and time to think things over. It's exam board time for the undergrads now so she's probably desperately trying to finish marking and deal with problems with her tutees - she might be much more refreshed and able to think about your project in a couple of weeks time.

Oz apparently no longer is chilled. I have an academic friend there and they're introduced a research evaluation thing recently that makes the RAE look stress-free...He's looking to come back to the UK.

I think it's really hard when you start a PhD. On the whole up to then you've always been praised at university, you've been one of the better students etc and then suddenly nothing you do is quite good enough. But it is your supervisor's job to critique your work as they want you to pass at the end of the day. And they get regular criticims too so she does know how it feels - I've seen some of the student evaluations of my supervisor's teaching and some of the rejections she's had from journals (to make me feel better). Put it like this - there are some nasty academics around but nothing beats a spiteful undergrad for really hurtful attacks

The question that occurs to me is - do you want to work with this woman any more? If not, simply go to whoever is responsible for PhD students and tell them you want to change to someone who's more able to help you rejig your project in response to the criticisms of it. You say they're abstract so I guess they're methodological or theoretical so there may well be someone better. You could use that time to make a formal complaint but I'd imagine she's already been told off for inadequate supervision.
If you do want to continue working with her, then I'd suggest being very businesslike in the next few meetings. Go in with precise questions about the criticisms and how to fix them and force her into agreeing a road map with you to move it forward. The most helpful thing you can do is try to separate the project and its pros and cons from your own self worth. Look at it like a car that needs fixing - something you wouldn't take personally.