Kudos to Ford again

[Tilted]

Ford just posted record quarterly North American profits. They did things the right way. They prepared for lean times, endured the recession, pushed forward and emerged a better, stronger company. Though they still have problems, they deserve a lot of credit - especially as compared to others within their industry. An American success story. Again.

Ford profit beats expectations, sets record for North America

 

[kwillia]

Ford just posted record quarterly North American profits. They did things the right way. They prepared for lean times, endured the recession, pushed forward and emerged a better, stronger company. Though they still have problems, they deserve a lot of credit - especially as compared to others within their industry. An American success story. Again.

Ford profit beats expectations, sets record for North America

... and they've kept this years recalls under a gazillion unlike Chevy...

 

[Tilted]

... and they've kept this years recalls under a gazillion unlike Chevy...

Yeah, sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day listening to the news - GM recalls another...

 

[wm1953]

Lets not forget the $5.6 billion Ford got from us taxpayers in June of 2009. Same month GM
declared.

 

[DoWhat]

I like my 2003 Chevy Silverado.
It only has 23,000 miles on it, because we don't go anywhere too far.

 

[Tilted]

Lets not forget the $5.6 billion Ford got from us taxpayers in June of 2009. Same month GM
declared.

I assume you're referring to the loans they got though the DOE program meant to help finance more fuel efficient technology. That's the only thing I can think of, though that wasn't $5.6 Billion it was eventually $5.9 Billion and they didn't get it the month GM filed for bankruptcy they got it over the course of several years beginning later in 2009.

If so, I'm not a fan of those kinds of programs so I'm not going to defend it in general or Ford's participation in particular (and, to be sure, thus far Ford is easily the biggest recipient of loans under that particular program). But that wasn't what saved Ford and, at any rate, it's a far cry from the money that was given to certain parties associated with the old GM and Chrysler for a number of reasons we can get into if you want. Again, not defending those kinds of loan programs - but Ford was able to survive those lean years because it had better prepared earlier and because it was willing to bite the bullet and take a fair bit of pain that others in the industry used the bankruptcy process to avoid. And today it's doing well in spite of not getting out from under certain legacy debt to the extent others did.

 

[GURPS]

@ Tilted ..... I think WM1953 is trying to say DOE Program was the same as GM and Chrysler Bailouts .....

 

[Gilligan]

@ Tilted ..... I think WM1953 is trying to say DOE Program was the same as GM and Chrysler Bailouts .....

Maybe WM doesn't realize the huge difference between a loan and a bailout-plus-default. A lot of people and entities too huge losses as a consequence of The Chrysler and, particularly, GM debacles; US taxpayers were only one of those.

 

[GURPS]

Maybe WM doesn't realize the huge difference between a loan and a bailout-plus-default. A lot of people and entities too huge losses as a consequence of The Chrysler and, particularly, GM debacles; US taxpayers were only one of those.

Indeed .... Moral Equivalency :shrug:

 

[Tilted]

@ Tilted ..... I think WM1953 is trying to say DOE Program was the same as GM and Chrysler Bailouts .....

I'm not sure they were trying to say it was the same, but on that particular point I'd have to let them speak for themselves.

That said, I think they make a fair point. Ford - like so many big businesses - doesn't have completely clean hands when it comes to being helped by the federal government. The government meddles in various markets to a much greater degree than I would have it do. For instance, it wants more fuel efficient vehicles (or vehicles that don't use petroleum) so it has programs that help businesses - in effect, subsidize them - toward that end. The loans that Ford received, at attractive rates, through the DOE program in question have a real value - a real subsidizing effect. I'd put it at something like $600 - $800 million over the 13 year life of the loans, but those figures are open to considerable debate.

Anyway, my point was just that those loans don't really change the point I was making. We certainly can criticize Ford for taking that kind of help if we're generally opposed to it (as coming from the federal government), but those loans aren't why Ford made it through the hard financial times and why it was able to deal with its legacy liability issues without declaring bankruptcy. And Ford didn't leave a lot of other parties screwed, while it itself was able to walk away from a lot of obligations, the way GM and Chrysler did. And the cost to taxpayers is far different.