One Positive Sign for America's Economy

Ford Posts Third-Straight Annual Profit - Nick Bunkley

Since the economic downturn the United States has little to be proud of or shown many drastic results from President Obama's Bailout. This is not so, Ford Motors posted its third straight year turning a profit. After continually bleeding money to their competitors and within there company (too many costs and not enough revenue) in 2006, they shifted their goals towards more consumer oriented cars and environmentally efficient products. This was the main place they were losing to competitors. Japanese motor companies were producing cheaper and more efficient cars that Ford and GM could not compete with. This year: "the company earned an operating profit of $6.2 billion for the year...the net profit was equal to $4.94 a share, up from $1.56...revenue increased 13 percent to $136.3 billion." However they did show a loss in profit overseas. This was attributed to securing jobs for workers, changing there focus to efficient and less expensive cars, and cutting unnecessary overhead. Between 2006-2008 they lost a reported 30.1 billion USD. Since 2009 they have recovered approximately 29.5 billion USD. This article demonstrates some things we have been talking about, competition, global markets, macroeconomics, product orientation, and production. In the face of economic disparity the American ambition and perseverance prevailed, and showed that we are still able to compete with the global market.

More information can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/business/fords-posts-third-straight-annual-profit.html?ref=business

-BW