Some of you are spot in your criticism of the above article. Biased to the extreme. Ford took no Fed money. Sold even its Blue Oval logo to generate cash, dumped all other product lines and leveraged itself to the walls to get itself righted for the impending economic storm, but now this article literally says their either stupid or in fraught for doom. OK. As per the commentor below, I guess giving bonuses to your employees, sharing the wealth is not good business.

How come he didn't mention what the Volt cost was......$2 Billion. That translates to $250,000 per car for the 8,000 cars built, of which 1,000 sit unsold. Me, I'll stake my claim with Mullaly!!!

cmc111376 - Not sure why you are yelling, but to point a fact the creditors of GM got screwed just like creditors of personal bankruptcy folks do.  In addition, the stock holders whoa re also creditors, got screwed out of billions when GM's old stock went to ZERO!  They should have been allowed to fail.  Also, look up the actual numbers, your 59 billion is off by 21 billion.  the actual amount to include "stock ownership" was 80 billion!  The government has no business owning corporate stocks such as this.  it's nothing more than a loan.  Did you know that the GM unions are voting in KC this week on whether to strike or not because of a seniority issue?  How ridiculous is that.  These people should have been shut down several years ago, but instead they were bailed out along with GM and now they want even more.  i am sick and tired of paying for these problems.  Like most of the folks here, and around the country, i work and pay a huge amount in taxes.  It should be used for more socially conscious efforts.  Defense, immigration reform, Homeland Security....

Jonathan,

Thanks for your interest in Ford.  We can understand why you and your readers are following the automakers – manufacturing is so important for so many people.  It is an important part of the US economy and it is great to be contributing with a strong company and additional jobs.

I'd like to take the time to clarify a few items from your post to both yourself and your readers. From our standpoint, it is premature to compare our 2011 results with GM’s and Chrysler’s – especially since the other two companies have yet to release their numbers. We had a solid 2011 across our business.  Despite all the challenges out there, we delivered our 10th consecutive quarter of pre-tax operating profit and our best annual pre-tax operating profits since 1999.

We’re excited about the future and being part of a strong US and global economy. 

Craig Daitch
Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company

If you think the economy is bad now how do you people think the economy would be with 2 million workers out of work because GM went out of business?

And dont pull this oh it wouldnt have been that many people.  Not only would all the direct GM employees be out of work, but all the dealership employees would be out of work and that number is huge, then add in the advertiding companies that only do work for GM they would have to cut staff, the independant contractors that work for GM would no longer be needed, the suppliers would have to cut workers because GM sold 9 Million cars in the world last year.  Thats a lot of parts no longer being made and when you arent making those parts you dont need all those employees.