The American Freedom Network

Free Enterprise Isn’t Dead in Detroit

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/02/top_ford_execs_take_pay_cuts_m.html

Ford Motor Company continues to make it on its’ own, without Federal bridge loans.  their two top executives, including the guy whose name is on the building, are taking 30% pay cuts.  Performance bonuses are being suspended, and more hourly buyouts are on the way. Everything is focused on self-sustainment until the new models, like the 2010 Taurus ( http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=125514 ) bring in more business.  They must be doing something right in Dearborn, because Bill Ford, Jr. regularly gets standing ovations when he  goes to one of his plants.
Part of it is genetic:  Henry Ford didn’t want anything to do with the government, and the man who put America on wheels would be proud that no amount of CAFE, OSHA, EPA or other forms of government interference has brought the automaker that bears his name it its’ knees.  The day may come when they have to close their doors, but I have to believe that the current Ford, a fourth-generation executive in the family business, who once said that he’d rather burn the place down than be bought out by a Japanese carmaker, will not go on the dole. 
As much as I wish GM and Chrysler well, and I sincerely do, I wish it the more so for Ford, because they took steps in 2006 to mortgage everything, including the Blue Oval, to have the cash and credit available to survive the coming storm.  Let’s hope that their foresight does not go unrewarded when Americans start buying cars again.