Ford Looks to the Future Options

[Edstock]

A NYTimes interview with Bill Ford

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/automobi...ref=automobiles

(IMG:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/10/22/automobiles/autospecial2/22ford.span.jpg)

Q: Is the financial support given by taxpayers to G.M. and Chrysler a positive development for the American economy?

A: The biggest concern that we had all through this was the collapse of the supply base. I believe that if G.M. and Chrysler had gone into free-fall bankruptcies, it could have devastated the entire industrial base of this country.

Q: Does the average American value the domestic auto industry?

A: They should. One cannot find a healthy economy anywhere in the world that does not have a strong industrial base, period. We seem to be the only country in the world that doesn’t strongly value that. Everywhere else Ford does business in the world the government and people understand it, and do everything they can to enhance it. The notion that we can just simply become an information-age data provider as a nation is ludicrous. The unemployment consequences would be enormous. Manufacturing still has the greatest multiplier effect, in terms of job creation, of any sector of the economy.

[theoldwizard]

Those sunflowers are actually on Ford property ! Corner of Southfield Road and Rotunda Drive. Site of the old NAAO building (Boy, does that age me).

I wonder if they planted soybeans off of Hubbard Drive and Southfield Road this year ?

Yep, Ford Motor Company does "urban farming". Taxes on "farm land" are much lower than undeveloped commercial real estate !

[ausrutherford]

Those sunflowers are actually on Ford property ! Corner of Southfield Road and Rotunda Drive. Site of the old NAAO building (Boy, does that age me).

I wonder if they planted soybeans off of Hubbard Drive and Southfield Road this year ?

Yep, Ford Motor Company does "urban farming". Taxes on "farm land" are much lower than undeveloped commercial real estate !

I wish they would have rebuilt the Rotunda.

[twintornados]

Good interview....