Bloomberg reports that Ford Motor, the only U.S. automaker shunning federal loans, burned $5.5 billion in cash in the fourth quarter; and said it will tap a revolving credit line after the worst annual performance in its 105-year history.
Now, I had wondered how Ford could shun all that government money that GM and Chrysler had taken so willingly. My original thought was that maybe Ford did have a "better business model in play." I should have knew better. Ford's business model is no better, might be worse, than GM and Chrysler. The reason why Ford managed to forgo all that governmental money is that its CEO, Alan Mulally, decided to borrow $23 billion in 2006 by securitizing ALL of Ford's assets, including its trademark "blue oval logo." Oh, that was a brilliant strategy to hock anything, even the logo, by going further into debt!
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