'Ford wins election'
One of Detroit's automakers gets a pat on the back while another gets paddled for going back to the federal trough one too many times by the Wall Street Journal editorial board. The Journal opines that Ford is winning the election among consumers in the showroom.
Bailed-out Chrysler is losing market share and money, while the formerly bankrupt GM is gaining some sales at heavily discounted prices -- which means no profit.
Meanwhile, the Journal opposes a request for more bailout money for GMAC, the financial unit for both Chrysler and GM. The Journal counts at least seven different federal bailouts for GMAC compared with the one financial assist Ford Motor Co. has received.
Its bottom line on the battle between taxpayer-financed GM and Chrysler vs. Ford: "The people have voted. Treasury should now let consumers and investors decide which cars to purchase, and how to finance them."
Detroit is safer and more toxic than you think
Recent Forbes magazine ratings have declared Detroit safer than you might think, but it remains America's second most toxic region.
What's funny about this juxtaposition is that Forbes didn't find Detroit's 12th safest region rating notable for comment. It went unremarked.
Perhaps that is because Detroit was dead last in violent crime. What brought the safety rating up were top 10 low finishes in workplace deaths, traffic fatalies and natural disasters.
Of course, Detroit's industrial legacy hit the Motown region hard, making it the second most toxic city right after the leader -- Atlanta (see interactive chart here).
Detroit's air quality was a little better than expected -- 22nd out of 40 regions. But bottom 10 finishes in the number of Superfund sites and the number of facilities where toxic chemicals are released were too much.
But here's a bright lining -- sort of. Recessions depress economic activity, which in turn reduces the amount of pollution and chemicals released. But the lack of jobs arguably could prove more deadly to residents than the increase in pollution (now much lower than it was 30 years ago) that accompanies economic growth.
'There's almost too much good news' from Detroit
Ford Motor Co.'s $1 billion third-quarter profit has opiners saying the darndest things. Try this from Paul Ingrassia, former Detroit bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal:
"In fact, there's almost too much good news coming out of Ford's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters these days," Ingrassia writes in the Wall Street Journal.
And good news can often mean bad news for Detroit's automakers, as Ingrassia makes clear. But first the good stuff.
What is Ford doing right: Shedding brands, getting out of the mortgage business and concentrating on improving quality. Now the Dearborn automaker has 90 percent of its models with average or better quality -- "right up there with Honda and Toyota."
But Ingrassia appropriately notices that Ford's good fortune tempted the rank and file to reject concessions the UAW already had given Chrysler and General Motors in the bankruptcy process.
This is bad because Ford still needs to pay off $27 billion in debt that it accrued to replenish its vehicle development and stay out of government control. And by keeping in place too many job classifications, Ford still is carrying around union "feather bedding," according to Ingrassia.
Interestingly, Ingrassia reports that two high-quality Ford vehicles that beat their Japanese counterparts in quality (according to Consumer Reports) are made in a Mexican plant without job classifications that the UAW doesn't represent.
"If Ford targets future expansion in Mexico, the recent contract vote will spell further decline for a union that, like Detroit's car companies, badly needs cultural change," Ingrassia writes.
Ford generates praise for Detroit
USA Today did something unusual: It was motivated by a company's earnings report to write a glowing editorial.
The result is "Billion dollar Ford," a tribute to the $1 billion profit that Ford Motor Co. unexpectedly generated in the third quarter that moves the McLean, Va.,-based newspaper to say: "Ford is ... an example of what the others (GM and Chrysler) can become."
Of course, part of the reason Ford is profitable is because it didn't take the federal bailout money and subject itself to the political machinations of the Obama administration and Congress. It doesn't have to bring plants or facilities out of mothballs or off the shutdown list -- like GM has had to do for Vice President Joe Biden (a reopened Delaware plant) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (a suddenly spared Massachusetts facility).
USA Today also focuses on the recalcitrance of the UAW rank and file, which recently rejected giving Ford similar concessions it gave GM and Chrysler as part of the bankruptcy process. The editorial board calls it "a reminder of what still can go wrong."
"As long as labor fails to acknowledge the realities of a fiercely competitive industry, neither workers' prosperity nor Ford's will be assured," USA Today opines.
But after getting bashed for so long, the domestic auto industry deserves the tribute that Ford has earned.
Time discovers Catholic high school education
The University of Detroit high school has long provided a pipeline to leading colleges for those Metro Detroiters who could afford the Catholic institution's stiff tuition. And Time has discovered the Detroit jewel in a piece originally titled "Last One Standing."
While the number of Catholic high schools has shrunk, U of D High isn't the last one standing. The Archdiocese of Detroit notes that Loyala High School and Detroit Cristo Rey also provide Catholic high school instruction.
But only so many Detroiters can take advantage of this opportunity. A quarter of U of D's 780 students are city residents, Time reports.
To attend the school, students must meet high academic qualifications. Affording the $9,990 annual tuition requires that school often provide financial assistance.
As Principal Gary Marando tells Time, "We will not turn away any student who is qualified to come here."
Perhaps the key benefit of U of D is that it attracts suburban teens back into the city. The high school is a testament to the Jesuits' commitment to keeping the school in the city after the 1967 riots and a plunge in enrollment. It's a feel-good story that Time fortunately did not ignore.
A Detroit school that works
NBC Nightly News discovers University Prep High School as an example of a Detroit school that works by graduating almost all of its students in a city where an alarming proportion drop out.
In the story "Students thrive as school touts accountability," high expectations are credited with students succeeding.
The Detroit News' editorial writer Amber Arellano makes a cameo on the broadcast, arguing that "It shows that minority and low-income children can do just as well as other children. ... It's the schools and the quality of the education that is the problem."
Limbaugh spreads wrong UAW impression
UAW leaders have conveniently broken pattern bargaining before when it was to their advantage. But the defeat of the Ford concession contract is not an attempt by United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger to bring Ford Motor Co. under the thumb of the UAW and the federal government, as Rush Limbaugh argued on the air Monday.
The problem for Limbaugh is that Gettelfinger urged ratification of the deal. He acknowledged that the concessions were needed to deal with Ford's huge loan repayments due in 2010 and 2011.
Sure, the UAW can still dig in its heels at the wrong time and cost the domestic automakers money. But that's not what happened this time around. The Ford rank-and-file now feel like the company and the economy are surging, and they can resort to old union politics.
The workers are miscalculating if they think Ford can continue to carry a cost disadvantage compared with its foreign and domestic rivals. But don't blame Gettelfinger for making that mistake.
Is Jeff Foxworthy REALLY picking on Michigan?
One of the latest rages sweeping the Internet/e-mail world is a list of purported comedian Jeff Foxworthy observations about Michigan.
Many of them are listed here and on other blogs. They ring true to a certain extent, except they all seem generically geared toward Michigan's cold weather reputation. That's not exactly unique when you consider how cold Minnesota and Maine get.
And, sure enough, if you surf the Web enough, you will find the same Jeff Foxworthy jokes adapted for upstate New York and, of all things, Indiana.
The lesson: Jeff Foxworthy is really funny, but his humor travels well precisely because it is geared for a lot of places in America, not just Michigan.
We're No. 10! We're No. 10!
Michigan gets a fall shout-out from Delta's Sky magazine, which in its October 2009 edition rates the Great Lakes state the No. 10 best destination to see fall foliage.
It's not the whole state mind you, but the Upper Peninsula that gets Michigan mentioned after Vermont; Massachusetts; Loire Valley, France; Prince Edward Island, Canada; Oregon; Pennsylvania; Tokyo, Japan; New York; and California.
And "if hiking is your thing, tackle the trails of Porcupine Mountains, situated along 20 miles of Lake Superior shore," the Sky magazine purrs. Those are located in the western part of the U.P.
Finishing behind forest-fire favorite California may burn Michiganians, but we'll take a top 10 finish any day.
Detroit still shows wishful thinking
A commentary for The New Republic reports that a gathering of 140 economists, researchers and others from Michigan and Ohio shows that Detroit still clings unrealistically to the auto industry as a financial savior.
"Despite all the gloom and doom, there was still a bit of wishful thinking in the air. ... Half the brain is still rooting for another comeback, hitting the end of the bungee cord and industry freefall. The other half of the brain is realizing that, finally, maybe the years of talk of 'diversification,' embracing new sectors and riding new economic ponies, is not only necessary, it may have already arrived as a fait accompli."
The author is John Austin, a researcher for the Brookings Institution and the vice chairman of the Michigan State Board of Education.
The lesson that Austin takes from this session with Michigan and Ohio government, business and nonprofit leaders is that it is awfully hard to encourage education and lifelong learning in communities that got used to good incomes with a high school education.
