You might want to check on that, 16 billion in 2008,
Ford Motor Co. earned a great deal of consumer respect when it returned to health without the need for a federal bailout accepted by General Motors and Chrysler.
But did Ford actually take "
secret government money" to help it stay afloat?
That's
the controversial contention made this week by former Detroit Free Press auto reporter Justin Hyde, now writing for Jalopnik.
As Hyde points out, the federal government on Wednesday revealed the indentity of companies it aided during the financial crisis through the Federal Reserve's Commercial Paper Funding Facility.
Set up in 2008, the CPFF helped companies obtain high-interest, short-term loans -- known as commerical paper -- during the height of the international credit crunch. Some outlets, such as Fox Business, have referred to the program as the "
commercial paper bailout."
Hyde correctly points out that Ford's credit arm registered to sell the federal government around $16 billion in commercial paper. Like the financing wing of most automakers -- Toyota, BMW, GMAC and Chrysler also participated -- Ford found itself in need of liquidity when the lending markets dried up.
But what Hyde (and more glaringly, his headline) incorrectly suggests is that Ford's borrowing was a secret. Spokeswoman Brenda Hines
told Bloomberg back in October of 2008 that Ford Credit had applied for the program.
Fellow Ford spokeswoman Christin Baker this week pointed out that
Ford reported its participation in the CPFF in its public SEC filings. She also said Ford participated in the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Security Loan Facility, noting that "these two programs addressed systematic failure in the credit markets, and that neither program was designed for a particular company, or even a particular industry.
"Ford was a fractional participant in both of these credit programs, and the federal government made healthy returns on all of these limited transactions."
Bottom line? Yes, Ford's credit arm participated in a federal program meant to free up short-term lending at a time when very few investors were spending. It's no secret.
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2010/12/did_ford_take_secret_governmen.html