Helping the economy should be a "priority" for the Fed, according to the head of Ford (F), Alan Mullaly. He tells the FT that "economic and credit conditions were a “big headwind” to his plan to turn round the carmaker."
The man and his company are in a vise. The UAW is trying to hold on to as many jobs and benefits as it can in the current negotiations with the Big Three. And, Ford’s units sales in the US run down double-digits most months. The company can only close so many plants. If too much production goes off-line, Ford cannot pick up sales if and when conditions put the wind at its back.
Businesses are now looking to the Fed to save them. The agency did help the banking folks with it recent rate cut, but industry wants more. Its future, at least near-term, is on the line.
Mullaly is up against the hardest situation that a big-time executive can face. He is at the helm of a company that he may not be able to save, a company where management may not matter. The circumstances may become too dire.
A rate cut from the fed, even a big one, will not ripple down to the consumer fast enough to save all of those houses. And OPEC is not going to send more oil to save Ford.
Ford faces what no company wants to, which is a reality where it no longer has good alternatives.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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