Can someone please explain how we are not in a recession? Take for example the glut inventory of 2023 F150s (and it’s 2024 last time I checked). The company is holding back incentives and these vehicles are lot rotting. Homes: 30 year low in sales with a still a deficit in the home supply (builders are not building like they were and people are not selling because they cannot afford the higher interest rate). Home sales spur much of the economic activity of the US because so many other purchases are tied to buying a home. Even people tend to buy new cars when they buy a new home. But yet all these companies are posting profit. How does that work? Or does it simply not and the numbers are heavily suspect…
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@2ycq+1r7PpxxA Depressing viewpoint, but realistic. Home loans, 40 years, you pay it off, you are a few years from death. I disagree with the 10 year car loan. Take for instance an EV. The battery will lose capacity, maybe to the point where the car is worthless to the owner. They go to get the battery replaced and it costs more than what they owe on it. They stop making the payments. In principal yes, the borrower is a b-m like you said, but to sell a product and financing terms on a vehicle even the OEM knows is not going to make it 10 years, that is a deceptive practice.
The economy is doing very well. Some people may be living check to check, but that has always been the case. We are just seeing more of it now. But the remaining people are doing better than ever.
Throughout history, there were centuries where there were Land Lords who owned most of the property and peasants and serfs worked the land or other jobs for the Land Lords in exchange for living on it.
Some of the hardest working peasants or serfs could one day own their own land and become a Land Lord to other peasants and serfs. That's essentially the American Dream.
Ford won't have to lower vehicle prices and the housing market won't have to see lower sales prices. There will just be longer payment terms. There is already talk of 40 year mortgages. Then, young people in their 20s can actually afford to live in a home that will be theirs upon retirement. 10 year vehicle loans will become common as well.
Back in 2008 to 2010 when all those people walked away from the home mortgages that they were not forced to accept - they were absolve of the. In bankruptcy. Pres Reagan was right when he made sure that student loans could NOT be dismissed in bankruptcy. Banks will need to do the same thing for Mortgages and Vehicle loans. If that had been the case in 2008 to 2010, all those b-ms would not have been able to walk away from their commitments.
That is how our future will look very soon. Lifetime loans. Generational loans. And the people at the top will be doing exceptionally well. And we will all work to become one of those fortunate few.
It is @1hiw+1r7PpxxA again.
What if it is a life-time love for clean energy and a better environment drove the BEV decision? It is not looking good as a business decision right now. But for a major OEM trying to clean up the mess created in the past 100 years is a very respectful decision.
No. I am not supporting the nasty things this company did to its employees. But that is a different subject. I was srd'ed.
Books are being cooked. It's the old adage: believe nothing they say, but what they do
They say: profits are great, jobs are plentiful!
They do: layoffs and raise prices.
It's the 1930s all over again. But this time the media is trying to gaslight us.
Why is the economy doing well? It is not. More people are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. More people are accumulating credit card debt. At all levels of government, we have more debt. There are more lower pay jobs created, while we lose the higher pay ones. These are facts easily proved.
Why is the economy better than expected by the "doom" predictions? People are living on higher reliance on debt, which makes the economy weaker slowly. However, every time there was a big economic "bust", there was some impactful event starting this process (panics, market crash, real estate crash, changes in monetary policy, oil prices, fake COVID-19 induced one). We are in such a bad shape to hold against one of this events, that when it happens we may have a deep recession. It is important to notice that no one can foresee when or what will trigger a recession.
What is the impact to Ford? Well, as less people can afford higher prices and car loans rates, less people are going to buy Ford vehicles. Comparing the sales of the F-150 in the last quarter, and the whole 2023 with previous quarters and years, we can see we are selling less (but more expensive). That's why the C-suite now wants to build "small" cars again, trying to retake the lost market share (FMC used to have about 6% of the sedan market in the US). Moreover, a recession will impact Ford severely since the balance sheets of Ford are close to be negative (high costs of UAW, recalls, EV investment plus almost 4 times more debt than cash flow). Tough times are coming, and companies as big as Ford take time to turn around, plus the delays due to the automotive cycles.
Your best course of action is to live below your means, save money (a lot of it) and be ready for the worst (while hoping for the best).
Ford's issues have little to do with the overall economy, which by all economic measures is doing well in most sectors. Let's take a look at the U.S. auto market SAAR (light vehicles) for January and YOY. January 2024 was 1.1 million or a SAAR of 15.2 million compared to January 2023 of 1 million or a SAAR of 15.1 million. Just one data point which is easily available online. Nothing suspect here, just facts, real data and truth!
@1hiw+1r7PpxxA. It was a business decision based on a what was viewed as a politically mandated demand. The Ford BOD effectively acted like a government contractor. No doubt BFs politics influenced this decision.
I think he is right. Our country will become great again when our real president returns to office. He truly cares about us poor and working class and he will personally make sure that our lives are great again. And that includes affordable housing and groceries. He will strategically make the prices go down.
@1kuq+1r7PpxxA, do you know which applies?
Whether to heavily invest on EV is a business decision. Some OEM did and some did not.
If there was not a business plan or forecast of revenues to sustain the investments, then it is political. In other words, BOD approved a "known-unknown" project.
@ybl+1r7PpxxA You shouldn't have stopped at a 101 course. Discussions on here turn political because it is a Ford Layoff board, and a significant factor affecting future and current employment at Ford is the decision to heavily invest in EVs. This plan will result in fewer manufacturing jobs, as well as development jobs, especially in the US. The Ford + transformation is based on political energy policy, not consumer desires.
@1qoe+1r7PpxxA. You also can see a substantial property tax increase if you sell a home you have been in for over a decade.
Builders are still cranking out new homes near me. Too many people are reluctant to sell existing homes since they don’t want to lose their current low mortgage rates, so new homes are in demand.
House prices will become affordable, groceries will become affordable. We will be GREAT again!
Explain how this will happen?
You can thank your current president. You all wanted your precious 'UAW' and no look what you got... Things are going to CHANGE after November. You just wait and see!
Say goodbye to your precious unions. House prices will become affordable, groceries will become affordable. We will be GREAT again!
OMG stop making this a political argument.
The Feds raised interest rates, people are working and making more money than before, thus spending more. You raise rates to SLOW spending. This is the consumer in todays market. It would not be a DEM or GOP direction.
Do some research on the three main types of inflation and what ANY administration can do about it. When people are buying products the supplier certainly does not lower the cost! In fact you may ramp up production (thus payroll as well as other costs) to keep feeding the demand.
Remember when oil was negative per barrel? Because the world slowed down, the supply basically stopped. Layoff's in oil companies were running wild. But Home Depot was paying employees bonuses and there stock went through the roof. The customer couldn't go anywhere and spent (those that were working) money in home improvement.
Everything is not a political conversation. Go take a 101 course in economics for gods sake.
We are not in a recession. Jobs are steady and people are spending. All you naysayers for the past couple years are proving you are all d-mbshits.
We are in a recession, but the government don't want to officially announce it. It's the electrician year and Democrats don't want to loose. They will wait until Trump wins, then they will blame Trump for the recession.
@gaw+1r7PpxxA This is not only unique to Ford. Stellantis is sitting on a glut of inventory but somehow is posting a large profit. As is GM.
@lgj+1r7PpxxA Yes per the classical definition, but are they counting stuff like services people do not pay for as product? Lot of tech companies out there doing just that, granted they are laying people off now. They are ad revenue funded, but companies are pulling back on ad spending.
Ford’s inability to sell a product has nothing to do with or is an indicator of a recession.
It has everything to do with poor decision making at multiple levels of leadership throughout the enterprise.
@OP+1r7PpxxA
Well done...
A recession is usually defined as a decline in GDP over two consecutive quarters. None of those anecdotal things you mention come into it.
There, I explained it.