Ford Delights Donald Trump With $1.2 Billion in New Michigan Investments The Blue Oval said it will retool a factory, expand engine production, and build new data centers in its home state. John Rosevear (TMFMarlowe) Mar 28, 2017 at 4:06PM Much to the delight of President Donald Trump, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) said on Tuesday that it will invest $1.2 billion in three of its facilities in Michigan. Follow Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump Big announcement by Ford today. Major investment to be made in three Michigan plants. Car companies coming back to U.S. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! 6:36 AM - 28 Mar 2017 17,90717,907 Retweets 78,32178,321 likes The investments will help Ford prepare to produce several new products, including the Ranger pickup and Bronco SUV, and will also support its ongoing move into new technology-enabled "mobility" businesses. FORD WILL SPEND $850 MILLION TO RETOOL ITS MICHIGAN ASSEMBLY PLANT TO PRODUCE THE RANGER PICKUP AND BRONCO SUV. IMAGE SOURCE: FORD MOTOR COMPANY. What Ford said: Spending on new products and big data Ford said that it's committing $1.2 billion to three sets of investments: $850 million will be spent to retool Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant, located just west of Detroit in the city of Wayne. Michigan Assembly currently builds the compact Focus and C-Max hybrid; the investment will retool the facility to enable it to begin building the midsize Ranger pickup in late 2018 and the all-new Ranger-based Bronco SUV in 2020. $150 million will be spent at Ford's Romeo Engine facility to expand production of engine components for several vehicles, including the Ranger and Bronco. The plant currently builds several different V-8 engines for a number of Ford products. The move will "create or retain" 130 jobs, Ford said. $200 million in a new, advanced data center to be located somewhere in Michigan. The data center, one of two that Ford has planned, will support what Ford expects to be a dramatic increase in its data storage and usage needs as it expands into new mobility businesses, ramps up the connectivity in its vehicles, and prepares to launch self-driving products. These investments follow a $700 million commitment, announced earlier this year, to add production tooling for upcoming Ford electric and autonomous vehicles at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly plant. Ford said on Tuesday that it will build the second new data center at the Flat Rock facility. Together with the Flat Rock investments announced in January, Ford has committed to spend $1.9 billion on its Michigan facilities so far in 2017. What it means for Ford investors Despite the president's happy tweet, there's not much new in this news, and the total number of "new and retained" jobs announced on Tuesday isn't huge. (The Flat Rock commitment announced in January will lead to 700 new jobs, Ford said at the time.) For Ford investors, there's not much in the way of surprises here, good or bad. We knew Ford was planning to retool Michigan Assembly to build the Ranger and Bronco, and we knew it was planning to build new data centers (though we didn't know where). But in the current political environment, it makes sense for Ford to play up these kinds of announcements. Most of these investments were outlined in Ford's 2015 contract with the United Auto Workers and have been hinted at in news releases since then. But it's worth noting that the spending announced on Tuesday is $350 million more than Ford had committed to spend in that UAW agreement. It's spending $150 million more than expected at Michigan Assembly, and the data center at Flat Rock wasn't outlined in the UAW deal. What's next for Ford Ford will report its first-quarter earnings result on April 27. The Blue Oval's first-quarter profit is expected to be down significantly from a year ago, in line with the guidance given by CFO Bob Shanks to investors last week. John Rosevear owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Well someone had to make the first robot at least. then you use that robot to make the next robot, until at some point the robot the robots made, makes a car. This sounds pretty expensive, but medical care for a robot is much cheaper than medical care for a person. Add in the taxpayer subsidy and its a no brainer. Stay in Michigan because you're not going to find anyone in Mexico stupid enough to bite on that deal. The picture is nice, but where are the people? Marx had this all figured out by mid 19th century: "Capital displaces labor." Now it is the 21st Century, and other than Marx, who is dead, we non-robots haven't a clue. We work like crazy so we can subsidize Ford Motor Company so they can hire a robot to replace us. Huh??? This is far more bizarre than communism; it's community paid for property, but no ownership rights! I only hope these robots make enough per hour to be able to buy one of those cars they're making.
It is balancing game between labor and capital. Between what labor sucks up , as you say, and what fraction of that amount could be saved by displacing labor. What makes this work for capital is that the cost of welfare can be diffused and shifted to a third party, i.e., society. Capital has also figured out that there is more than one way to play this game. When capital displaces labor, a side benefit from the capitalists' point of view, is that wages are held down. If the capitalist can hold wages below the true cost of labor*, than the difference between the wage that capital pays and the true cost is, again, shifted onto society, and capital is then again subsidized by society. This is more or less the Walmart, and other low wage payers, business model. This is why capital always opposes a hike in the minimum wage.** In our U.S. Congress Labor is represented by the Democrats and Capital by the Republicans. ___________________ *The true cost of labor can be defined in a number of rather arbitrary ways. Essentially it is the same as the poverty level defined by Government economists. The true cost being the minimal cost of housing. feeding, transporting, clothing, and providing healthcare for a worker. When capital pays a full-time wage below this true cost, capital is being subsidized by society to the extent of the difference between what the true cost is and what capital pays. It is just another form of cost shifting.. **Of course no capitalist will ever state this so plainly as I have. They have a myriad of reasons why raising the minimum won't work, why its a bad idea. But those reasons are not supported by the economic record and have nothing to do with the real reason. These false reasons are stated so loudly and persistently, appeal so appetizingly to mistaken good sense, that even labor sometimes believes them.
So Trump is "successful", but not really. Please read my post above for an explanation. Do not make the mistake however of supposing we should resist automation. Far from it! We must champion automation. The more automation the more the potential gain for society. But we, as a society, are doing something very wrong. Can you figure out what it is? It is nothing little. It is something all industrialized countries must do if they are to make it through the 21st century without huge social upheaval. You'll have to think very much "out of the box" to figure it out.
How to wreck an economy 101. Let the gov't determine how much workers make irrespective of what that worker produces.
Capital WAS represented by republicans. Now Trump is president and nobody is represented by the republicans. And labor is not represented because the anti-progressive democrats block everything Trump is trying to do for both labor and capital. He is the last and only true moderate left. Glad to hear you are finally on board. Now if we libertarians can just convince the republicans and democrats that we need policies that favor both labor and capital. But that means no more favors for Big Government who for too long have been represented too well by Washington D.C.
Those are interesting comments. Let me think about it. We know that the Republicans are split into factions. I can't escape the obvious; what we term the establishment Republicans represent Capital. But whom do the others represent? Let me think about this. We can only judge Trump by what he does, not by what he says, as we have learned he will say whatever his audience wants to hear, as in "lock her up", i'm going to replace Obamacare with something bigly wonderful, protect medicare and social security hugely. I am the only one who can do that. Everyone says so. And I love women and the Bible. (paraphrasing of course) The man is a total fraud, so what can anyone say other than " Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
He hasn't sold out yet and I don't know that anybody can buy him unless they pay him a 2nd term. "Establishment" republicans are no better or worse than establishment democrats. That's why all the young people crying for Hillary is so laughable. They all work for big business. Just saw a poll, and I don't ever pay any attention to polls unless they are favorable to my agenda. 54% of California democrats want the democrats in congress to work with Donald Trump. See, they like it when people go to Washington and "get things done." Meanwhile, republicans first hope nothing bad gets done and don't care if nothing gets done and only get happy if taxes and regulations go down. Why don't you just admit that Trump is saying what both parties have publicly said for years. Pro business pro worker. No need anymore to choose sides. Join the Trump revolution.