Ford Had It's 2nd Biggest Profit Ever in Company History in 2011!

CNN Money

Ford reported its best annual earnings since 1998 on Friday, making 2011 the second most profitable year in the company's 109-year history.

But much of the profit was attributed to a non-cash gain, as it put a large tax credit from past losses on its balance sheet that will shield it from taxes in the future. Excluding that credit, the carmaker posted full-year and quarterly earnings that fell short of last year's profit as well as analysts' forecasts.

Shares fell 2.7% in pre-market trading on the earnings miss.

The company's 2011 net income of $20.2 billion, up from $6.6 billion in 2010, was the best since 1998, when it received a large one-time gain from the sale of The Associates financial unit. About $12.4 billion of the latest profit came from the accounting gain.

Excluding special items, Ford (F, Fortune 500) reported operating income of $6.1 billion, or $1.51 a share, down from the $7.6 billion, or $1.91 a share, it earned on that basis in 2010.

Fourth-quarter operating earnings of $787 million, or 20 cents a share, were down from $1.2 billion, or 30 cents, a year earlier, as flooding in Thailand that shut suppliers' plants hurt its results in its Asia-Pacific region. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 25 cents a share.

Pretax earnings for the quarter and full year improved in Ford's home North American market due to increases in both the pricing and the volume of vehicles sold. The company's profit margin in the region also improved.

The strong North American results mean that the 41,600 members of the United Auto Workers union will be getting larger profit-sharing payments for 2011.

Full-year payments to the factory workers will average $6,200, up from $5,000 in 2010. But the workers already received more than half of that money in December due to the new labor deal reached in the fall.

The company announced earlier this month that its white collar workers would get both bonus payments and merit raises for 2011, the first time in four years they've received both.

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See How Detroiters Like You Are Impacting the City They Love. Join the 150.

Detroit4Detroit is your opportunity to be one of 150 people starting a movement of citizen philanthropy to impact the city they love. If you have the passion to impact your community, we’ve got the tools and support needed to make you the fundraising leader for your Detroit cause.

Our community projects give you the opportunity to partner with one of a diverse range of high-impact organizations that are changing lives in Detroit. Anyone can be part of Detroit4Detroit. Now’s your chance to be the spark that starts a movement. Join the 150 and have an impact where it counts.

Learn more about Detroit4Detroit HERE!

Comerica Bank Expands 2012 Grand Slam Grant Program

At the Detroit Tigers caravan stop at Comerica Bank’s new Michigan market headquarters today, Comerica announced it will expand its Grand Slam Grant program for 2012 to include Central and West Michigan.

Last year, the inaugural program offered a $10,000 grant to create, expand or improve a metro Detroit high school’s baseball or softball program. This year, Comerica will award two $10,000 grants – one in metro Detroit and one in the Central/West Michigan region.

“As many school districts continue to face budget cuts, the Grand Slam Grant helps ensure our future all-stars have the resources they need to experience the game of baseball,” said Thomas D. Ogden, president, Comerica Bank-Michigan. “After 162 years in Michigan, Comerica remains committed to supporting its hometown teams.”

The grant recipients will be recognized on the field during the Detroit Tigers 2012 opening weekend game on April 7. In addition to the grant, each winning school will also receive 60 tickets to the opening weekend game.

Public high schools in Comerica’s markets of Southeast Michigan and Central and West Michigan are eligible to apply for the Grand Slam Grant.

One grant recipient will be chosen from each region. The funds can be used for field improvements, equipment, training camps, or other baseball or softball-related expenses.

Grant applications will be reviewed for a variety of criteria including overall need, creativity, and school and community impact. The grant recipient will be selected by the Comerica Bank Grand Slam Grant Selection Committee, consisting of representatives from Comerica Bank and Detroit Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch.

Eligible schools can complete the grant application online at www.comerica.com/grandslamgrant. Once complete, the application, along with supporting materials such as photos or videos must be submitted via email to grandslamgrant@comerica.com by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, 2012.

Last year, the baseball team at Renaissance High School in Detroit was awarded Comerica Bank’s inaugural Grand Slam Grant and used the funds for equipment, a new scoreboard and a travel showcase youth clinic.

CCS’s Center Galleries Presents “Grid List”

The College for Creative Studies’s Center Galleries is pleased to present the new exhibition “Grid List,” opening with a public reception on Fri., Jan. 27, from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m., and running through Sat., March 3, 2012.

“Grid List” presents a new take on Geometric Abstraction with a focus on the individual artist’s idiosyncratic relationship with the grid. Co-organized by artists Mark Sengbusch and Patrick Morrissey, the exhibition includes the work of 16 artists from London, New York, Detroit and Atlanta.

“Grid List explores the influence of the grid on artists. Tracing back the source of geometric abstraction’s past Josef Albers and Sol LeWitt take it to a more personal and direct place,” says Director of Center Galleries Michelle Perron. “Nature, sports, math, science, film, graphic design and video games are just a few of the square wellsprings these artists draw their right angles from. In addition to the artists in the show, there will be "non-art" examples of the grid.”

The exhibition includes recent graduates of CCS: David E. Peterson, Fine Arts ’02 and Mark Sengbusch, Fine Arts ‘02. Other exhibiting artists include: Joseph Bernard – Detroit, Paul Corio - NYC, Nate Ethier - NYC, Francis Farmer – Sussex, England, Stacy Fisher - NYC, Linda Francis - NYC, Hanz Hancock - London, William Hughes – London, Jeffrey Mathews - NYC, Patrick Morrissey – London, Allie Rex – NYC, Karen Schifano - NYC , Ian Swanson - NYC, and Tracy Thomason – NYC. (IMAGE: Paul Corio, “Toga Tiger” 2009 acrylic on canvas)

Check Out The Super Bowl Chevy Commercial Shot in Hamtramck!

Be on the lookout for the owners of Detroit's finest Mex/Asian Fusion Restaurant, Maria's Comida!

Great NYT Piece From The Author of “Say Nice Things About Detroit”

Scott Lasser 
The New York Times

Excerpt from "When The Lights Go Down In The City"

I’ve lived all over the country, and the idea that Detroit is somehow different, that what has happened there can’t happen anywhere else, seems faulty at best. Drive the bumpy streets of Los Angeles, wait for a subway in New York or pay income tax in Chicago, and you learn that there are budget problems everywhere. The troubles in Detroit seem worse simply because Detroit has fallen so far.

Once the center of American industrial might and economic power, Detroit was, from 1920 to 1950, the country’s fourth most populous city. It called itself, without irony, the Paris of the Midwest. When I was a kid, my dad worked in steel and then as a Ford buyer, a midlevel job that provided a decent living, free medical care and, of course, cars. My stepfather had been temporarily paralyzed in a kamikaze attack at the end of World War II, but he recovered, put on a suit and went into the steel business. “You couldn’t help but make money,” he told me. “It must have been like selling drugs today.”s

The exact causes of Detroit’s decline are still open to debate, but suffice it to say mismanagement within the auto industry, racial strife and bad, often confrontational and sometimes corrupt government played major roles. When General Motors and Chrysler finally succumbed to bankruptcy, it was the result of excessive debt and promises to retirees that could not be met. That may sound like someplace else, but our federal government is running an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars, and will have around $40 trillion in unfunded retiree liabilities. Detroit is not someplace else; it’s America.s

Are we doomed? Hardly. But to go forward we might do well to look at, well, Detroit. The city simply has no time left to dither or filibuster or ignore a problem because the solution is unpleasant. If Detroit needs to turn off the lights, they’re going off. If it needs to raze decrepit buildings, it will fire up the bulldozers. This is a city where, once, I met a Ford man who had just turned down a lucrative job with a management consulting company. “I can’t work for a company that doesn’t make something,” he explained.s

Detroit is a city used to the hard work of creation. It reminds us that necessity is the mother not only of invention, but of hope. And hope is necessary for action.s

And Detroit is moving forward. There’s a long way to go, but the city’s efforts have already brought an influx of young artists and entrepreneurs drawn by cheap rent and programs that provide start-up capital. A lot of brainpower is being deployed to imagine the Detroit of the future. Crime is down overall. Even the auto business is coming back to life, as witnessed by the excitement at this year’s Detroit auto show.s

Detroit has been in dire straits before. In 1805, roughly a century before Henry Ford built his first assembly line, a huge fire burned the city to the ground. This gave rise to Detroit’s Latin motto, “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus” — “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.”

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Detroit's Fotoula Lambros Design Makes Their NYC Runway Debut On The Roof of The Empire Hotel!

Check out Fotoula Lambros Design HERE!

For more information about attending this event, click HERE! 

A Different Kodak Moment: One Photographer's Take On The Motor City

Architizer

When architect Louis Sullivan began cultivating Chicago’s vertical growth with some of the world’s first skyscrapers, he famously cloaked his steel high-rises with images of vegetation. Embellishing the tops of his multistory buildings with iron-cast flora, Sullivan sought to evoke the image of a novel breed of architecture sprouting upwards from the fertile American soil. He quickly recognized how the skyscraper would change the experience of the city, how a soaring building would be read from street level, and how Americans could gaze upwards and project their nation’s values of collective advancement onto the towering facades of his “form follows function” designs.

Almost a century later, Detroit-based photographer Dennis Maitland has conceived of a new way to see the city, turning the experience of the skyscraper up on its head. In a series called “Life on the Edge,” Maitland climbs atop some of the highest perches in his hometown, dangles his feet precariously over the edge, focuses his lens downwards, and snaps a photo that is sure to induce perspiration. Maitland not only documents his personal overcoming of a fear of heights, but he captures views of Detroit that elevate city streets from their quotidian designation and paint a new image of our built environment.

Click HERE to check out more of Dennis Maitland's photos!

Detroit Knows Cars: 2012 Motor City Automobile Fine Art Exhibit Premiers Sat, Jan 28th

The Detroit Knows Cars is a fine art exhibit to premier in downtown Detroit that will feature works from some of the best-known automobile artists in the country. Setting this exhibit in the Chase Tower Building lobby will give the exhibit high visibility as it will be launched on January 6, 2012, continuing the duration of the North American International Auto Show and through January 29, 2012.

The exhibit will draw attention to the rapidly re-developing downtown Detroit, and is a fitting location for this exhibit that will become the newest legacy for the city that put the USA on wheels.

Why is this event the next big thing in Detroit?

Detroit knows cars -- it will be held in downtown Detroit – along historic Michigan Route 1 (Woodward Ave.) in January to be promoted during the 2012 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center, offering a new, unique destination for art and automobile enthusiasts.

This opening exhibit is the prelude to creating a major international automobile art competition beginning in 2013 offering cash prizes for “Awards of Excellence” – attracting the art world to Detroit much like the ArtPrize competition did to Grand Rapids.

Invited artists include Tom Hale, a founding member of the Automotive Fine Arts Society (AFAS) along with AFAS members Jay Koka and Charlie Maher, popular young artist David Chapple, historic scene specialist Gerald Freeman, former combat artist Michael Goettner, vintage automobile photographer Jim Haefner, and sculptor Alex Buchan.

The Motor City Automobile Art Exhibit will be on display every day from 8 AM - 6 PM in the lobby of the Chase Tower Building, and is free and open to the public.

Celebrate Detroit's Diversity March 3rd at the 2nd Annual Detroit Harmonie!

On March 3, 2012, Detroit Harmonie will host it's signature event, the International Experience, at the Virgil Carr Center located in the heart of Detroit's Harmonie Park.

The International Experience is Detroit Harmonie’s second annual signature event celebrating the diversity and future of metro Detroit with live entertainment, food, and music representing several cultures in the community. The evening will include two competitions where Detroit Harmonie will deliver $50,000 in philanthropic funding to five social entrepreneurial organizations making the city of Detroit an attractive place in which to live, work, and play.

Click HERE to reserve your tickets!