The Ford family is "obviously interested and concerned" in the crisis afflicting the Detroit auto industry, according to Ford's chairman, Bill Ford, who was cornered by a bunch of journalists at a company event this week. Then he went off the script.
"The family has been with this company though good times and bad times for every kind of cycle you could ever have," he said, adding that his family's shareholding in the company was an emotional, rather than merely a financial one. "For us, if this is just about a financial investment, we would have been out a long time ago."
Hang on, Bill. You're the chairman of the board. You can't say that.
I know Ford is begging for a handout form the US government. But how are investors expected to feel when the chairman thinks that anyone expecting a financial return should have sold out long ago?
These are weird times in Detroit.