By Adam Lass, Senior Editor, Taipan Publishing Group

This American company has gained 777% the old-fashioned way: selling junk in backroom deals.

As regular readers know, I am a Ford man.

Back when I was a kid, you had to make three really important choices. First, you had to pick a political party. Didn’t matter how well you knew the candidates – you picked a party and that’s what you were.

We are talking Democrat or Republican here. Libertarians weren’t much discussed, and backing the Socialists could get your parents blackballed at work. And if you wanted peace around the dinner table, you just went with the same side your folks did.

Second, you had to choose “your” baseball, basketball and football teams. We didn’t have rotisserie leagues back then, so there was no “à la carte.” You picked your guys, and you defended their every move in the schoolyard and on

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This American company has gained 777% the old-fashioned way: selling junk in backroom deals. As regular readers know, I am a Ford man. Back when I was a kid, you had to make three really important choices. First, you had to pick a political party. Didn’t matter how well you knew the candidates – you picked a party and that’s what you were. We are talking Democrat or Republican here. Libertarians weren’t much discussed, and backing the Socialists could get your parents blackballed at work. And if you wanted peace around the dinner table, you just went with the same side your folks did. Second, you had to choose “your” baseball, basketball and football teams. We didn’t have rotisserie leagues back then, so there was no “à la carte.” You picked your guys, and you defended their every move in the schoolyard and on the stoop – with fists if need be. Prudent Choices To this ...

I don’t know about you, but I could only pick my mouth up off the floor when I watched the Big Three’s CEOs beg for a taxpayer-funded bailout this week. Never mind the fact that they’re now asking for $34 billion (up 36% from $25 billion two weeks ago), or that they drove to DC in a caravan of new hybrids that would make the Keystone Cops proud. What got my attention was that Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally who, after admitting "big mistakes," attempted to sway Congressional members by saying "we’re really focused now." Perhaps I’m not the brightest bulb in the bunch here, but it seems to me that’s what the Big Three said in the 70s when Japanese cars invaded in earnest; that’s what they said in the 80s ...