Ups and Downs

Sometimes the juxtaposition of two stories can tell more than the two tell us individually. From CNN/Money:

CEO: Ford ahead of schedule on layoffs

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Ford Motor Co. is "a little bit ahead" of schedule in settling buyout offers with its 75,000 unionized factory workers, the automaker's chief executive told the Detroit Free Press in an interview published Saturday.

And from the Wall Street Journal:

Toyota Races to Rev Up Production For a Boom in Emerging Markets

Toyota Motor Corp., already in a frenzied push to expand its auto output, is stepping up its race to open new factories as part of a confidential blueprint to grab a 15% global market share by 2010 amid an expected surge in car sales in India, China and other emerging markets.

The Japanese auto giant, which recently passed Ford Motor Co. to become the world's No. 2 auto maker by sales and is poised to overtake General Motors Corp. as early as this year, aims to open three more new plants by 2009 as part of a "global master plan," boosting its production capacity by 450,000 vehicles a year.

It's nothing we haven't heard about before. But still.