Some more good news

on economic front

If you are looking for good news — and we suppose most everyone is, you have to go no further than Ford Motor Company.

Monday Ford announced a surprise $1 billion profit for the third quarter and company officials predicted Ford would be "solidly profitable" in 2011.

We don't know about the second part of that sentence, mostly because we don't know how any company could predict that far ahead in a shaky world economy such as the one we now have.

But the fact that Ford earned a $1 billion profit over the previous three months is a done deal. That is money in the bank.

It is even better that Ford received no direct federal stimulus, though the company was helped mightily by the government's "Cash for Clunkers" deal. The rest of the gains were made by old-fashioned cost cutting and working to get a bigger share of the market. Good for them.

The conditions at General Motors and Chrysler have improved, too, but not nearly as much. There is still a longer road to travel for those two companies.

Ford's news is good because what automakers earn has a tremendous ripple throughout the rest of the economy. Indeed, other good news reported Monday may be showing that this is already happening.

The Institute for Supply Management, a private group of purchasing executives, released a monthly report that showed manufacturing activity in the United States grew by its fastest pace since since 2006. That has been a while. According to a story from Associated Press, similar surveys in Britain and Europe showed similar gains.

That could be a sign that the global economy is on the rebound as well.

Much of this is due to government stimulus programs both in the United States and abroad. Since many of those programs are reaching their conclusion, it could be that what we are seeing is just a spike and not continued growth.

So we aren't calling for a general celebration and saying that all our troubles are over. But any bit of good news is better than the gloom and doom we have been living with for about 18 months now.

Even if this good news is sustained, there are still months to go before "normal" comes back around.

But today we'll take it for what it is and a congratulations to the folks at Ford, who have obviously worked hard to get to this point.

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Take the time to vote

Not many people vote in Texas constitutional elections. This has almost always the case. Despite more ways than ever to find information about the propositions on today's ballot, the issues are often difficult to understand.

Since voting does not end until 7 p.m. tonight, there is still time for you to seek out information, particularly if you have a computer. If you don't there are public computers available such as at the Marshall Public Library.

While we have made endorsements in the election, we really do not care how you cast your vote, we simply want you to exercise your privilege to vote.

Yes, voting is a privilege and not a right. Not everyone is allowed to do it. Unfortunately, especially in constitutional elections, most people simply give up their voice to the minority.

It is our prediction that fewer than 15 percent of the voters will make the decisions today.

That's a travesty and it is not the way a democracy should work. All of you reading this can help change that and you should.