Maven: Breathless Over Ford in China

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The Business Press Maven is a soul consumed with spotting and publicly mocking how even the best business publications consistently overlook the most basic tenets of economics. I hope to be greeted at the gates of heaven by thankful investors or angry business journalists. Either way, a life well lived.

Take this morning's Wall Street Journal ... pu-lease.

In a B1 story on how expansion into China is Ford's Flatest, greatest hope, the Journal swallows nearly all of Ford's claims about its ambitions in China. In The Business Press Maven's unhumble opinion, this is not quite a company that has earned the benefit of the doubt. But that's not even the oversight that stuck in my teeth like a raspberry seed.

While mentioning breathlessly that General Motors GM and DaimlerChrysler DCX are also focusing on the Chinese market "as the ranks of the Chinese middle class swell," and allowing William Clay Ford Jr. to opine that "there's going to be no market like China for us," and "we're barely scratching the surface in China," the Journal makes a remarkable mistake.

"In the first nine months of the year," the Journal writes, between the "swell" line and Mr. Ford's assurance that ain't nothing going to be as good as China, "Ford's sales there have more than doubled from the same period in 2005."

Having read this, The Business Press Maven naturally looked for mention of what the base of sales was during that comparable period of 2005. In other words, did they sell a billion cars and are they now selling 2 billion? Or did they sell four cars and are they hitting stride this year with eight? The difference seems meaningful, no?

I looked for the answer, surprised not to see it near the mention of the sales increase. And I looked. And looked. I sipped some coffee, upped my morning psycho-pharmaceutical intake and looked again.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zippo.

Of course, later in this prominently displayed press release, the Journal does tell us that Mr. Ford cares deeply about green technology. And the story ends letting Mr. Ford proclaim his "faith" that his company will survive. "We've been through good times and we've been through tough times before," he is quoted saying in the kicker, "and I believe we'll get through this."

I don't know about that. I just can't believe I got through this article without learning whether a doubling in sales meant a billion cars sold or four. Investors, do not buy when progress is not documented. Journal, back to Economics 101 for you. And bad stenographers, bad!