Here is some background for Brian White's liveblogging of Ford's (NYSE: F) second quarter earning results:

Ford surprised the market by announcing black ink for the second quarter of 2007, with net income of $750 million, or $0.31 EPS on $44 billion revenue, which was a 6% increase over 2006 2nd quarter.

Unfortunately the increase in revenue was primarily due to currency exchange, mix and net pricing improvements -- sales volume actually was lower than 2006. The profit was due in part to cost reductions of $600 million, including the elimination of 6,400 jobs.

Backing out special items, mostly the sale of Aston Martin and deferred gains on certain hedges at Jaguar and Land Rover, and profits finished at $258 million, or $0.13 EPS. The paltry earnings won't do much to excite a market convinced that the company has taken only the first few initial steps in their climb back to economic viability.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) reported its fourth quarter numbers and they were a bit confusing. Many headlines read GM reports a $950 million profit. A headline like this gives investors a bit of comfort. Could it be that GM has seen its worst days and is ready to forge forward with revenue and earnings growth? Not likely.

GM really reported a paltry profit of $180 million. The other $770 million was a one-time sale item related to its GMAC transaction. I say a paltry profit of $180 million because in relation to the massive $51 billion of revenues, this translates to 0.35% operating profit. It is the equivalent of a rounding error on that revenue base.

So where does GM go from here? The management team is working hard to right the ship but external items continue to hurt it. The consumer spending, which GM relies so heavily on, is tenuous at best. With adjustable-rate-mortgages (ARM's) kicking in to higher payments for consumers, the auto industry is hurt by this. The consumer confidence is also at a bit of a low which does not give confidence to the auto makers.

It's probably old news already to most of you but it bears repeating that Mazda, a division of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), has announced that it shall completely scrap all 4,703 vehicles which were on board the ill fated Cougar Ace freighter that ran into trouble off the coast of Alaska on July 23, 2006. Initially, Mazda had announced that the vehicles would not be sold as new but left the matter open for discussion pending investigation by corporate engineers and others.

While this scrapping of vehicles is certainly a kick in the pants to Mazda and its insurers, it shows me that Mazda and its parent company, Ford, don't consider short-term profit to be paramount to long-term company image and consumer perception. It's possible that Mazda could have marketed all those 4,703 vehicles as "not like new" and never had a problem, but it's equally likely that such a move could have come back to bite them in a major way. I applaud this decision. Kudos to Mazda and Ford.

On a different note, Mazda has just made delivery of its first two gasoline / hydrogen rotary powered automobiles. These RX-8 Hydrogen RE cars allow the driver to choose between the two fuels "on the fly." The rotary power plants have long been a staple of Mazda engineering and from what I read in the blogosphere, Mazda enthusiasts are quite pleased with them. The vehicles have been leased to corporate fleet customers in Japan and will be closely monitored as a part of the Japan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Demonstration Project. Both the manufacturers and the recipients are very pleased with this accomplishment.

Read more about this Mazda accomplishment at www.autoblog.com

I've owned quite a number of cars made by the Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) over time and they've all been good ones. I had a 1968 Galaxy which was as beautiful as it was a joy to drive. I've had several F-150's and there wasn't a loser in the bunch. My wife had an Escort which gave us a quarter million miles. If we had put new tires and front wheel bearings on it, I think we would have gotten another 50 thousand good miles from it, possibly more. It was a good, stout little ride. My wife still misses that car.

The reason I'm writing about Ford is to address a simple question. Why has Ford stock taken such a sound thrashing over the last two years? In 2004, Ford stock was happily playing around in the range of $12 to $16 a share. In 2005, a steady decline began. Ford shares had started '05 just in range of $14 but ended the year near a miserable $8 a share. The picture has not improved for 2006. After dipping as low as $6.06 this year, a bit of recovery has occurred, however unsatisfactory. Ford shares have nipped at $9.50 within the last 52 weeks but they rest at an uncomfortable $8.18 at the end of yesterday's trading. I've looked and searched and asked around. No one has provided a truly solid answer to my simple question of why Ford shares been beaten down so badly.

If no one can provide me sound reason why Ford stock is performing so poorly, then there's only one thing I can do. I must paint you a picture of why Ford's stock deserves better treatment, so here it is from me to you.