LATE last year, when the federal government kept General Motors and Chrysler afloat with some $17 billion in loans, Ford demurred, saying that it was in reasonably good shape and could get by with no more than a government credit line, which it has yet to tap. Hard to believe that will remain the case. Ford reported a larger than expected fourth-quarter loss of nearly $6 billion and said that it blew through $5.5 billion in cash during the quarter (though its "cash burn" rate is down from nearly $8 billion in the third quarter, and I appreciate that we're no longer dancing around the fact that these firms may as well just be setting their money—or the government's money—on fire).

Ford says it can make it without help (though plenty of others are sceptical), and the firm says the road to profitability in 2011 is still clear. But something is going to have to give. Every carmaker in the world is hurting. And just about every other major industry out there is contracting. There is an enormous inventory overhang, and way too much productive capacity, given the near-term outlook for car sales. Somebody has to go down.

And I suspect that when one or several of the American carmakers are forced to return to the government for aid, the reaction may be somewhat different than it was last year. If the American economy was on a knife edge in December (and really, it wasn't), then it has already tumbled off, and the possibility of a million lost jobs is, well, it doesn't have the same scary sound in a world where multiple companies are announcing tens of thousands of layoffs every day. Everyone is in trouble, government resources are scarce, and there are better things to do with taxpayer money than keep crumbling enterprises alive for a few more months.

And so despite this bad news, Ford must feel all right about itself. Billion dollar losses or no, it's still the healthiest American carmaker. And if (when) its competitors go down, Ford will find itself in a much improved market position.

(Photo credit: Reuters)