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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with the earnings at Ford.
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INSKEEP: And there are a lot of earnings. The country's second-largest automaker, Ford Motor, announced that it made 6.6 billion dollars last year. That is the highest profit since 1999. Ford has been reshaping itself, lowering costs and focusing on new models. Last year, its sales in the United States grew nearly 20 percent compared with 11 percent for the industry as a whole.