VELSHI: Ford has its blue oval back. On Tuesday, Moody's Investors Services raised the automaker's credit rating from junk to investment grade. By the way, those are people you're looking at celebrating the return of the blue oval. Ford was forced to put up the rights to its logo and other assets as collateral in 2006. When the company restructured its debt and that move allowed Ford to avoid bankruptcy. If Ford had declared bankruptcy after that, the logo, the ability to market itself as Ford would have been up for sale. Six years later, they have climbed out of its economic hole thanks to years of strong profits. I spoke with the Executive Chairman Bill Ford and asked him what the upgrade to the credit rating means for Ford.</s>WILLIAM FORD, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, FORD MOTOR COMPANY: What it does for us is ultimately it will allow us to borrow cheaper and allow more people to own our bonds because we're investment grade. It's really a reaffirmation by Moody's that our plan is working and they anticipate it will continue to keep working. There was a pit in my stomach when we had to pledge those assets and sign those papers. Those aren't just cold, hard assets. Those are about as emotional as it can get for me, my family and the employees of this company. But we felt it was the right thing to do, because we had a plan. We had a really good management team, and I believed all along that it would work. The only question was, would the economy get so bad that our plan wouldn't be able to take hold? But fortunately, our plan did take hold and we've clawed our way back and we're in very good shape now.</s>VELSHI: Bill Ford remains optimistic about Ford's growth, especially in Asia and the Americas. You can see more of that interview on our web site, cnn.com/yourmoney. Thanks for joining the conversation this week on YOUR MONEY. We are here every Saturday 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 3:00. Stay connected to us 24/7 on Twitter. My handle is @alivelshi, the show is @cnnyourmoney. Have yourself a fantastic Memorial Day weekend.
Ford Gets Its Logo Back