Ford Motor Company (FMC) is an American automotive manufacturer with more than 100 years of industrial experience. Major competitors in the United States (US) include General Motors (GM) and Chrysler Corporation (CC). At the height of the 2008 global financial crisis, these three automakers faced possible bankruptcy. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was created in 2008 by the U.S. government to provide financing to private sector companies on the brink of bankruptcy. The stated goal of this social intervention was to protect the US economy from devastation. Horton (2009, p. 221) argued that this type of government intervention in the free market economy was a historical mistake that stifled competition and both economic and legal luminaries. agree that this approach constitutes an obstacle to economic growth. It is widely known that the 2008 crisis resulted from unethical behavior in the subprime mortgage market. The question facing FMC leaders at that juncture was whether or not to accept the TARP funds. In the following sections, I will demonstrate why this was an ethical dilemma and provide an incisive analysis of how FMC used this pivotal moment to transform the company into one of the world's leading ethical companies. Ethical decision making at FMCA according to Ferguson (2012, p. 230) FMC aims to become the world leader in quality, safety and sustainability. FMC's repeated demonstration of ethical leadership has pushed the company from the brink of bankruptcy in 2006 to an enviable dominant position in today's automotive industry. How did they manage to achieve such a phenomenal breakthrough? First, in 2006 they mortgaged most of their valuable assets. Then, in 2008, they didn't accept the TARP funds. Their count… midway through the paper… would resign as CEO of the automaker. New York Times. Retrieved June 15, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/business/05cnd-ford.html?_r=0Modica, M. (2014). Why some Americans will never buy a GM vehicle. National legal and political center. Retrieved June 14, 2014, from http://nlpc.org/stories/2012/06/14/why-13-americans-will-never-purchase-gm-vehiclePriester v. Ford Motor Company, 131 United States Supreme Court. 1570, 179 L. Ed. 2d 471 (2011). Rinallo, D., Basuroy, S., Wu, R., & Jeon, H. J. (2013). The media and their advertisers: Exploring ethical dilemmas in product coverage decisions. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(3), 425-441. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1353-zSelart, M., & Johansen, S. T. (2011). Ethical decision making in organizations: The role of leadership stress. Journal of Business Ethics, 99(2), 129-143. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0649-0