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Ford Motor reported record third-quarter net income Tuesday, far exceeding analyst expectations and continuing a surge in momentum for the recovering automaker.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford (F, Fortune 500) posted net income of $1.7 billion, or 43 cents per share, up from $997 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Ford to report a 38-cent-a-share profit.

Ford’s previous best third-quarter net income was $1.1 billion reported in 1997.

The automaker cited a strong product line, momentum in North America and continued success at Ford Credit as areas of growth.

"It’s been the same story all year long," said David Whiston, an automotive analyst at Morningstar. "Better pricing in North America, and that offsets the small losses in Europe. The North American market is a real earnings driver."

Ford also announced plans to further strengthen its balance sheet by paying down its revolving credit line by $2 billion and prepay the remaining $3.6 billion in debt owed to a retiree health care trust.

"Ford sales continue to surge due to a stronger product lineup and improved consumer image," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of auto trends at TrueCar.com, in a statement. "Their retail sales are strong and transaction prices have been increasing this year, contributing to an improved bottom-line for the automaker."

Shares of Ford were flat in Tuesday trading, rebounding from a loss of about 1% earlier in the session. The automaker’s stock has soared seven fold since February 2009 when it fell below $2 a share.

At the time, there were serious fears that it could follow General Motors and Chrysler down the road to bankruptcy and restructuring.

Ford avoided that fate, but its success left it with far more debt on its balance sheet than either GM or Chrysler, which used their bankruptcies and bailout billions to shed debt.

Now that Ford is once again turning a profit, it is using the surplus cash to pay down its debt, which will result in lower interest payments and eventually an improved credit rating.

"We are clearly ahead of where we thought we could be on improving our balance sheet, repaying our loans, and it’s a very positive development," CEO Alan Mulally said during a conference call for investors.

Ford’s debt will be reduced by $10.8 billion this year, Mulally said, which should result in savings of $800 million in annualized interest payments.

Ford’s profitability has been accompanied by gains in market share. In the third quarter, Ford gained 1.4% in U.S. sales market share, while GM lost ground. And for the year, Ford is ahead of rival Toyota in U.S. sales.

That success is due in large part to Mulally’s restructuring of the company that resulted in strong sales and reduced costs in North America.

"Because of our cost structure, we could not make small and medium-sized cars in the United States, and actually make them profitably," Mulally told CNN’s Ali Velshi. "So we went to work with all of the stakeholders, including the UAW [United Auto Workers], and we have a transformation agreement now where we can make cars in the United States and compete with the best in the world."

The third quarter is typically weak for automakers as they discount and clear old inventory to make room for new models.

Ford expressed belief that the winning streak will continue, expecting increases in both cash flow and profitability in 2011.

"The key drivers for improvement in 2011 will be our growing product strength, a gradually strengthening economy and an unrelenting focus on improving the competitiveness of all our operations," Mulally said in a statement.

But the automaker noted that fourth-quarter profit expectations are lower than previous quarters due to depreciation expenses on leased vehicles and smaller improvements in the provision for credit losses.

On Monday, Ford said it will create up to 1,200 jobs in the distressed state of Michigan as it ramps up engineering and manufacturing operations to produce more fuel-efficient cars. 

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Ohio’s top law enforcement official, firing another shot across the bow of Ally Financial, asked a judge on Friday to stop the sale of foreclosed homes in cases that relied on faulty paperwork.

State Attorney General Richard Cordray sued the lender last week, alleging that the bank and its employees had signed and filed at least hundreds and potentially thousands of false affidavits in foreclosure cases.

The cornerstone of the state’s case is the testimony of Jeffrey Stephan, who has admitted to signing thousands of affidavits on Ally’s behalf without person knowledge of the facts of each case, as required by law.

Ally has previously announced that it was temporarily suspending evictions and post-foreclosure closings in the 23 states in which judges must sign off before someone loses their home.

The company, previously known as GMAC, the finance arm of General Motors, has also hired outside accounting and legal firms to examine its foreclosure procedures in all 50 states.

But Cordray, who has been among the nation’s most aggressive attorney generals on the issue of robo-signing, alleges that Ally is not acting to slow the foreclosure process in any meaningful way.

"GMAC is generally not moving to vacate the fraudulently obtained judgments. Indeed, often GMAC counsel is telling the courts that soon they expect to again request that the applicable Sheriffs sell the properties and evict the homeowners," according to a request for an injunction filed by Cordray Friday.

For its part, Ally denies it is proceeding with sales.

"GMAC Mortgage is not proceeding with foreclosure sales in Ohio using defective affidavits, spokesman Jim Olecki said in a statement. "We announced weeks ago that we were suspending evictions and foreclosure sales in the 23 judicial states, including Ohio, until a review was conducted and any needed remediation activity was completed in those affected cases."

On Wednesday, the top prosecutors in all 50 states announced a coordinated probe into improper foreclosures by the nation’s largest loan servicers, but stopped short of calling for a freeze on all foreclosures.

The group of attorneys general and bank regulators will work to put an immediate stop to improper mortgage foreclosure practices. It will also review past and present practices by loan servicers and come up with potential remedies. 

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Oakland International Airport broke ground Friday on a new traffic control tower, funded by federal stimulus dollars.

The airport got a grant of $33.2 million to build the new structure, a 236-foot-tall tower with a 13,000-square-foot base building.

The FAA expects to start using the new tower in 2013.

“This brand new, modernized tower will give air traffic controllers a better view of the airfield and help improve airport efficiency,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.

Oakland currently uses two air traffic control towers. A 158-foot-tall tower on the southern portion of the airfield was built in 1962 as a part of a terminal expansion project. In 1972, construction of a large hangar blocked some views from the south tower, requiring the Port of Oakland to build a second tower to handle traffic on the north runways.

Replacing both towers with a single one will improve air traffic operations and reduce operating costs, the airport said.

The new tower will feature environmentally friendly elements, including a covered parking structure with solar panels, which will provide power for the tower and its electrical systems. The tower also will have a geothermal heating system and a rainwater storage system.

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MobileIron on Tuesday named Jim Buckley chief financial officer.

The Mountain View company focuses on mobile device management and security.

MobileIron said Buckley has more than 30 years experience with both early- and late-stage companies as well as initial public offerings.

He was formerly CFO of Dash Navigation, a portable navigation device company acquired by Research in Motion; and of Airespace, a wireless networking company that was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc.

Click here to read the press release.

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The latest Ponzi scheme to be alleged in South Florida is that of two Miami-based foreign exchange companies called Coravca Distributions LLC and Timeline Trading Corp.

The companies were placed into receivership Sept. 16 by Miami Dade County Circuit Judge Gill S. Freeman.The receiver, Amir Isaiah, is an accountant with Kaufman Rossin & Co.

According to a court complaint filed in the case, a group of business people led by Rosa Villaroel and Deigo Corado are alleged to have told investors they could make huge profits by trading Venezuelan and U.S. currency.

Coravca may have shut its Miami operations and reopened in Panama as Timeline Trading.

Although a total amount of money has not been estimated yet, attorneys and investigators on the case say the firms distributed at least $9 million during the month of August 2010 alone, purportedly as return on investment.

A press release Friday from the receiver’s law firm, Broad & Cassel, said there may be 2,000 investors in 11 states and 12 countries – California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Panama and Venezuela.

The release said the case was a classic Ponzi scheme, whereby investors were promised high rates of return on their investments, but instead of their investment capital being used for legitimate investments, they were used to fund their personal expenses and pay disguised “returns” to earlier investors.

The order naming Isaiah receiver also provides for an asset freeze over the named defendants and prevents all third parties, including victims, from interfering with the duties and responsibilities of the receiver.

The receiver’s website is www.coravcareceiver.com.

Initial attempts to locate the defendants or their attorneys were not successful.

News of this Ponzi allegation came the same day as Debra Villegas, Scott W. Rothstein’s onetime COO, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for her role in his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

Among other recent Ponzi news:

• Jeweler Luis Felipe Perez, 38, of Fort Lauderdale, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in connection with a $40 million Ponzi scheme.
• Nevin Shapiro, once among the biggest boosters of University of Miami athletics, pleaded guilty Wednesday in New Jersey to running an $880 million Ponzi scheme linked to his purported wholesale grocery distribution business.
• Several lawsuits accused Miami-based marketing firm Brican America of swindling thousands of doctors and dentists nationwide – an accusation an attorney for its leaders has denied.

In addition, Bernie Madoff found many South Florida victims for his $65 billion Ponzi scheme, which has been called the largest in history. He is expected to serve the rest of his life in prison.

Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who had a key office in Miami, was accused of leading a $7 billion Ponzi. On Monday, a federal judge in Houston was asked to dismiss all charges against him because of “defects” in the government’s case, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported.

South Florida has a long history of major fraud cases, which were highlighted in this article marking the 30th anniversary of the South Florida Business Journal.

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Mylan Inc. subsidiary Matrix Laboratories Ltd. has received tentative government approval for atazanavir sulfate capsules, an AIDS treatment that will be available in some developing countries, the company announced Tuesday.

Atazanavir sulfate capsules are the generic version of Bristol Myers Squibb's Reyataz capsules, which are used in combination with other medications to control HIV infection. Unlike currently available protease inhibitors, atazanavir offers the advantages of once-daily dosing and a distinctive resistance profile, which may result in fewer metabolic complications. Until now, a generic version of this product has not been made widely available in developing countries payday loan lenders.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Matrix's application for the product under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS. The approval means the product meets the agency's standards for manufacturing quality, safety and efficacy.

On Monday, Mylan subsidiary Bioniche Pharma announced it has received approval to market the leukemia treatment fludarabine phosphate.

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Ever wonder what happened to your high school valedictorian? He or she might just have wound up in Washington, D.C. That metro area has the nation’s highest percentage of residents with college degrees.

Call it America’s brainiest place to live.

In the District and surrounding suburbs, 47.3% of people 25 years or older have bachelor’s, master’s, professional school or doctorate degrees, according to new Census Bureau data released Tuesday. The national average barely tips 25%.

The figures don’t surprise John Schmitt, senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in D.C. The city is built on jobs that require degrees.

"There’s a very high share of federal government employees here," he said, "and people dealing with the federal government, including defense contractors, lobbyists, businesses that want to influence the regulatory process; there’s lots of lawyers."

"Clearly, the biggest factor is still the presence of federal government jobs," he added. "But a lot of people in the 20s and 30s come here interested in public policy. There’s an excitement about being in Washington, especially among young people who want to make a difference in the world."

In second-place San Francisco, 43.5% of residents have college degrees or better; San Jose, Calif., the hub of Silicon Valley, ranked third at 43.2%; and Raleigh, N.C., one of the points in that state’s "Research Triangle," came in fourth at 42.2%.

Boston, where so many great universities are located, also boasts 42.2% of its population having a degree.

Of course, salaries in those towns are also higher than the national average. That’s because a highly educated population is a key to growth and prosperity. Washington, D.C., for example, has the highest median household income of any metro area of more than 1 million residents.

"There’s a very high correlation between earnings and educational attainment," said Todd Gabe, an economics professor at the University of Maine. .

Cities also tend to specialize in the kinds of educated residents they attract. San Jose, for example, has a high percentage of residents whose degrees are in computer science or information technology.

That works great for those cities where degrees lead to high-paying jobs. But other areas may have just as many college-educated but salaries can be lower than you’d expect because the degrees are in lower paying fields like teaching or journalism.

"Some types of knowledge are much more highly compensated than others," said Gabe.

Many other "creative class" types — the artists, web designers, innovative business entrepreneurs and other thinkers — also tend to coalesce around cities with an educated population.

Places like New York, where 35.6% of over-25 population have degrees, exemplify that kind of city, as does Los Angeles (30.2%) and San Diego (30.6%).

The metro areas with the lowest levels of educational attainment tend to be the "Building or Comforting Regions," as coined by a Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto study.

Comforting Regions include resorts areas such as Las Vegas, which cater to vacationers, and where the percentage of residents with degrees is only 21.5%.

One good example of a Building city is Riverside, Calif., where only 19.2% of the population has degrees. When residential development was in full flower, there were good paying jobs available to construction workers and others without degrees.

Since the bust, however, the unemployment rate there has jumped to nearly 15% and income has declined. The median household income dropped more than 6% in 2009 to $53,815.

Other less educated populations are in Memphis, Tenn. (24.2%), Tampa, Fla. (24.6%), and San Antonio (24.8%). 

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