CHART OF THE DAY: The Amazing Cash-For-Clunkers Cliff Dive

Business Insider ^

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The CFC program was supposed to help kick start the moribund auto industry. Someone forgot that you need some gas in the tank, to keep it running after starting up. /mangling metaphors

[South40]

Just another egg laid by the turkey in the oval office.

'Cash for Clunkers’ a $3 billion boondoggle

[freekitty]

What’s amazing is they would take perfectly good cars and destroy them. I do wonder if a portion or more of these cars found thier way to illegal markets in other countries?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yep. Multiplier effect is almost nil.

[dennisw]

Home sales are up due to the %8000 tax rebate. Maybe they fall off a cliff too when rebate expires on Dec 1 2009

[TigerLikesRooster]

Apparently, all multipliers effect of any kind are almost zero in current economy. Money velocity is also close to zero.

Under Zero, we can surely enjoy many cliff divings to come.

[Grizzled Bear]

I wonder what a chart plotting the entire calender year of automobile repossessions from Jan - Dec 2009 will look like.

[dennisw]

PLUS the last big spender is the Feral government. Everyone else is on a diet. But Feral spending via clunkers and house buying does stimulate the consumer to get in on the freebie. This ends abruptly when the sale is over

Same is happening with businesses these days
Having a big sale will not bring back these same customers once the sale is over. They are simply there to get cheap stuff and run

[dennisw]

I wonder what a chart plotting the entire calender year of automobile repossessions from Jan - Dec 2009 will look like. ...........

And do it by zip codes. That would be entertaining

[LibWhacker]

Was watching the Mechum Auto auction tonight and they were saying all those clunkers have to be crushed by law, which will permanently drive up the price of collectibles in the future. So... if you’re inclined to buy one, now’s the time; you’ll never see such low prices again. ‘Course, I know they’re just trying to sell cars, so I don’t know if that’s all true... but... it does kind of make sense to me. Some of those cars tonight looked great — and the prices were great, too. Darn... wish I had a big dry barn and lots of spare cash!

[taxesareforever]

I did hear of dealers who paid the rebate money to new vehicle buyers and kept the used car for reselling. Talk about real captitalism working. Take that Cash for Clunkers program. I’ll bet there are lots of dealers who wish they would have gone this route. And really, what’s stopping them from continuing this on their own? There is no reason for them to stop.

[Iron Munro]

It’ll be a Blue Christmas at Government Motors.

[momincombatboots]

This needs a Duh tag! I will be interested in seeing the trend for the next six months LOL. I think it will be a relative flat- line. It’s not like you purchase one every six months. Hey congress- thanks for listening to solutions and picking the best one /sarc. How is this affecting the states? Are the folks who went back to work getting their unemployment benes renewed?

[Jagman]

Looks like obama has pissed away “all” of that pent-up demand,and just in time for the holidays! Now, with Saturn looking more like Uranus everyday, the auto sector's in tall cotton!

mmm mmmmm mmm...

[Travis McGee]

Well gee, let’s just print more money and pass it out!

[Wyatt's Torch]

Anyone who did not think that auto sales in August were merely a pull forward of future demand knows nothing about economics and markets.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Home sales are up due to the %8000 tax rebate. Maybe they fall off a cliff too when rebate expires on Dec 1 2009

I was at a "Housing Summit" sponsored by a Wall Street analyst last week and every builder there knows that demand will fall off substantially after the expiration of the credit. that being said, many of the policy panelists and economists believe that there is a greater than 50% chance of the credit being extended by Congress.

[Gritty]

One word... Bush'sFault!