End of road for 4-generation Chrysler dealer

Yahoo (AP) ^ | 6/13/09 | SHARON COHEN

[DemforBush]

HOBART, Ind. – At the end of the 81-year marriage, the Isaksons said goodbye by turning off the lights. The partnership was over.

The Chrysler sign went dark.

It was an unceremonious finale to a four-generation bond between one family and one company, but it was not a surprise. Rob Isakson had known for weeks his dealership was on a Chrysler hit list — the cuts were part of the troubled automaker's survival strategy...

[JLS]

As with most banking panic, prices were falling in the 1930s due to a collapse in the money supply. For example what cost $100 in 1929 cost $75.69 in 1933.

Some people saw the symptom declining prices and thought it was the disease. Including among such people were the Dims newly in control of Congress and the White House So they enacted the National Recovery Act that essentially made price competition a crime. By 1935 the SCOTUS had found the National Recovery Act and its industrial “codes of fair competition” unconstitutional.

Here is a link to the wikipedia page on the National Recovery Administration set up by the act:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration

[eyedigress]

Thank you for your concise interpretion, I figured it was the use of Atomic Ethyl that would have done it. :^)

[JLS]

Hmm, “Atomic,” I wonder if that means that sign was post WWII? I bet it does.

[eyedigress]

ta

[eyedigress]

If not, that gas company is giving away secrets only hitler is privy to.

[freeandfreezing]

The owners have the best houses in town in the best neighborhoods having lived on extravagant markups for decades

But the supposed reason that the dealers are being closed is that they create so much price competition that the other dealers can't make any money!

I think your assessment of the situation is closer to reality than the government's.

As a manufacturer there is no logical reason to close independent retail outlets that sell your product.