Posted on 10/30/2009 6:47:35 AM PDT by FromLori
Last night we were shocked to see that The White House was using its blog to tear into car website Edmunds.com over some analysis it did of Cash-For-Clunkers. To recap: Edmunds.com says the program was a gigantic waste with little effect. The White House disagrees.
Anyway, Edmunds is sticking by its analysis, and it put out the following press release:
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — October 29, 2009 — Today the Department of Transportation and White House chose to respond to an analysis Edmunds.com released Wednesday that looked at auto sales this year and what sales volumes would have been had the popular Cash for Clunkers program never existed.
At issue is one point of the analysis showing the taxpayer cost for every incremental vehicle sold was $24,000. To be clear, Edmunds.com is not disputing the government's statements regarding total voucher applications, vehicles sold or voucher values. The key question is how many of these sales would have occurred anyway.
Apparently, the $24,000 figure caught many by surprise. It shouldn't have. The truth is that consumer incentive programs are always hugely expensive when calculated by incremental sales — always in the tens of thousands of dollars. Cash for Clunkers was no exception.
The White House claims that our analysis was based on car sales on Mars and that on Earth, the marketplace is connected. We agree the marketplace is connected. In fact, that is exactly the basis of our analysis.
It is also claimed we missed
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Is your tagline from the Department of Redundancy Department? ;-P
But wait its not over... If I remember correctly the $8000 incentive to by a house will run out at the end of November. One would expect the real estate market to react with a big dip after that. Again this will be timed to the winter months which are traditionally the slow period. Large good which sales are often tied to house sales, ( new appliances and such) should also see a dip. 4Q09 and 1Q10 are going to be messy.
If the program cost $24,000 per car and the max payout per car was $7,500 if I remember, where did the $17,500 go?
Go get’em Edmunds!
These arrogant Marxist A**HOLES are pissing everyone off!
I would love to be able to demonstrate the lack of biz background on these czars...is there someplace that delineates their "experience"?
The proof is in the Q4 numbers. Can anyone say Cash for Christmas?
Keep printing.....
I think some of the little girls in my neighborhood could and would take him on.
“He’ll try to blame Bush as being a skinny little muslim racist black kid from Kenya, he’s got no game himself.”
A breath of fresh air! Don’t stop! Thank you!
Listening to Zero crow about the “recovery” on the news this am (I try to avoid listening to him whenever possible) I wondered what he will say when the numbers plummet again.
This is not over, not by a long shot. It is unsustainable. Ridiculous! It’s all politics to that bunch and it makes me want to vomit.
What they mean is that only a small portion of the car sales were “stimulated” by CfC. Without that payout, those (few) sales would not have occurred. The vast majority of sales were to folks who would have bought soon anyhow, so the CfC money just sweetened the deal they already planned to make.
So, if you spread the cost of the program over the number of sales that would otherwise not have been made, it comes out to $24,000 per sale.
“Large good which sales are often tied to house sales, ( new appliances and such) should also see a dip.”
There will be a Cash For Appliances program.
This SHIT has to stop!
The clunker seller can expect a “nice” tax bill???
It seems exactly like Hugh Chavez. Every slight must be responded to in the most heavy-handed manner they can get away with.
Cars that would have sold anyway, without the govt funds.
Plus Overhead... who knows?
There already is a Cash for Appliances program, its “Energy Star” appliances and its much smaller than the car and house things.
Total $$ of incentives)/(incremental car sales over those that would have been bought without the incentive)
In other words, people who were going to buy a car without any incentive received an incentive even though they were going to buy a new car anyway. Those $$ did nothing to increase car sales.
The cost of a real brought forward car purchase is a major multiple of the incentive plus it takes sales from the next quarter. Most sales people know that end of quarter discounts mean that they are going to be behind the 8 ball in the first month or so of the next quarter. Incentives only work where there is significant pent up demand and/or there is a possibility of shifting the entire demand curve to the right.
The presumed goal was to drive sales to more efficient vehicles. However, the savings from increased fuel efficiency of a newer vehicle are of marginal value. For someone driving 12000 miles per year, the difference between 20 and 30 mpg amounts to 200 gallons of gas per year or between $400 and $600. Taxes on a new $15000 car in Massachusetts are $750 plus the increase in excise taxes plus immediate 30% depreciation!! People are not as stupid as the government “experts” think we are.
N.B. Note that if you drove more miles per year the savings would be greater -— BUT you would probably have to buy a reliable car sooner anyway.
I have a rule of thumb that 10% of any population are really gullible (higher if you are a greenie). The Edmund’s analysis indicates that I am just about right.
This is another really, really stupid “green inspired” policy. I am betting that the suckers (i.e., those lured into buying a vehicle by the incentive) were primarily tree-huggers.
Will THIS? meet staNDIng requirments for BO Eligibility suits ??
...Let's make it a viral kind of question.....
I guess if you ran an op-ed mildy critical of Barry in the Eephus County Farmer’s Reporter, Pennysaver and Gazette, that someone in the White House war room is going to find it and start unloading on you.
I predict this is going to backfire big-time. Americans have no stomach for petty political bullying 24/7/365.
what’s Kelly’s say?
used Obama presidency worth about jackshite..
WSJ: IRS Examining Many Suspicious First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Claims
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2366271/posts
Tying it Together: Massive, Pernicious Fraud
The entire finance and real-estate “industry” is filled with massive, pernicious fraud, and we now have only one question remaining - will The Government do its lawful and mandated job, that of prosecuting the bad actors, or has it joined with the fraudsters, become one with them, and thus, declare itself as a gang of mobsters rather than a legitimate government? The latter, of course will beg only the question of what should be an ordinary American’s response.
http://market-ticker.org/archives/1514-Tying-It-Together-Massive,-Pernicious-Fraud.html
Four-Year Old Buys House With Federal Money
http://www.businessinsider.com/four-year-old-buys-a-house-with-stimulus-money-2009-10
$35 Billion Slated for Local Housing
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125409967771945213.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us
Well-Heeled Abuse Shelter Implicated in NYC Housing Scam
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/roberts/091022
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