$12B....$40B...who cares....it's all just paper and merely a rounding error for the USA.
There is no # currently available on what the GM Bailout will cost as it is not 'over'. US will unwind it's GM position of the next 12-15 months, hoping for at least a $27.50 price.
Good luck, Timmah.
US dealer inventories continue to RISE. Not a good sign. Fortunately for the bean counters at GM, they do not care because once a car leaves a factory lot and moves to a dealer lot, it is counted as a SALE.
And on the financial news networks, the pretty blondes are all too happy to report that GM or Ford or overall motor vehicle sales INCREASED for the month.
But, if one was to use their brain and look at the MoM (month over month) charts of DEALER INVENTORY, one would see that sales to the actual PUBLIC have been declining OR factory production has increased or both.
So, what does GM do? Either cuts production - shutting down factories or cuts profitability - offering zero % terms or hefty incentives or both.
Hmmmmm.....
In passenger cars, its Chevrolet Cruze inventory jumped to 64,390 vehicles or 96 days. One of the two plants that GM will idle this month produces the Cruze.
but......
Chrysler has offered up to $5,000 off its Ram pickups, which had 3.5 months of inventory to start the month. GM has recently offered between $2,900 and $3,500 in average incentives for its vehicles, according to Truecar.com.
GM is doing BOTH. Cutting production and profitability per unit sold.
Why? If things are soooo glorious at GM? Why?
Duff - please. It is not 1950 anymore. You can not take a snapshot of the economy in 1950 and paste it on 2012 and say here, do this.
You can not claim that just by reverting to the Clinton tax rates that the US deficit will be fixed.
Aside from the tax rates, Al Gore would have to reinvent the internet and the 5 million jobs the internet boom created and then destroyed as well as having Alan Greenspan embark on his first voyage of ZIRP.
US was able to manage it's deficit after WWII because of its manufacturing base and being a net creditor, not a debtor. The US effectively destroyed any mfg competition by destroying Japan and half of Europe. If anyone wanted ANYTHING built, it was going to be built in the good ole US of A.
The US also did not have a burgeoning entitlement crowd to handle in 1950.
It is a different time and it is unsustainable.
Tax code reform; entitlement reform; spending reform; defense spending reform; military aggression reform; foreign aid reform;
As Lumi would say:
Peas on Earth - have a good holiday.
