Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis Fri 2010-07-16 18:59 EDT

Expect Second-Half Housing and Durable Goods Crash

Michael Shedlock

Those who think manufacturing is going to lead the way to a sustainable recovery need to think again. Data suggest durable goods sales are about to collapse...if consumers are not going to be buying appliances (or cars according recent surveys), and if commercial real estate is going to remain in the dumps, technology spending is likely unsustainable, and states will be laying off workers to balance budgets, pray tell where is the second half growth or jobs coming from? Here's a hint: Don't expect miracles from further stimulus either. The current Congress is not much in the mood and the next Congress is likely to be downright hostile to significantly more deficit spending. All things considered, earnings estimates and the stock market are both priced well beyond perfection, as are forward GDP estimates.

Durable Goods Crash; expectations; Housing; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Culture of Life News Fri 2010-03-12 07:51 EST

Toyota Tears Of Regret

Elaine Supkis

Toyota decided long ago during the push to force Japan to open the doors to imports from the US to balance Toyota exports to the US, that they would colonize the US by opening factories here. This allowed them to pocket all the profits while keeping the door open to selling 2-4 million cars every year in the US. This clever move paid off quite handsomely and now many Americans think Toyota is benign and not a major, major cause of the capital drain as well as job drain in the US.

Culture; Life News; regrets; Toyota Tears.

Clusterfuck Nation Sun 2010-01-31 11:40 EST

Marching Toward Zombieland

James Howard Kunstler

...The questions lately revolve around whether the nation is destroying itself by inflation or deflation - by the willful destruction of the value of our currency to evade the repayment of debt, or by the hapless destruction of households, companies, and governments by default and bankruptcy. It's a fire-or-ice debate. Either way the nation is going down as a viable enterprise. The fiction that we can return to a Crate-and-Barrel credit card orgy has sustained the false of heart and mind for some months now, but even that pleasant reverie will come to an end as the foreclosures mount. Only remember, men living in their cars who have lost nearly everything else will still have guns.

Clusterfuck Nation; March; Zombieland.

naked capitalism Thu 2009-11-19 10:49 EST

GMAC has been nationalized

Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns

And you thought the bailouts were over and market discipline might be restored. Not a chance -- the bailouts will continue, come hell or high water. The latest demonstration of this is GMAC, where the government will now be majority owner. GMAC has officially been nationalized. Now the government is running auto financing in addition to running the companies making the cars.

GMAC; naked capitalism; nation.

Wed 2009-10-14 12:36 EDT

Gore Vidal's United States of fury - Americas, World - The Independent

Johann Hari

...Yet now, he says, it is clear the American experiment has been "a failure". It was all for nothing. Soon the country will be ranked "somewhere between Brazil and Argentina, where it belongs." The Empire will collapse militarily in Afghanistan; the nation will collapse internally when Obama is broken "by the madhouse" and the Chinese call in the country's debts. A ruined United States will then be "the Yellow Man's Burden", and "they'll have us running the coolie cars, or whatever it is they have in the way of transport".

America; fury; Gore Vidal's United States; Independent; world.

Dr. Housing Bubble Blog Tue 2009-10-13 20:03 EDT

No Country for Old Jobs: 10 Charts Showing the Fragile Recovery. Home Sales, Buying versus Renting, Unemployment, and Real Economy Data.

...Until jobs start showing up, any talk of a rebounding housing market is moot especially with this entire artificial stimulus still bouncing around the economy. And collapsing tax revenues are not a good sign. I don't buy the jobless recovery argument and the government tends to agree. If all is well, why is the U.S. government and Fed buying $1.25 trillion in agency debt to lower mortgage rates, putting in place an $8,000 tax credit, boosting car sales with gimmicks, encouraging risky low money down loans with FHA insured products, and extending unemployment insurance to a record 92 weeks in states like California? Do these things sounds like policies of a booming economy?

10 Charts Showing; Buying versus Renting; country; Dr. Housing Bubble Blog; Fragile recovery; home Sale; old job; Real Economy Data; unemployment.

The Realignment Project Tue 2009-09-22 12:31 EDT

Making the Public (Transit) Beautiful

One of the rhetorical strategies of the economic right's cultural politics is to associate the free market with individual pleasure, aesthetic beauty, and technological progress, while associating the public sector with the oppression of the crowd, the spartan ugliness of ``civil service issue,'' and general associations with low-quality, outmoded, cheap machinery...the car, a luxury commodity associated with wealth and prestige, is an extension of your (now much cooler) person, it's fast and futuristic, and it's well-designed and new...By contrast, the dominant media image of mass transit plays up its worst qualities as a social nightmare: it's crowded, claustrophobic, there's no privacy and people and bumping into you, it's noisy and smells terrible, maybe it's dangerous, you're getting delayed again, this is what you take to get where you have to go, not where you want to go. And part of the cultural work of the left in championing the cause of the public must be to counter-act this kind of imagery. Because the public can and should be beautiful.

beauty; makes; public; Realignment Project; transition.

Calculated Risk Thu 2009-09-03 11:43 EDT

Houses and Autos: The Cost of a Tax Credit per Additional Units Sold

CalculatedRisk

To calculate the cost of a tax credit per additional unit sold, we need to sum up the total cost of the credit - as an example $2.877 billion for Cash-for-Clunkers according to the Dept. of Transportation - and then divide by the estimated increase in sales because of the credit. Remember some cars or houses would have been sold anyway (even though they still receive the tax credit), but it is the additional sales that matter. That was the purpose of the tax credit! (update: Shnaps notes that the auto credit had an additional benefit of better mileage). Highly inefficient subsidies for home and auto purchases.

Additional Units Sold; auto; Calculated Risk; cost; Housing; Tax credit.

Jesse's Café Américain Thu 2009-08-27 10:45 EDT

'New Deal for Wall Street' Programs Subsidizing Subprime Lenders

Jesse

Welfare for Wall Street is just another phase of the 'trickle down' approach that seems to be so popular with the financerati. If "Cash for Clunkers" had involved subsidized loans for cars administered by the banks it would have been touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread by the coporate media and mainstream infomercials, instead of being slammed on a daily basis as a troubled, pointless giveaway program.

Jesse's Café Américain; new deal; Programs Subsidizing Subprime Lenders; Wall Street.

Wed 2009-05-20 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: China Out to Dominate in Electric Cars (and Why Not GM)

China; dominating; electric car; GM; naked capitalism.

Tue 2009-02-24 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: Quote of the Week

from Jesse: ``Adding liquidity to the banks is as useful as filling the tank of a car wrapped around a telephone pole''

naked capitalism; quote; weekly.

Wed 2009-02-11 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Unsold Car Images From Around The World

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; Unsold Car Images; world.

Wed 2008-12-10 00:00 EST

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Case Shiller and CAR Analysis November 2008 Release

``extremely unlikely that housing bottoms anytime soon''

CAR Analysis November 2008 Release; Case-Shiller; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Sun 2008-08-24 00:00 EDT

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: GM, Ford Seek Taxpayer Bailout

``GM is not really a manufacturing company at all, but rather a subprime lender that sells cars.''

Ford Seek Taxpayer Bailout; GM; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.

Fri 2008-06-13 00:00 EDT

Gas Prices - DO SOMETHING! | The Economic Populist

telecommuting, cheap efficient cars, biodiesel, public transport

economic populist; gas price.

Wed 2008-05-14 00:00 EDT

Tax assessors boggled by housing dip | ajc.com

Tax assessors boggled by housing dip, by D. L. Bennett | ajc.com; "For less than the price of a decent used car, you can buy a home in Atlanta today."

ajc; com; housing dip; tax Assessors boggled.

Thu 2008-03-27 00:00 EDT

It's Time To Cut The Trade Deficit - Forbes.com

It's Time To Cut The Trade Deficit, by Peter Morici - Forbes.com; "Globalization is not an unalloyed good. We don't need 300-horsepower cars. And Wall Street is not a citadel of integrity."

com; cutting; Forbes; Time; Trade Deficit.

Thu 2008-03-20 00:00 EDT

The Oil Drum | Banana Methane Powered Cars, Pig Poo Power And Other Uses For Biogas

Banana Methane Powered Cars; biogas; Oil Drum; Pig Poo Power; use.

Thu 2007-09-27 00:00 EDT

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Meanwhile the Real Economy

Winter (Economic & Market) Watch >> Meanwhile the Real Economy (working around Ministry of Truth data: cement, rail cars, shipping containers, truck tonnage)

economic; Market; meanwhile; real economies; watch; winter.

Wed 2007-05-16 00:00 EDT

The Oil Drum | Three Pieces of Peak Oil Media: Simmons/Kilduff and Pickens on CNBC on GAO/Peak Oil and Kunstler on Peak Oil and the Car Culture

(Kunstler mp3 talk)

cars culturally; CNBC; GAO/Peak Oil; Kunstler; Oil Drum; Peak Oil; Peak Oil Media; Pickens; pieces; Simmons/Kilduff.