Clunk

Jonathan Adler points to a gated study that claims in the abstract that the cost of Cash for Clunkers "exceeds the benefit by approximately $2000 per vehicle." More worrying:

The impact of "cash-for-clunkers" was very short-lived. The auto website Edmunds.com is predicting an annualised rate of car sales in September of just 8.8 million units. Not only is that a long way down from the 14 millions plus recorded in August, when the clunkers scheme was in full swing, it was well below the 12.5 million rate recorded in September last year, when the financial system was going to hell in a handcart. The industry got used to an annual sales rate of 16 million.