Americans Still Don't Like Small Cars
Both Ford and GM claim Americans are rushing to buy their new small cars, but history suggests the trend won't last More »
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Both Ford and GM claim Americans are rushing to buy their new small cars, but history suggests the trend won't last More »
Since the beginning of the crisis, the debate on financial regulation has focused on placing limits on financial services firms' behavior, based on the idea that the government has to protect Main Street from Wall Street. Recent history suggests that bankers lack the incentive or will to avoid unsustainable, economically disastrous, and downright predatory behavior. But just as a securities trader can focus on short-term profits and ignore the incremental systemic… More »
Pundits and analysts have recently celebrated yet another reduction in U.S. consumer debt as a sign that we're in full-on recovery mode and the worst is behind us. Last week the Federal Reserve released data on consumer credit through November 2009. I checked out the data myself and found that all that consumer deleveraging we're hearing about is a big fat myth. More »
Several other observers have written at length about the sort of financial regulatory reform the U.S. needs to adopt in order to achieve sustainable health. In general, recommendations tend to include big-picture concepts. While I think all of these goals are admirable both individually and as a whole, the devil is, as always, in the details. More »
As the UK announces a 50% tax on bonuses, our man sours on the windfall tax. More »
Henry Blodget has a post up at Clusterstock/Business Insider expressing outrage that if CIT goes the bankruptcy route, the "evil vampire squids" at Goldman Sachs will reap a $1 billion payment before taxpayers. To clarify, this is a $1 billion "make-whole" payment (similar to a lump-sum payment, where the borrower pays off all future interest after a bond is called early) and would cover a 20-year deal in which CIT had agreed to pay Goldman about $85 million… More »
When the generally useless CNBC anchor Dennis Kneale starts pointing fingers at anonymous/pseudonymous business and finance bloggers, referring to us as "digital dickweeds," its time I take a few minutes to address this issue.Being a sometimes contributor to the controversial finance blog, Zerohedge, and a moderately well-known pseudonymous blogger, I think I have a unique perspective on this issue. More »
On Wednesday, I explained that, contrary to what you often hear, Americans do not demonstrate any particular affinity for small cars, even with gas prices down. Today, we'll address another popular misconception. The second myth I've considered is this: That the shift towards big SUVs is to blame for our dependence on foreign oil, high gas prices, etc. Fact: The shift towards larger vehicles in general hasn't exactly helped, but it hasn't hurt, per se, either. More »
One dominant myth of the US auto industry is this: American consumers want small (fuel-efficient) cars. In reality: Not so much. This runs counter to the claims (honest or otherwise) of various elected officials, and their auto industry buddies. To this day, I've yet to see any clear data that suggests Americans are demanding small, fuel-efficient cars, at least not over any meaningful period of time. But here is some data that shows the exact opposite: More »
