CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Previous Posts
- Leading Economic Indicator: Hot Waitress Index
- Real Estate Rebound: REITs Roar Back to 9 Mo. High
- Cash For Clunkers Might Actually Increase Fuel Con...
- U.K. Patients Forced to Live in Agony
- Pending Home Sales Increase 5 Months in a Row
- Covering Risks vs. Distributing Largesse
- "Progressive" White Elites and Organized Labor Are...
- John Stossel's 20/20 Special on Health Care
- Most or All of The Pay Gap Disappears After Contro...
- Markets In Everything: College Textbook Rental
6 Comments:
Somehow I don't see the Cash for Clunkers program as being very good for the environment.
I'm also not thrilled about having my money given to other people so they can go out and buy new cars. Why not just let us all keep our money in the first place? Then we'd all have more to spend on new cars, appliances, etc.
"This 19 mpg clunker couldn't be traded for a 50 mpg Prius under C.A.R.S."
"This Mini emitted more CO2 being built than it will save."
"This Mini gets 2 mpg less than a Nissan Versa at three times the price. Thanks for the down payment, suckers!"
John,
How can it be good for the environment? It takes energy to manufacture new cars and destroy old ones.
These cars would likely be sold in the next year or 2 anyway so we are merely moving the purchase decision into the current year from future periods at tax payer expense. There is no net increase in car sales.
What we are doing is destroying perfectly good assets ignoring the economic distortions that will likely arise in the secondary market for used vehicles and parts and their impact on low income consumers. Anyone who can pay $24-30k for a brand new Mini Cooper doesn't need government assistance.
At the same time, the government is encouraging consumer debt.
Between 2000 and 2007, U.S. households nearly doubled their outstanding debt to $13.8 trillion—an unprecedented amount in both nominal terms and as a ratio of liabilities to disposable income (138 percent). But as the global financial crisis worsened at the end of 2008, a shift occurred: U.S. households for the first time since World War II reduced their debt outstanding.
While consumer spending certainly creates economic growth, the levels of debt since 2000 were unsustainable. Interfering in personal financial decisions is not the business of government and are often disasterous like the Sub-prime housing mess or the consumer debt crisis in South Korea.
Okay, we do we have huge subsidies and industry-beneficial regs for farmers (the Department of Agriculture), for housing (especially the home mortgage interest tax deduction), but Industrial America gets nada?
Indeed, a $1 billion program (1/185th the size of the AIG bailout) inspires hysteria.
For some reason, we can help farmers, help homebuilders, but building up the US industrial base?
Only a sicko would do that.
I suspect the delicne of our industrial base will pay huge dividends. Negative dividends.
Benny,
If you are looking at trying to help manufacturing, you have to consider the big picture. Cash for Clunkers is twee which will do squat to help U.S. manufacturing.
The real impact will be Cap and Trade which will impact manufacturing disproportionally since manufaturing is an intensive sector. Waxman-Markey Bill Would Raise Electricity Prices $846 Billion
Manufacturing in America is being screwed here. Cash for clunkers is the pacifier for the economically illiterate.
should have said "energy intensive sector"
More haste, less speed.
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