The Los Angeles Times today asked the question only the mainstream would ask. “Wages are growing and surveys show consumer confidence is high. So why are motor vehicle sales taking a hit?” Indeed, the results reported earlier by the auto sector were the kind of sobering figures that might make any optimist wonder. Across the board, and for the fourth [...]
JD Power and LMC Automotive were expecting total new vehicle sales to rise 2.4% year-over-year in March, a small turnaround of sorts for the way auto sales have gone so far in 2017. Both new retail auto sales as well as overall sales were slightly negative January and February, so any positive number would be a welcome change. Given the [...]
Even if you believe that the economy we find today is irrelevant to one that will result from a range of better policies under a Trump administration, you still have a timing problem. I fully believe that “reflation” has to this point been about promise, and that mostly relates to what can “only” be different now that the age of [...]
When the estimates for factor orders were released earlier this month, there was an unusual pattern for the revision of September’s preliminary figures. Subsequent data suggested that factory orders were slightly less than had been originally calculated, yet despite that result for the unadjusted data the seasonally-adjusted estimate for factory orders in September was instead revised significantly higher. Overall, the [...]
Wholesale sales were flat in September, and flat overall for the quarter. They had declined sharply in July, rebounded in August, only to go nowhere for all the trouble. It is perfectly reminiscent of this whole economy, which fell in 2015 and then despite all projections otherwise never got back up. The best that can be said of it is [...]
Auto sales continue along with their “plateau”, being estimated at 17.8 million (SAAR) units sold in September. Ford was once again the big loser, with sales down 8.1% year-over-year; GM down 0.6%; Fiat Chrysler -0.9%; and VW -7.8%. Toyota and Nissan managed gains, +1.5% and +4.9%, respectively. Car sales were down almost 19% while pickups and light truck sales fell [...]
The city of Detroit filed for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy last week and the S&P 500 made a new high. There was a time when those two headlines could not have happened in the same week. Detroit and the auto industry it represented were once a symbol of all that was right with America and it was not a stretch [...]
Thinking Things Over March 11, 2012 Volume II, Number 10: General Motors: An Emblem of a Potemkin Economy By John L. Chapman, Ph.D. Washington, D.C. There were no private investors or companies out there willing to take a chance on the auto industry. Nobody was lining up to give you guys loans. Anyone in the financial sector can tell you that. [...]
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