“Cash For Clunkers” Revisited

Here is an October 5 Wall Street Journal editorial reviewing the “Cash For Clunkers” stimulus plan:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703628304574453280766443704.html

Also, to provide perspective, a chart of Vehicle Sales from the CalculatedRisk blog (10/1 post) at this link:

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/10/light-vehicle-sales-92-million-saar-in.html

CR Vehicle Sales SAAR 10-1-09

As one can see, the “Cash for Clunkers” seems to have been successful in temporarily causing a surge in auto sales for July and August. 

One could casually observe that the program was successful, in that it caused a short-term sales spike and the purported associated economic and environmental benefits.

However, this observation would be flawed, as many other factors are present as well.  I mentioned some of them during my August 4 post that is found here:

https://www.economicgreenfield.com/2009/08/04/cash-for-clunkers-is-the-junker/

 

SPX at 1057.58 as this post is written