Brian Gongol
A serious set of thoughts about "Cash for Clunkers"
The government's "cash for clunkers" program superficially sounds like a great success -- creating so much demand that the whole system has been overwhelmed with demand for rebates. But in the medium term, it's probably going to be even more trouble than it's worth. The new-car-incentive-package boom of the 2001-2002 period led to a brief bubble in new-car sales which was followed by a crash in 2003, which appears to have even had a sort of echo effect lasting through at least 2006. This tells us that the temporary boom in new-car sales brought about by "cash for clunkers" is only going to lead to a hangover in the coming years for the car industry. The incentive plan is going to make life tougher for poor families and young people looking for starter cars, since taking those old cars off the road and scrapping them will constrict the supply of used cars, which actually make up most car sales in the US each year. Yes, this has been an abysmal year for new-car sales, but a temporary government intervention program like "cash for clunkers" is only going to make the hangover worse. Overall, "cash for clunkers" is a classic case of government over-intervention, in the style of hiring ten people to dig a hole and ten others to fill it back in. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Never confuse motion with action."
National transportation statistics
A decent accounting of a long list of transportation statistics for the United States, including annual car sales -- both used and new
China uses cyberwarfare to take out a movie-festival website
Honoring real heroes instead of just celebrities
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - August 2, 2009
