Cash for Clunkers is a Cluster****

[Kuciwalker]

Well the purpose of the program is to reduce harmful emissions, yes? In order to do that (from an economics standpoint) you will create some economic inefficiency.

No, that's not the problem. In fact, reducing emissions only creates "economic inefficiency" when you aren't counting the emissions as harmful. The problem is that this has a huge deadweight cost associated with it that other methods of reducing emissions don't.

[KrazyHorse]

This recession has been a wonderful learning experience for me. Here are the conclusions I've come to:

1) Orthodox monetary policy can easily prove inadequate to resolve even those problems which originate in the financial sector

2) Central bankers are currently too reluctant/unable to respond with unorthodox monetary policy (for example, when the TED spread reached 450 basis points....where were the central banks?). This may be a lesson they've learned too. Hopefully they won't wait as long next time.

3) TARP will turn out to have been the smartest thing the Treasury dept. has done in a long time, and will end up costing the US taxpayer less than nothing. However, this sort of program should be in the purview of the Fed. Otherwise you end up with the sort of political circus nonsense which has plagued TARP since its inception. There is a separate question of whether or not the Fed would manage to maintain its political independence if it started doing these sorts of things itself, unfortunately.

4) "Orthodox" fiscal stimuli are generally ill-timed, badly managed, and vastly too small.

EDIT: the "less than nothing" bit probably should exclude the money "loaned" to GM et al.

[KrazyHorse]

I'm not going to bother to address the Clunkers program in terms of its environmental impact because that's too ridiculous for words.

[Sava]

Judging by the amount of people taking advantage of this program, it seems to me that it's nothing but a complete success. People who complain about it are splitting hairs and missing the point.

stop whining you *****es

[Kuciwalker]

Judging by the amount of people taking advantage of this program, it seems to me that it's nothing but a complete success.

Unfortunately, what it seems and what it is are completely different animals.

[Drake Tungsten]

"Taking advantage" is the key phrase. Thanks for the new car, *****es.

[Sava]

Judging by the amount of people taking advantage of this program, it seems to me that it's nothing but a complete success.

Unfortunately, what it seems and what it is are completely different animals.

Well, I happen to think that it would be a good idea for the government to just give away cars. So this program, stimulating new car purchases in a roundabout way, seems good.

C'mon now. It's not like the money used for this program is actually worth anything anyways. It's only backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.

The only way this program is bad is if you aren't smart enough to take advantage of it.

[Sava]

"Taking advantage" is the key phrase. Thanks for the new car, *****es.

Exactly

[BeBMan]

The government should never plan things.

[Sava]

except the destruction of our enemies

[DinoDoc]

Well, I happen to think that it would be a good idea for the government to just give away cars.

If you don't wanna pay for your car, why should I pay for your car?

[Jon Miller]

I really can't take advantage of it, unfortunately. In fact, I am going to sell my car in less than 2 months.

JM

[Arrian]

The poor administration of the program does not inspire confidence, true. Setting aside whether or not the program itself was a good idea (I thought it made a modicum of sense, actually), that's just poor form.

-Arrian

[Sava]

If you don't wanna pay for your car, why should I pay for your car?

because

[Japher]

The argument isn't that the government is buying a car, it's that they are stimulating an industry. Reduction of auto inventories should lead to a need to refill inventories which will benefit everyone from the car maker, to the part maker, to the diner owner across the street from the part maker, etc...

IMO, the Cash for Clunkers was the first sign of intelligence by the government since the recession started and is the type of program money should be spent on. Much better than giving the arseholes at Goldman Sachs bigger bonuses for fvcking the system up.