Over 9 million student loan borrowers past due after bills restarted, Fed estimates
... A new student loan delinquency can cause a borrower’s credit score to drop more than 150 points, the Fed warns.
... The tariffs will kick in at midnight on April 3, and Trump has said they will be “permanent.” ...
... A spokesperson for Klarna acknowledged to NBC News that people needing to pay for meals on credit is “a bad indicator for society.” ...
The 3.257 trillion miles of 2019 was exceeded in 2024 by 5 billion miles, on an average annual basis.
The depression in road travel from the Great Financial Crisis lasted eight years, from 2007 to 2015.
Previous to that we had similar, but smaller contractions in US road travel, from 1979 to 1982, three years, and from 1973 to 1975, two years, precipitated by the oil trade shocks of the Iranian Revolution and the Yom Kippur War respectively.
You are now free to move about the country.
May 22, 2024:
Average age of vehicles hits new record in 2024
... The US vehicle fleet surged to 286 million vehicles in operation (VIO) in January ...
... 3.2 million EVs in operation in January ...
Elon Musk’s business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding
... Musk is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the taxpayers’ coffers. ... He has been a big beneficiary of national industrial policy, especially Democrat industrial policy, through government funding. ...
About a third of Tesla’s $35 billion in profits since 2014 has come from selling federal and state regulatory credits to other automakers. The credits are given to automakers that meet certain standards, including selling a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles. Tesla is the largest seller of these credits to automakers that don’t meet the standards and want to avoid paying a fine.
These credits played a crucial role in the company’s first profitable quarter in 2013 and its first full year of profitability in 2020, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Without the credits, Tesla would have lost more than $700 million in 2020, marking a seventh-consecutive year with no profits, according to an analysis of SEC filings.
With the credits, the company instead reported a $862 million profit.
While Musk has advocated for ending the EV tax credit for consumers, he has said little about these regulatory credits. ...
Nearly a tenth of government money that has benefited Musk’s companies
comes from agencies in eight states, including California. ...
In 2016, SpaceX’s success in securing federal contracts prompted rival Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin (and owner of The Washington Post), to say in a company meeting: “Elon’s real superpower is getting government money,” The Post reported. “From now on, we go after everything that SpaceX bids on.”
More.
Musk's many government subsidized businesses are just the currently most prominent examples of American fascism. For bigger ones simply look into the defense industry, the energy industry, or healthcare, or Amazon's early no-sales-tax arrangement which allowed it to become the retail behemoth that it is. President Eisenhower warned us about this long ago, but we're so used to it now that we just take it all for granted.
Real capitalism is swallowed up by the combine between the taxation authority holding a gun to your head, taking your money, and giving it to the corporations.
That's the racket. That's the American way.
Trump promises a return to common sense and has been given the tools to accomplish it with an electoral mandate and all three branches of government on his side. He cannot squander it. He must not get bogged down in petty disputes and perceived slights. ...
There are things he can do right away to make a difference: close the border, eliminate regulations, end the war on fossil fuels and cancel EV mandates. ...
He should move forward without rancour or grievance, fuelled by the joy of the Trump Shuffle, his robot-like dance that has broken out at UFC fights and across the NFL. I’m going to have the younger members of the family teach it to Maureen on Thanksgiving.
Well whoop-de-do!
They're flying off the shelf lol.
Lucid Group stock ended 2020 at about ten bucks a share, popped above $50 a couple of times in 2021, and is now worth $2.30 lol.
The company’s net loss for the third quarter widened to $992.5 million. That compares to a loss of $630.9 million a year earlier.
Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson described the quarter as a “landmark” for
the company, citing record deliveries of 2,781 units as well as
cost-cutting measures. He also noted that the company hit financial and
production targets. ...
The company reaffirmed plans to produce roughly 9,000 vehicles this year, which would mark a 6.8% increase compared to 8,428 units in 2023. ...
Lucid’s stock has been under pressure this year amid widening losses, slower-than-expected sales and significant cash burn.
More.
The electric vehicle idiots running this company into the ground should all be fired. Just build reliable combustion engine SUVs people can afford and don't start on fire while parked in the garage.
How hard can it be?
Reported here in September:
Jeep’s U.S. sales have plummeted 34% from an all-time high of more than 973,000 SUVs sold in 2018 to less than 643,000 units last year. While most auto brands increased sales last year, Jeep was off by about 6%.
The most recent declines follow the company ending production last year of the entry-level Renegade and the Cherokee compact SUV — two mainstream models with peak U.S. sales of around 300,000 units annually from 2016 to 2019. ...
Jeep also is attempting to increase the quality and reliability of its vehicles, which have historically ranked below average in third-party rankings. ... Jeep on Monday confirmed it is cooperating with U.S. auto safety regulators on an investigation into more than 781,000 newer Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator SUVs after reports of underhood fires.
Reported here yesterday:
Automaker Stellantis announced plans Wednesday to cut a manufacturing shift and indefinitely lay off roughly 1,100 workers at a Jeep plant in Ohio.
The company, which has been battling high inventory levels and lower earnings this year, said the decision at its Toledo South Assembly Plant to cut production to one shift will better align output with demand of the Jeep Gladiator pickup — the factory’s sole product.
Ford sold 7,162 units of the Lightning in Q3 2024, up from the 3,503 units in Q3 of last year. ... Year-to-date, Ford sold 22,807 F-150 Lightning EVs. ...
[22,807 units lol. Ford sold nearly 751,000 F-series pick up trucks in 2023, so that's like 3% of the 2023 total]
Overall, Ford’s all-electric vehicle sales in the third quarter of this year amounted to 23,509 units, up 12.2% from last year’s 20,962 vehicles. Year-to-date, Ford sold 67,689 EVs, up 45% compared to last year’s 46,671 units. ...
Ford sold 432,429 combustion-powered vehicles in the third quarter, down 2.8% year-over-year, and 1,340,139 units year-to-date, down 1.8% year-over-year.
Reported here.
That means year-to-date total EV sales are just 5.05% of total combustion-powered vehicle sales year to date.
People aren't buying these dogs.
None of these stories mention these facts.
CBS: Ford to pause production of F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks
CNBC: Ford to halt production of electric F-150 Lightning next month until January
MarketWatch: Ford to Pause Production of F-150 Lightning EV Pickup Trucks
Reuters, to it's credit actually reported some actual numbers: Ford to halt production of F-150 Lightning EV pickup trucks for six weeks :
Ford’s “Model e” electric vehicle unit recorded losses of $1.22 billion during the third quarter — less than it lost a year earlier, largely due to lower volumes and cost cuts.
Ford CEO Jim Farley told investors Monday that the company continues to believe in its EV strategy; however, the automaker has pulled back on many investments in the vehicles to focus on hybrid models.
More.
GM raises 2024 earnings guidance after easily topping Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations
GM CFO Paul Jacobson warned earnings will be lower during the fourth quarter, citing timing of truck production, seasonality, lower wholesale volumes and vehicle mix, including selling more electric vehicles. ... some of the company’s third-quarter outperformance was assisted by the automaker pulling ahead some truck production from the fourth quarter ...
It's not just the government which borrows from the future.
The average price of a new vehicle 2021-2024 is about $48,436 vs. $38,948 in 2019, an increase of 24%.
That's one big reason why Kamala says she can't think of one thing she'd do differently than Joe Biden.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s new greenhouse gas emissions rules require that battery-powered and plug-in hybrid vehicles make up 32% of auto maker sales in 2027. By 2032 no more than 29% of new cars can be gas-powered. Ergo, there will be only one gas-powered model for every two electric cars on dealer lots. ...
Auto makers must spend tens of billions of dollars to ramp up EV production to meet government mandates. The financial pain is growing for companies as sales of gas-powered cars decline, reducing profits available to invest in the EV “transition.” ...
A UAW study in 2019 projected that EVs would kill 35,000 jobs at its plants. “The workers who are making engines and transmissions today, their jobs will be eliminated when we make a transition to electric vehicles,” said UAW research director Jennifer Kelly.
More.
The New Way Forward is just another lie.
Automakers could still comply with the final rule by making EVs account for 67 percent of new car sales in 2032, according to the EPA. But they could also meet the requirements by making all-electric vehicles account for 56 percent and making plug-in hybrids represent 13 percent, the agency said.
And we're not talking about hybrids which you don't have to plug in.
Kamala Harris is bent on abolishing combustion engine vehicles entirely, as she was in 2019.
The third-quarter results for Ford contributed to a 45% increase in
EV sales this year through September to 67,689 units. That compares with
GM on Tuesday reporting EV sales of 70,450 units through September,
including a roughly 60% year-over-year rise during the third quarter. ...
Ford’s U.S. sales this year through the third quarter were up 2.7% compared with a year earlier to more than 1.5 million vehicles sold.
More.
EVs represent just 4.9% of GM's 1.95 million vehicles sold year to date.
Meanwhile the top selling vehicles of 2023 were pick'em up trucks. The Ford F-series was numero uno at 750,789 units, followed by the Chevy Silverado at 543,780 units.
CNBC's enthusiasm for the tiny EV component competition between the big two, separated by 2,761 EV units, is . . . comical.
. . . the automaker believes its EV sales momentum is finally building thanks
to an expanding lineup of all-electric vehicles — spanning a price range
of roughly $35,000 to more than $300,000 . . . 😂😂😂
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/01/gm-third-quarter-sales-2024.html
Just look at these puny numbers!
Maybe they should make cars Americans want to buy and can afford.
