The Pension Benefits Guarantee Corp has had enough of Delphi’s ongoing pension debacle, and has warned the GM spinoff that it would file in court to seize a further $900m of the supplier’s assets. Having missed hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to its pension plan, Delphi’s still-profitable overseas operations are targeted for seizure by the PBGC. On Tuesday, reports the Wall Street Journal, the PBGC sent the second letter in the last month to urge GM to absorb at least $1.5b in Delphi’s pension obligations by the end of the month. Timing is crucial, because new pension laws which go into effect on October 1 will make such deals far more expensive. Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole bailout angle. “I can’t speak for the rest of the government, but I assume if GM is asking for assistance from the government generally, the status of the GM-Delphi pension situation would be highly relevant,” says PBGC Director Charles E.F. Millard. We couldn’t agree more. So GM and Delphi have until the end of the week to file papers that would transfer $1.5b of Delphi’s obligations to the General’s pension account. If that date is missed, Delphi’s only remaining profitable business ventures will be ghost like Swayze. With the firm likely to follow shortly thereafter, Chapter 7 style. So, why would GM endanger it’s bailout chances and kill off its largest supplier, when it’s own pension fund is actually overfunded to the tune of some $18b? Because that’s “already committed to paying off United Auto Workers medical claims, funding employee buyouts and other pending obligations.” Rock, meet hard place. Meanwhile, man the lifeboats.
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The PBGC can’t do jack. And this is why the car companies are going to get a bailout.
Just look at all the other companies (US Air, Bethlehem Steel, etc.) that the PBGC had to eat. If the PBGC thinks they’ve got problems now with Delphi, just imagine what a Bankruptcy filing by Chrysler, Ford or god forbid the General would do to completely screw the Federal government.
And that supposedly overfunded pension plan of GMs? I bet if you look back on the records, the Delphi plan was probably overfunded 2 years before they filed too.
According to MSN this morning, it looks like possibly a $25 billion dollar taxpayer handout to the Detroit boys may be forthcoming. While it will be couched in “developing alternate energy vehicles” and other crap, I don’t think we should be naive to believe it will go to offset some of the massive liabilities of the companies. $25 billion (that’s a lot of taxpayers money that is going to be pissed away) will only provide short term breathing space. The companies will probably fail anyway, but the politicians are buying their way out of being blamed.
I believe there is nothing that is going to save the companies, unless magically fuel goes to $1 a gallon and stays there for the next ten years.
Personally, I am finished with Detroit cars, why should I spend my hard earned after heavily taxed dollars to buy their products and also pay taxes on top of that to help them keep the lights on. I feel many, many other americans will feel the same way.
Let’s never forget 9/11.
All of this is mere “peanuts”.
The fed is $9.7 TRILLION in debt and just took on a probable additional $5.4 TRILLION in debt by nationalizing Freddie and Fannie. With more banks likely to fail and be bailed out soon… it’s in the news even now.
Regarding the former figure (not even adding the $5.4 trillion in), I did a few calculations.
Hey, hasn’t everyone got a spare $173,706,130?
Well, apparently that’s the per-person amount of money that would need to be paid right now (per person – that is 305,113,372 of us living in the United States – man, woman, child, retired, handicapped, non-taxpaying illegal aliens, and infants included). One hundred seventy three million seven hundred six thousand one hundred and thirty dollars would be how it would be written on the check. Per person.
I think “my” check “might” bounce if I tried to write one to Uncle Sam for that amount to pay off my portion of the current national debt (set to go up by oh about 55% with the “rescue” of Fannie and Freddie). My wife’s check for the same amount “might” bounce, too… To recap, that’s NOT including the imminent “corporate welfare bail-out” of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, Ford and Chrysler ($50 billion). Hell, that’s mere chump change to the imbeciles in charge in Washington DC.
Even if we all, as a nation, agreed to pay off the current national debt in 15 years (between now and the time I happen to retire) – even at zero additional interest between now and then (impossible, I know) – that would run EACH INDIVIDUAL (not just each adult) in the United States $965,034 per month. That’s about equivalent to $6000 per hour (assuming a 40 hour work week). Per person, including infants, children, etc. I don’t think I can quite swing that, how about you? My employer “probably” won’t be giving me a raise “quite that large” next year. Unless, of course, we get Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation over the next few decades, of course. (Gee, that’s an idea – wonder if they’ve thought of that at the Federal Reserve? – tongue in cheek).
Yeah, no doubt about it. The United States of America is functionally BANKRUPT.
Oh yes, almost forgot, AND we would need higher taxes too, since we’d have to make up $407 billion per year Federal budget deficits (OR learn to live with a government which actually stayed within the United States Constitution and didn’t spend money like a drunken sailor). $407 billion per year divided by the 305 million US population amounts to $1334 per year per person ($111.20 per month). That’s ON TOP of current taxes, if they balanced the Federal budget at current levels of expenditures.
Go here, scroll down (Wednesday’s edition – you’ll have to hurry) and read the article “Last Ditch”. http://www.dailyreckoning.com/index.html
menno> Well written! I agree!
If the fed gvmt can get “virtualized loans” @ 176M per person, why is it getting harder to get a $200k loan for a house ?
menno,
You comments are right on target. Canada ran into a similar problem in the late ’80s. The Government of the day realized it had to fix this because potential lenders/purchasers of debt were starting to impose conditions. The country’s sovereignty was at stake with lenders deciding public policy rather than the politicians. The number of organizations that can finance such astronomical numbers are rather few. If one such lender, China, got worried about being repaid and started demanding changes, can you imaging the fallout (see Argentina for further details)?
Uh I think Menno needs some work on his math there. If all 305 million of us ‘contributed’ $10K, that would be 3 trillion. So, somewhere around $32,000 per person for the $9.7 trillion figure he’s looking at. While that would be excessively difficult for everyone to cough up, it’s not in the impossible land of $174 million/person. What’s 3+ orders of magnitude between friends :)
Let me add that this pretty much invalidates your post unfortunately. We are working ourselves into bad straits, yes. We do need to get the whole national debt/deficit under control, and we probably need to have some real limit expressed as a percentage of our GNP. But functionally bankrupt, no, not like GM is.
Snagor –
Agreed.
$ 9*10^12 / 3*10^8 people = 3*10^4 $/person
Or $30,000 per person.
Does anyone really think that $173 MILLION was a reasonable number?
menno: Agree it’s “chump change” but its the chump change that got us into this mess. I agree with you the U.S. is functionally bankrupt, and just to think the baby boomers have not really hit the social programs en mass yet. The U.S. will not fail from a military takeover but implode internally from a financial meltdown, and yes it will be in our lifetime (and I am 52 years old).
God, this is getting uglier every second.
You guys are scarin’ me to death!
Menno, your Fannie/Freddie bailout numbers are a bit off. The gruesome twosome have nearly $6t in “assets,” but only about 5 percent ($300b) are considered likely to be “bad” loans. $300b is still a lot of money, especially considering the $50b automaker loans would only “cost” taxpayers about $7b to guarantee. Of course, that’s assuming Detroit wouldn’t default on the loans.
Your general point about the death of fiscal conservatism is very well taken, though. As a 25 year-old, I shudder at the thought of what our government will look like when I hit 50. Let alone 75. Not a pretty picture.
Here is Menno’s paragraph with correct figures:
Even if we all, as a nation, agreed to pay off the current national debt in 15 years (between now and the time I happen to retire) – even at zero additional interest between now and then (impossible, I know) – that would run EACH INDIVIDUAL (not just each adult) in the United States $178 per month. That’s about equivalent to $1.02 per hour (assuming a 40 hour work week). Per person, including infants, children, etc. I don’t think I can quite swing that, how about you? My employer “probably” won’t be giving me a raise “quite that large” next year. Unless, of course, we get Zimbabwe style hyper-inflation over the next few decades, of course. (Gee, that’s an idea – wonder if they’ve thought of that at the Federal Reserve? – tongue in cheek).
Sorry if it appears that I’m mocking his post, but this is what the numbers work out to be. No reason to panic at least, but yeah we need to fix this sooner rather than later.
What’s with all the doomsaying? Yes, the debt is large, but it’s less than 5% of the GDP, a smaller fraction than it was in 1992. The economy has taken a hit stemming from overderegulation in the mortgage industry, but in a few years it can be responsibly salvaged. But this is all off-topic.
Everyone knows GM is in trouble, but as is pointed out on this site almost every day, Ch. 11 could solve a lot of problems. GM won’t ever look like it did, but the US auto industry is going to survive, one way or another.
sean362880: Why the concern? because the U.S. is now the largest debtor nation in the world (unlike 1992), our loans are being financed in large part by China (gee, now there is a close friend); the baby boomers have not really hit the social security and Medicare systems yet; we are far more energy dependent on other countries than in 1992; individual states in the U.Sare teetering on financial collapse (see California $20 billion deficit and nobudget); Manaufacturing jobs are going away by the thousands (that includes the topicat hand GM and Ford); we are paying for millions of undocumented people (many more than in 1992); we have two wars going (no wars in 1992); the overal deficit is approximately $10 trillion dllars (about 80% higher than in 1992); the total liabilities of the U.S.including Social Security/Medicare et. is over $50 trillion dollars. There is a mortgage meltdown of biblical proportions; Personal debt is at a all time high. So, just for starters, the U.S. is in far worse shape than in 1992 and it is getting worse.
So, what’s another $25 billion thrown on the bonfire that is F/GM/C?
What puzzles me is why the USD has gone up recently. When Canada had their high debt/GDP time, their dollar was in the .6x range relative to the USD. The USD was tanked until the Euro guys said they were slowing and the USD had jumped about 10% since then despite HUGE clouds on our horizon. Makes no sense to me. I think somebody’s screwing with things. We’ll see how this and oil and other issues settle out post election.
What did I do put 3 too many zeroes in my figures? Shoot, Trillions, Billions, Gazillions. The numbers are nearly unfathomable and my calculator can’t even cope without lopping off bunches of zeroes and hoping I figured it right. Think the bunch in Washington can do any better?
As for the GDP, the entire GDP of the nation runs about $2.75 TRILLION per year, so our total debt (as of now – “officially” at $9.7 TRILLION) runs about 4 years of total wealth creation for our current economy (not taking into account a recession or a depression).
Those of you who think like Cheney and say “deficits don’t matter” probably don’t mind that our nation is rapidly becoming a sub-prime nation, then.
Know what? Even if you don’t believe in God, or His word, you should think on some of His words. Paraphrased; when you owe someone, you are their slave.
That goes for people and for nations, too.
So the numbers are all like the Chevy Volt – vaporware and totally malleable.
What counts is the realization that we have to stop, turn around and change course – and to do that, we have no other viable choice but to hire politicians with a like-mind. They are very few and far between, as are people with the same realization.
Summary; we’re F*****.
Mel, it’s pretty obvious that “someone” is cooking the books. Look at Gold and Silver. You just about cannot buy actual physical gold or silver if you are smart enough to decide to exchange some soon-to-be-worthless US dollar bills (backed solely by lies) from the ponzi scheme that is the US Federal Reserve (ironically, it is actually none of the above).
Yet gold dropped to $742 today, down about $100 in less than two weeks.
Can anyone spell “manipulation” and “conspiracy”?
Mel23,
The US has about half the debt load of Germany, the UK or France, and about 1/5 the debt load of Japan.
Japan’s debt is twice it’s GDP while ours is only 40%.
mel23 :
September 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
What puzzles me is why the USD has gone up recently. When Canada had their high debt/GDP time, their dollar was in the .6x range relative to the USD. The USD was tanked until the Euro guys said they were slowing and the USD had jumped about 10% since then despite HUGE clouds on our horizon. Makes no sense to me. I think somebody’s screwing with things. We’ll see how this and oil and other issues settle out post election.
The recent gain in the dollar occurred when the poor economy spread from America-only to world-wide. That is, the dollar fell partly due to the poor economy in the US versus the rest of the world, but once the rest of the world got as bad as the US, the dollar went back up (or more like currencies in the rest of the world fell; same thing).
Menno, US GDP = 13.8 trillion, not 2.75 trillion. It appears that the more significant issue is potential shortfalls in Medicare/caid & Social Security (~41 trillion). We’ll have to cut benefits/raise the minimum age to avoid these hits (probably option B).
Things are bad, but there is still time to change the outcome. Take the coming social security crunch. The trust fund will be depleted by 2040 and the money paid out would have to come strictly from payroll deductions. If this happened, the amount paid would drop to about 75% of what was promised. If the SS deduction from payroll was increased by 1% now, the date of trust fund depletion would be pushed back to 2075.
It is assumed that the baby boomers will bankrupt social security.This may not be so. If you look at the stories about how many boomers are planning to work beyond retirement age the impact may not be so great. I am one of the oldest boomers, 62 this year. My wife and I own a small business and do not plan to retire at all. What we do plan is that after age 70 to spend less time at the business and let the employees do more of the managing. As an aside, if something happens to us, the business will go to the employees.
It is always easy to see the bad that exists. It is harder to find the ways to change what is happening. During the great depression, there were programs to put people back to work. The infrastructure in the country is in need of repair and updating. Take the money that is being spent in Iraq and spend it here on new roads, new electrical grid, new nuclear power plants. Whoever is elected president is going to get the troops out of Iraq. We might as well use the money for our well being.
The economy will recover. The demand for products is building up while things are bad. When the housing market stabilizes, things will take off again. There will always be booms and busts. We just have to be smart enough to remember this and not believe the shysters that say there will be no more busts. and for those that believe in no regulation, this is what happens in a totally free market. The greedy are willing to screw over everyone else if it lines their pockets.
Look at the airline industry. It has been deregulated to death. When deregulation happened every airline had to match the prices of the lowest cost carrier. They had a race to the bottom and you see the results. Almost no one is profitable. The bailout the automakers are asking for have a precedent. The airlines got a bailout a few years ago. It did not help much, did it.
We all have to remember that we are all citizens of what I think is the greatest country on earth. If we could put aside the partisanship and remember that, we could accomplish great things. Actually we already do accomplish great things, but we could do better.
Unfunded benefits liabilities are just too hard to understand. When I would cover this topic in public budgeting classes, the students’ eyes would roll back in their heads. 2050? Like, that’s light-years away, dude!
jmo: “The US has about half the debt load of Germany, the UK or France, and about 1/5 the debt load of Japan.” Moreover, those countries–along with most of Europe, Russia and China–will soon face demographic calamity. By 2015, new calculations show, Europe’s population will not only be aging, it will be shrinking despite current immigration levels.
America has succumbed to the great temptation of democracies: using government to give ourselves goodies. However, though our population is aging, fortunately our birth rate is still sufficient to replace ourselves. Young’uns pay their elders’ Social Security and Medicare. What’s that, you say, you have no kids? Well, get busy!
Geotpf :
Yes, I understand that, but two of the reasons given for the recent strength in US manufacturing were the low USD and relative strength abroad. Now with both those conditions reduced, we should expect US manufacturing to fall which should hurt us. And these came before the Frannie bailout, although it was expected and might have been factored in. I know Spain and England have big housing issues like us, but I don’t think the rest of the world has anything like the housing overhang we do and they’re not even in our league in the reckless use of credit cards for which the piper will have to be paid soon. And I haven’t read about precarious conditions for overseas banks, while we have several banks going under each month it seems plus the likes of Lehman tottering.
I left out hedge funds. And I’m hearing talk about a Fed cut instead of an increase in the FOMC meeting after next. This should absolutely hurt the USD but isn’t.
mel23-My point is that the gain in the dollar can easily be explained by normal market forces as opposed to election-year shenanigans or Opus Dei or the Free Masons or any other conspiracy theory you can think of.
I always have to smile when I read about people who proclaim that the US is going to collapse and become irrelevant. That the US will become a non-entity on the world.
How exactly?
We are the 3rd most populated country on the planet. We are one of the largest countries on the planet in square miles. We have the largest economy, largest military, largest ag producer, and large everything in almost every metric. We are blessed with a nation that almost owns its own continent and has long coasts and harbors on the planet’s two major oceans. We have the longest undefended borders in the world. We have zero chance of any nation invading and taking over.
Where exactly does something that big go and hide?
Even if all the other nations on the planet decide to not sell us oil starting tomorrow, we will survive, probably better than the rest of the world will.
Sorry to burst the bubble of all the American haters on the planet, but we aren’t going away, today or tomorrow. We will be swinging a big stick around for a long time. So get use to it.
In regards to China owning so much of our debt: “Borrow a little from the bank, the bank owns you. Borrow a lot, you own the bank.
charlieJ5: “The [Social Security] trust fund will be depleted by 2040 and the money paid out would have to come strictly from payroll deductions.”
Much of what you said I agree with, but I must point out that the SS trust fund is vaporware. It exists (in the form of bookkeeping entries) because Uncle Sam credits the trust fund for SS taxes collected. But he immediately substitutes IOU’s for the cash, which he spends on all sorts of things. For a long time the income greatly exceeded the outgo, so the trust fund grew (it held more and more IOU’s). At the point when SS outgo exceeds income, the trust fund begins to shrink. That is, the trust fund starts cashing in some IOU’s. And that is the turning point (or moment of truth for Uncle Sam), not later when the trust fund is eventually depleted. Cash flow is the crucial issue.
Every time an administration (D and R) has tried to deal honestly with unfunded entitlements, the opposition (D and R) has used demagoguery to strangle reform in its cradle. In just a few years, however, first Medicare and then Social Security will demand more realistic discussion.
“Look at the airline industry. It has been deregulated to death. .. Almost no one is profitable.” Yet Southwest has prospered and grown. Is it a case of an aviation Toyota competing against Pan Am-like Detroit?
But thanks for reminding everyone that the business cycle has not been repealed. We’ll always have ups and downs. No economy can go through life only inhaling.
Even if mennos numbers are off by 3 orders of magnitude and it comes out to $178/person/month, MOST People do not, or have very little savings.
Most people are in a bloodbath financially.
Most people not ONLY can’t afford an extra $200/month/household, they are NEGATIVE with credit card debt, lost equity in housing, etc etc.
Google for statistics on credit card debt. How many people pay off their balance every month ? 10%?
This is not sustainable.
This little move right here is going to go down into history as the move that killed GM.
Eh, what the hell. Why not invade some small country, kill some million arabs, and seize all the oil? It has worked before…
Is GM trying to go out of business?
Ingvar: “Eh, what the hell. Why not invade some small country, kill some million arabs, and seize all the oil? It has worked before…”
It has? Where? When?
Robstar, let’s not forget that we’d also have to kick in $111 per month per person to balance the current budget – that’s Federal, only, on top of the $178 per month per person.
While I could theoretically afford $488 extra per month for my wife and I, we’re pretty much the exception – especially here in Michigan. I’m one of those 10%ers who can and does pay off my modest credit card bills every month.
With an extra $488 per month outgo, we’d be cutting back and would not be taking vacations or going to restaurants much, and would delay things like house upgrades etc.
In other words, the few of us who could afford to pay the $488 a month per couple would be spending less, causing the economy would slow down, etc. and no doubt, the idiots in Washington would decide to spend yet more tax money to try to “put people to work” and so the circle would start again. My taxes would go up yet again, we’d tighten our belts, etc. infinitum ad nauseum.
yankinwaoz, the United States did not dry up and disappear during the great depression (well, okay, some of the midwest kind of did, in fact). Great Britain didn’t fall into the ocean when it lost it’s empire. The dirt under the Roman Empire simply changed names and leaders, broke up into smaller nations and changed over time, likewise the Soviet (dis)Union.
More to the point, the Weimar Republic sort of survived the hyperinflation of the early 1920’s, as did most of their people.
Same thing with the United States – if we have the extreme misfortune of hyperinflation, stagflation, some kind of economic recession or depression or economic catastrophe, something resembling a nation or nations will come out the other side of it.
It’s just the extreme deprivation and hardship between then and now that’s got a lot of people concerned.
GM, Ford and Chrysler are but symptoms of a disease of ineptitude, greed, and general idiocy which plagues humanity and always has, and it’s not just the United States which is sick.
In fact, Britain is actually in worse shape than the US, with even higher debt (individually), a potentially even worse housing situation, a lower birth rate, their own massive problems with cultural misfits (in their case, Islamicists, as much of Europe, instead of Illegal Aliens here in the states). And now Mainland Europe is also getting (economically) ill, especially southern Europe and ironically, Germany.
But what really sets off the alarm bells in our country is the prospect of having the banks collapse due to so many foolish ponzi schemes with people’s money; derivatives, etc., and lending money to folks who can’t or won’t pay, on top of the fact that the US only provides for about 1/4th of it’s own gasoline and diesel fuel needs, imports about 3/4.
Those are all MAJOR issues which the politicians are hardly addressing.
It’s not like we haven’t been warned – anyone else remember Ross Perot, 16 years ago? How about Ron Paul?
Guess what boys and girls. If you do the math, you will find that the ONLY way the US has a chance of getting back to a balanced budget is for the wealthiest/high earners to pay significantly more taxes. They have the vast majority of the assets and free cash flow in this country. The portion of income concentrated in the hands of the few is now higher than in the late 1920s … remember how that decade ended?
Have a look at page 6: http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2006prel.pdf
Remember the 1990s? The economy and stock markets were roaring, the dollar was strong AND tax rates on the highest earners where much higher than they are today. The government was running a surplus when the current President took the oath of office and was actually starting to pay off a bit of the national debt. Market mavens were wondering what the implications of there no longer being regular treasury debt auctions would mean for a market which had become used to them as a basic peg. Now after seven plus years of “tax cuts are the answer to every question” we are swimming in red ink and the US dollar has plunged. Sometimes tax cuts are a good answer, but it depends what the question is!
The Japanese, Chinese, European governments provide retirement, health care, education, and sometimes housing for older folks.
Now we all know the imports are cheaper unless you care to think about what the cars really cost.
Domestic Costs
cost of building car + social programs = your cost
Import costs
Cost of building car = your costs
Now when your old and feeble and every business you worked for is down the tubes and the US is bankrupt. Was the imported item cheaper?????????
So: The US, China, Japan and Britain are in debt, suppose every country in world were to “cash-out” (including Zimbabwe), who would have the money?, in other words, to whom is this “dept” owed?
Blindfaith, Toyotas built by the UAW (Corrolas Tacomas) as well as their non UAW American builtt models have the same social costs. Their employees pay social security taxes and their employer Toyota as well as their other transplant counterparts pay the matching employer tax as well as the medicare payments. Their employees also have health insurance and 401 too.
You also make the assumption that imports are cheaper. Toyota and Honda models typically sell for more than the corresponding domestic model.
@PBGC (you know, the topic of the article):
After the fiasco with the airlines, the PBGC’s recommendations have been more closely followed since everyone realizes that if there was round 2, it wouldn’t survive. That said, they legally haven’t been given any more powers. Should GM and Delphi not make the agreement, I can see it being a problem for them when they hold out their hand to Congress.
@Delphi:
Dead company walking. Well, not really. No cash to invest, divested of all known assets worth selling, no white knight. It will be Ch.7 very soon. This may be why GM is stalling on the payment. They may be hoping that Delphi ceases to exist so stalling a binding contract for $1.5B that they don’t have makes sense.
@Menno:
I think I agree with you, only at a much reduced volume. It irks me to no end to watch politico’s throw money and resources away like they don’t mean anything. But I also know that times are changing so I’m hopeful that with the current financial bloodbath setting a new floor, we’ll all be on much firmer ground in the end.
As they say, things have to get worse so that they can get better. Glad to hear you are saving money. Just make sure to invest some of it so that you can partake in the upswing when it happens.
The Bush tax cuts resulted in a huge increase in government revenues. It is the government spending that is out of control.
The Bush tax cuts resulted in a huge increase in government revenues
Huh? How? And that would be “how” as in solid numbers, not theory.
Revenue would imply money coming in. Cutting taxes would more or less require a cut in money coming in, unless you’re going to argue that the revenue is from reduced tax rates but a broader tax base, in which case I don’t think you can credit tax cuts as the engine for a significant chunk of the last eight years’ economic growth.
Hi, netrun
Well, you can imagine that I’m concerned that our new floor, after the financial bloodbath, will be about the same level as in 1932.
As the unofficial automotive historian around here, let me just briefly recount the top 8 new cars sales from 1928 through 1941, from the last full year of non-depression through the last full year of auto production before the war (numbers are approximate since Willys-Overland/Whippet numbers are only estimated)
1928: 3,163,156
1929: 4,027,036
1930: 2,477,533 (down 38.5% YOY)
1931: 1,761,665 (down 28.9% YOY)
1932: 928,648 (down 47.3% YOY)
1933: 1,447,018
1934: 1,846,811
1935: 2,338,218
1936: 3,301,406
1937: 3,398,569
1938: 1,697,151 (ouch! recession)
1939: 2,250,315
1940: 2,757,977
1941: 3,574,087
1941 didn’t even equal 1929’s level, when a month of 1929 already was in the depression
1941 did see one car line sell over a million per year (barely) – Chevrolet. The prior year that any company sold over a million per year was 1930 – Ford. In 1929, BOTH Ford and Chevrolet sold over 1.3 million (over 1.5 million in Ford’s case, actually).
So you can see, we have a significant amount of potential “drop” our current economy, using new car sales as a barometer, and gaging against the past.
Hope to God it doesn’t happen.
The sound of the death watch beetle grows ever louder!