Apropos my article on Cash for Clunkers from yesterday, here’s some follow-up to support my points. September sales for GM were down 45% and for Chrysler the number was 42%. When the government stopped subsidizing the purchase of cars, people stopped purchasing them—a point made very clear in my article. I also pointed out the distortion in the used car market. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported on the rise in prices of used automobiles—that is, the ones left over that weren’t destroyed by government decree:
One widely followed measure of used-car prices, the 14-year-old Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, will likely hit a record when data for September are released in early October, says Thomas Webb, chief economist for Manheim Consulting, a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc.
