Well, Bush did have at least one success according to the above graph from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. So what if GDP, consumption, investment, net worth, wages and salaries and employment were all down during the period of 2001-2007. Look at corporate taxes. At least someone was making some dough.
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Newzjunky.com recently listed new vehicle registrations in Jefferson County, New York for June of 2008 v. June of 2007. This is interesting because the high concentration of government employees in the county has bouyed the local economy as compared with many other regions of the country.
Here is the bad news:
Chevy
June 2007 42 cars and 22 trucks v. June 2008 19 cars and 8 trucks this means that there was a 55% decrease in car sales and a 64% decrease in truck sales.
Ford
June 2007 31 cars and 25 trucks v. June 2008 13 cars and 5 trucks this means that there was a 59% decrease in car sales and an 80% decrease in truck sales.
Dodge
June 2007 25 cars and 21 trucks v. June 2008 8 cars and 4 trucks this means that there was a 68% decreas in car sales and a 81% decrease in truck sales.
Honda
June 2007 60 cars and 3 trucks v. June 2008 52 cars and 0 trucks this means that there was a 13% decrease in car sales for one of the most fuel efficient manufacturers and a 100% decrease in truck sales.
Toyota
June 2007 73 cars and 27 trucks v. June 2008 53 cars and 16 trucks this means that there was a 28% decrease in car sales for another of the most fuel efficient manufacturers and a 41% decrease in truck sales for the most fuel efficient truck manufacturer.
This means that one of the most important industries is suffering an enormous down tick not solely associated with increased energy costs, as it would seem that the fuel efficient manufacturers should gain significant market share in this environment, unfortunately with 335 new cars sold in June 2008 Toyota only had 15% of the market, just 1% better than its 2007 numbers, and Honda had 15%, just a 3% improvement over its 2007 numbers. In the truck market, Toyota had 24% of the market in 2007, with Honda having an insignificant 2%. In 2008 Honda's market share fell to 0% in the truck market, while Toyota now has 41% of the market, unfortunately the overall market fell from 110 trucks in June 2007 to just 39 trucks in 2008, so the overall market fell by 65%. The overall car market fell by 33% as well. The truck market constitutes a considerable portion of the auto industry's overall revenue, so this significant decrease in overall market will likely have a crippling effect on many companies' bottom lines.
With the auto industry accounting on average for 8 additional jobs in the economy for each factory worker employed manufacturing vehicles, the substantial drop in factory orders will likely be the straw that breaks the camel's back sending the economy not only into a recession, but possibly a depression. Welcome to the new economy. With the substantial slip in sales facing Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors, it appears that these companies saddled with substantial pension and retiree health benefits liabilities may not survive a continued long term slump in sales, without some help from the federal government. The best way to help the auto industry would be to eliminate the substantial health care burden by enacting a comprehensive single payor universal health care system that will make all American industries more competitive internationally. Is there an American politician with the courage to destroy the health insurance rackets, so that the American auto industry can be saved?
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