A spokesman for the Obama administration is on the wires fleshing out some of the details on the “cash for clunkers” programme. He says that 80,500 sales under the programme had occured by Saturday, with more in the pipeline. Of these nearly half were from GM,Chrysler or Ford and that the move from old trucks to newer passenger cars would raise fuel economy. The extension was passed by the House on Friday and is expected to be given the same welcome by the senate. I seem to remember that the French did a similar scheme many years ago which just pushed sales forward rather than actually stimulating demand in any long lasting way. With Chrysler and GM mired in bankruptcy, an artificial demand stimulus may not be the best idea in the long run as this deters the two companies from making the necessary changes thet need to survive in the long term.
Eur/Usd is sitting comfortably at 1.4410 waiting for the results from GM and Chrysler.
