Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 21 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
OpEdNews Op Eds   

U.S. Auto Industry is in Recession:

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   No comments
Message Mike Folkerth

Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News is on the air.

U.S. NEWS: Huge breaking news has come in from Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan Motor Co. when he said, "Even if the United States is not in recession, its auto industry is."

Thank goodness we have people such as Mr. Ghosn to analyze the massive data and come up with this startling prediction. However, our King of Simple financial analyst group did the numbers just to be sure Mr. Ghosn had his facts straight...about two years before Mr. Ghosn got the news. Congress still hasn't come around to it. That's why we have signs saying, "Slow Adults Playing" around the D.C. Capitol area.

Let's work out the details of the auto industry with Mikemathics. In 2007 alone, G.M. lost $38 billion and set a new Guinness record for a one year loss. Ford lost $2.7 billion and Chrysler lost $1.6 billion, not counting the multi billion dollar loss that Daimler took when they unloaded Chrysler on Cerberus Capital.

That adds up to $42 billion and change and 07 may reflect back as the good ol' days, if 2008 continues to pan out the way that it's getting started. This financial news is coupled with the fact that GM is offering buyouts to all 74,000 of their remaining union workers. Many auto analysts believe that neither Ford nor Chrysler can continue as stand alone companies.

So taking this all into account, Yep, the auto industry is in trouble and recession is not the word that comes to mind; "depression" seems to fit the situation nicely. And, we can get quick agreement on that fact by asking any number of the more than 250,000 people who have lost their jobs as a result of this conundrum. (The actual number of job losses is much higher than 250,000, due to the ripple effect of those job losses in peripheral industries).

I'm thinking that the depression in the auto industry is going to ultimately affect the self storage business. It will become cheaper to buy a mega sized SUV to store your stuff in than to rent a storage unit. I'm also envisioning stacking motor homes and selling them as cheap condos.

So how is this all going to shake out? The easy answer is, "not very well." The hard answer is, the auto industry will never be the same. Like general aviation, we have reached the summit in that particular industry, it was nice while it lasted, but the other side of a summit is downhill.

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Mike Folkerth Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Mike Folkerth is the author of "The Biggest Lie Ever Believed" and is not your run-of-the-mill author of finance and economics. The former real estate broker, developer, private real estate fund manager, auctioneer, Alaskan bush pilot, (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Will Our Economy EVER Recover?

Fox News on Georgian Invasion; Not Exactly What They Wanted:

Paradigm Shift; Change Your Life:

U.S. Auto Industry is in Recession:

Housing Predictions:

Treasury and IRS Agree; Pension Freezing is Legal!

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend