Comments on: Hoping Against Hope

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:03:18 +0000

Just wait, hold on long enough and Americans will regain their sense and go back to buying SUVs and big trucks. Heck gas is cheap! $1.50 here. Never mind that it jumped for some reason 30 cents this week.

If they can hold on long enough their customers will rush back to the dealerships someday soon and buy everything they’ve got and make them all rich…

I hope you can detect the sarcasm here.

have been wondering for the past month if this is some sort of long term change to America. Maybe it could be permanenet or maybe it is something that will just last a few years. Can detroit hold on long enough or will they need a fundamental shift to what they sell and how they sell it.

I think one thing is clear – for America to survive in a global economy we are going to as a whole quit turning up our noses to the way other countries and other companies do what they do, and we’ll have to quit turning our noses to what they buy and sell. We might think that anything but a stomping-romping muscle car or truck is a pansy, limpwristed appliance but I think the customer base has shifted enough that we ought to see that we’ll have to accept that people want some trucks and muscle cars AND the Prius/Civic/Golfs and we better be damn good at building both varieties.

By: porschespeed

porschespeed — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:12:17 +0000

The funny part about it is that there are some who really, yes really, believe that if you just make those people feel secure, they’ll go back to spending and it’ll all be just dandy.

Nevermind layoffs, plant closings, 3T in realestate value erased, record personal debt, rising unemployment…

Nevermind that banks aren’t lending ANY of that bailout money. There using it for bonuses, acquisitions, and (mainly) covering their really shaky balance sheets.

Save for the con men on Wall Street and the hucksters who may get Federal “loans” nobody is saying 2009 will be anything but worse than 2008.

Much worse.

Hope floats. So does some excrement and the garbage on Lake Michigan.

By: Stein X Leikanger

Stein X Leikanger — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:37:18 +0000

The “rebirth” will be some time coming. Me, I think there will be another backlash in January, as irate taxpayers choose a brand they haven’t already made a down payment to.

But here’s the song:

So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

Altogether shout it now
Theres no one
Who can doubt it now
So lets tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again

Your cares and troubles are gone
Therell be no more from now on
From now on…

Happy days are here again
The skies above are here again
So, lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!