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President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Moderator1, Nov 12, 2016.

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  1. goalmouth

    goalmouth Well-Known Member

    The Kanye visit was a make-good from Monday. Trump thought he was an indigenous person.
     
    goalmouth, Oct 12, 2018
    #111601
    OscarMadison and Chef2 like this.
  2. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Man, I miss those nights waiting on copy while shooting the bull with the night crew.

    Not enough to stay up past 10:30 on a weeknight though.
     
    Inky_Wretch, Oct 12, 2018
    #111602
  3. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    My bad, the base digs the Infrastructure Week vibe, that’s why it never ends.
     
    Machine Head, Oct 12, 2018
    #111603
  4. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    You magnificent bastard.
     
    Chef2, Oct 12, 2018
    #111604
    OscarMadison and goalmouth like this.
  5. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Although he doesn't take in new information, nor learn, nor think, it's important to present the truth to the Office of the Ubu.

    Here:

     
    Azrael, Oct 12, 2018
    #111605
  6. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    The tariffs don't help Ford, for sure. It doesn't help American consumers, who are strapped and carrying a ton of debt and rely on cheap foreign goods to fuel our consumption addiction. But the auto industry is in trouble (and I don't think we have seen anything yet) because a subprime auto loan bubble fueled sales for a decade and sent auto prices up and sales soaring. It appears to have peaked, and as rates on new auto loans have been rising, sales have fallen. And that is without all of the defaults on the crummy loans yet.
     
    The Big Ragu, Oct 12, 2018
    #111606
  7. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Every new car sales boom carries the seeds of its own destruction. After enough of them get bought, you have a much diminished customer base. Back when I was a kid, trading in a car for a new one after 3-4 years was a natural thing. Now people hold on to their cars for much longer, and they can because they are all so much better built. The 2003 Corolla that I gave to one of my nieces as a high school graduation present in 2017 is still going strong.
     
    Michael_ Gee, Oct 12, 2018
    #111607
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    You are right on the boom / bust thing. This boom was particularly boomy. Auto loan balances are at record levels. Somewhere around $1.25 trillion now. They really took off in the ZIRP environment, which encouraged reckless lending throughout the economy. Worse, though, subprime auto debt - - people with shaky credit, low incomes, but being approved to buy $35,000 SUVs and pickup trucks -- shot way up. It creates a cycle of debt for people. High interest loans that eat up a huge chunk of their income. The industry loves it, as long as people are staying on the treadmill and making payments. Thing is, we are in the 9th year of an expansion (as crappy as it has been), which I think would have tipped into recession already if not for reckless stimulus (the tax cuts combined with drunken sailor spending) that is making for one last burst of sugar high that is passing through right now. At the same time, rates are just starting to rise after a decade in which people got used to it being essentially free to borrow in real terms. That is when you find out who is swimming naked. At some level of interest (and we are not even close to a neutral rate), there are going to be wholesale defaults, and the amount of total debt at all levels (consumer, corporate and government) created over the last 10 years is huge. It will be bad for consumers, bad for the economy (because that debt permeates lots of other areas), and bad for the auto industry. Combine it with a stagnant economy, or worse, one that falls off a cliff during the next recession, and it's not a great formula. I believe that is what Ford is just starting to see the seeds of right now. There was never going to be a time for them better than 2015, 2016, 2017. We cam all thank the Federal Reserve, which conducted the worst experiment in leverage and debt creation in history. I hope people remember them when there is a huge price to pay. It never works that way, though. Fire breaks out, the arsonist who started it rides in on the fire truck to put it out, and an ill-informed population is told to cheer them on.
     
    The Big Ragu, Oct 12, 2018
    #111608
  9. Driftwood

    Driftwood Well-Known Member

    There are three groups in play, I think.
    Group 1 - the morons who get worked up at the rallies, don't have a clue what's going on, and don't understand why it's corrupt in the first place.
    Group 2 - the people who should really know better but never hear unflattering news because all they watch is Fox News; when they do hear about it, they deny it because it isn't on Fox.
    Group 3 - the people who know and don't care because they somehow benefit from corruptness of this whole circus.
     
    Driftwood, Oct 12, 2018
    #111609
    OscarMadison likes this.
  10. garrow

    garrow Well-Known Member

    garrow, Oct 12, 2018
    #111610
  11. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    I'd only add that it's a little worse than you made it sound.

    The average car loan is now $31,453.

    A $523 monthly payment is the new standard for car buyers
     
    Azrael, Oct 12, 2018
    #111611
  12. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    I've said this here before: talk radio and the internet have made people follow politics like sports. We have no more republicans nor democrats. We have republican fans and democrat fans. Democrat fans are like Auburn fans, thinking Alabama cheats while everything they do is awesome. vice versa with Republican fans as Alabama fans. They listen to the talk radio and read internet message boards that feed their biases and discard anything from anyone else as either fake news or being a news organization "out to get" whoever they root for.

    Now, I think we have a new subculture: Trump fans. They just like him because he's doing what they think they would do in that situation and he says things they like to hear.

    Ever have a shitty mechanic that you deep down suspected was shitty but you kept going because you liked the guy? That's them, minus the eventual wising up that the guy sucks and finding someone new to try and fix your jalopy.

    I could probably make a killing selling car flags with elephants and donkeys on them.
     
    BitterYoungMatador2, Oct 12, 2018
    #111612
    Driftwood and cyclingwriter2 like this.
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