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    How Risky is Driving a Toyota?

    Toyota has seen better months than February when the automaker recalled millions of vehicles amidst a sticky pedal and unintended acceleration problem that led to sales decline of 8.7 percent. To win back the consumer, Toyota offered incentives including extended warrantees, auto maintenance plans and zero percent financing, and it … More

    Is the House Trying to Start a Trade War?

    Is the House of Representatives trying to start a trade war in the midst of the worst economy in a generation? Sure seems that way. When the House passed the Energy and Water appropriations bill they included a protectionist provision that is not only misguided, but it is poorly applied. … More

    The Obama Car Tax

    I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes. – then-candidate Barack Obama, 9/12/2008. A senior administration … More

    Death By DMV

    One of today’s great Chicago architects likes to critique buildings by asking: “If this is the answer, what was the question?” It cuts to the chase. Imagine standing before this…thing and applying the above critique. The question becomes: “Can you build me a poorly lit maximum-security prison tower to live … More

    75 Years Ago, Ford’s Better Idea

    “A Conservative,” that anonymous scribe within Heritage, surfaces again for the second time in three days with a cautionary tale for the Big Three about Henry Ford, FDR and Big Government strings. This latest edition of New Common Sense, titled “Ford Faced Down FDR’s Blue Eagle,” reads as follows:   Out … More

    Morning Bell: Bankruptcy Is Best Way to Save Auto Industry

    Last night while marshaling votes for the House’s eventual 237-to-170 vote in favor of nationalizing Detroit, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told the Wall Street Journal: “If we do nothing we face the risk that sometime soon there will be no American auto industry.” Hoyer has it exactly backward. … More

    Disturbing Auto Industry #s

    Lynne Kiesling highlights these daunting numbers from David Yermack’s WSJ piece: • GM and Ford are two companies that made the most money-losing investments in the 1980s; between them they “destroyed $110 billion in capital” in the decade, according to an analysis from the careful and renowned economist Michael Jensen. … More

    Auto Bailout: Stuck in Neutral

    Congress is facing a few road bumps during this lame duck session to pass any legislation. The Omnibus Lands Bill that restricts energy exploration has been put on the backburner, at least for now, to make room for a vote to bail out Detroit. The good news is Democrats and … More

    More Help for the Auto Industry? Just Say No

    General Motors wants to merge with Chrysler. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Turning Detroit’s Big Three into the Big Two might be just the remedy for an ailing U.S. auto industry. Maybe not. But that’s not the problem. The problem is how GM is proposing to merge with Chrysler — … More

    The Auto Bailout: What’s Behind the Wheel?

    As discussed in Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy James L. Gattuso’s recent blog post, the House this week approved a new $25 billion loan program for Detroit automakers, and the Senate is expected to soon follow suit. The loans are to develop alternatives to conventional fossil fuel powered vehicles … More