The Scam:Continuing Saga
Obama's 2009 energy tax credit legislation was designed to prop up flagging unemployment and revive the small and large manufacturing sector after the Bush Crash decimated the world economy.
Giving $7500 federal tax credits for new HVAC systems, home solar arrays, and electric vehicles, and other home improvements was an incentive to taxpayers to loosen their pursestrings and revive to American economy.
Bush's "Go shopping" quip failed to entice the public to spend.
Although individual taxpayers thought they were getting a good deal, the reality was they were paying a marked up price for those same products as the manufacturers and businesses installing those products simply increased their prices to pilfer that money from the buyer.
The geothermal HVAC system I had installed cost me $23,000 in 2010, but would have cost much less in 2007.
I don't know this for certain, but recent events convince me it is true.
Let me explain why.
The recent debacle regarding the electric Ford truck I had been waiting for revived my suspicions when they raised the price 10k, from $40k to $50k while I was waiting for production to begin.
And when Biden limited the rebate to vehicles with American sourced components, he cut out all the foreign manufacturers and further incentivised the American manufacturers to pop prices another $10k, to $60k for the same truck.
Consequently, the foreign manufacturers, supposedly our friends, are being sanctioned by our government and giving Detroit a huge advantage in pricing.
I now see Volkswagen and others giving $7500 discounts to lease an electric, which indicates to me they were overpriced by that amount to begin with.
This entire endeavor, from 2009 forward, was a dip into taxpayer money to prop up flagging businesses and pry money from the public.
Same o' same o'
Thread is open, sorry it's a little late.
Comments
Sorry to impinge
on your post El.
Had an early morning Dr. appointment.
Got in late last night.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Hey, I posted Jerry Day as non OT non front page, I suspect
the mysterious hand of some higher power elevated it when yours was awol too long. No competition anyway, just too columns posted on same day, pretty common.
be well and have a good one
edit - changed dap to day
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Guilty...
as charged, and you're completely correct about my motis operandi.
Just call me sherlock. n/t
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
"Dap" was OK too...
Yeah, that came to mind as I was correcting it.
Musical typos, who'da thunk it.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I have only one technical disagreement
with am otherwise essential point:
The government is not spending taxpayer money, it is printing it. That means it is borrowing the money with no intention to ever pay off the loan. In reality there is no limit to the cost of this give-away to the rich, just the specific identity of the ultimate recipient. From today into perpetuity conservatives will grandstand that we "cannot pay" for essential services and infrastructure while "liberals" use "the defecit" as an excuse to fail to provide those same services. The truth is that in the end we get nothing but inflation.
On to Biden since 1973
I beg to differ with your last sentence.
I am relatively certain that in the end we also get the shaft.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
@doh1304 Well, I truly believe the
Well, I truly believe the printing party is almost over, recent signs of which include the recent downgrade (first in 30 years) in the U.S. credit rating and the fact that the U.S. is finally unable to protect the USD's reserve status globally with its military. Already big players are accepting other currencies in global trade, and the BRICS have even bigger ambitions. https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/von-greyerz-its-all-about-eco....
The lease may be a loophole
...in the IRA that is being created to answer the complaints of car producing allies, that their EVs are being discriminated against.
I read a long article about declining exports from South Korea to the US, and how the US responded by saying it would change regulations to get around the restriction on "sales" of EVs from overseas that didn't have batteries meeting the IRA's legislation's produced in North America requirement or something to that effect.
Hyundai and others were very angry that they had promised to invest billions in the US in new manufacturing plants, and their exports were being discriminated against in the IRA. I don't think the lease loophole will entirely fix their car export problem but it will alleviate it, by increasing the proportion of their US marketed autos that are exported to the US and provide a bridge till their US factories come on line, and their domestic production adjusts to the IRA. I tried to summarize as I remembered it. Hope I got it right. It's a long report, and has to be downloaded to read.
I can't remember if they specified an effective date. I think they had a 12 month waiver originally to get over the restriction, now they needed another fix.
How the United States solved South Korea’s problems with electric vehicle subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act
Chad P. Bown (PIIE)
Working Papers 23-6
July 2023
https://www.piie.com/publications/working-papers/how-united-states-solve...
(edit: I'm not a big fan of the Peterson Institute, but the article is getting a positive reaction from people who follow South Korean economic issues at another site I visit.)
語必忠信 行必正直
hah! the inflation reduction act
sounds like the clean water act and clean air act
they actually did the opposite of their named purpose
better truth: act like inflation reduces (not), or act like
water is cleaner (not) or act like the air is cleaner (not)
in an upside down, backwards, mirror image world perhaps?
now the current lies are carbon capture, green energy and
electric vehicles that don't burn much
question everything
I don't know how
...foreign made car distributors in the US or their dealerships work their contractual relationships in the US. I know from recent experience that I had to pay well above sticker price on a new Korean made van (not an EV). Originally they wanted 10 thousand above sticker price. They were just charging whatever the market would bear. We had lost both our cars in the flood. The dealer and the salesman alleged that the more desirable cars were being "rationed" by the distributor. He claimed it was due to a supply chain shortage in semi-conductors. I didn't say anything to them because I had to have that van. There appeared to be a shortage or US car makers just stopped marketing them. Later, I expressed the opinion that it was simply improbable that there was a shortage of such low end semiconductors in South Korea. There was definitely a shortage of vans. There were thousands of SUVs available in the region but they wanted too much for them as well.
語必忠信 行必正直