Paul,


Bad news.  Today on the radio and  in the news was a report that  Mazda is
stopping production of the rotary engine.

Strange news.  About four months ago they were saying the new 16X fuel
mileage was exceeding their piston engine line-up.

What gives?  You can put me back on the list now.

Doug in Japan

Not really bad news. They stopped selling RX7's in the US back in
1995 until 2004. It did not affect us as there are at least
a couple of hundred thousand RX8 engines out there somewhere.
Nobody is buying new cars in the states and Mazda is just trying
to stay alive. This won't change until we vote the crazy idiot
out of office. Perhaps they should only stay in office 2 years
instead of 4.

Paul Lamar


Yes.. Continuous campaigning would clearly be an improvement..  Ha.  ;)

Actually, on a two year cycle, maybe the office holder would be a bit
more focused on getting something done.  Maybe not though.

BTW, Car sales have continued to be pretty good.  Maybe not in
Kalifornia (where the balance of individual welfare/socialism to
corporate welfare/socialism)..  Lots of new cars on the roads in many
places I go, including NY and Austin, TX.


Cheers,

Matt-

You wonder where they get the money?
Smells like subprime mortgages :)
Is GM and Chrysler making the loans?
You and I and everybody else might become owners
of all those new cars? :)

Paul Lamar



Actually, Paul,

Despite what your "sources" tell you, _much_ of the economy is
continuing to function normally.  People are going to work, earning
money, paying taxes, buying and selling things.  Without much drama.
Most people are actually quite practical, believe it or not.  ;)

I doubt there will be much loan forgiveness on the new cars that are
being sold.  Most people understand that cars are a depreciating asset
and as such, can't be considered "investment" the way they used to
think of real estate.

Matt-

I don't think you are watching the biz channel Matt :)

Paul Lamar



CNBC is just another reality show..  Selling drama and laundry soap.
I read a little WSJ and go to work every day - watching what others
that go to work do.

Matt-

What do you do for a living Matt?

Paul Lamar

Electrical Engineer by education...  I work as an Applications
Engineer for Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ - MU), supporting the
deployment of DRAM memory components/modules to the big server and
super computer outfits (IBM, Cray, HP, Dell, etc).  It keeps me out of
the bars (too bad)..


Matt-

You have nothing to worry about because unemployment among college degreed
people is only about 4.5%.

I have noticed food prices and gasoline almost doubling in the last
few years. We are burning our food in our cars in the form of ethanol
while spending a gallon and half of gasoline for every gallon of ethanol
produced. MAJOR STUPIDITY!

My SS check is not getting any larger when the gov said it would be adjusted
for inflation. The gov is lying to us denying inflation. I payed into
that fund my entire working career. On the upside it is not adding more
to the 14 TRILLION US national debt. IMHO I think the china com is loaning
Obama money to destroy capitalism in the US.

Even gold is going down or flat as IMHO rich people are running out
of money to buy it. I can't imagine why it would be going down for
any other reason. Perhaps  Obama is selling our gold out of Fort Knox?

Paul Lamar


Yeah, it's a nice time to have a degree and a job.

I don't think I'm seeing food prices going up _that_ much.  Beef,
dairy and vegetable prices are going up, but it's not crazy:

http://www.mongabay.com/images/commodities/charts/chart-beef.html

http://ycharts.com/indicators/hog_price


I read an article recently that gold prices might be getting crunched
because of tight liquidity (not enough cash floating around).  Now
where is all that money that the feds are pumping into the economy??
Oh yeah, the banks are hanging onto it because of higher reserve
requirements, and to cover potential losses on over valued assets -
see my other message.


Regards,

Matt-

That is not real money :)

How would you deal with the 14 trillion dollar debt?

That is 14,000 billion for those that have trouble with zeros.

That is far from anecdotal :)

Paul Lamar