Posted by
Tom L. on Thursday, August 13, 2009 5:00:00 PM
According to the AP:
A Commerce Department report on Thursday showed total retail sales edged down 0.1 percent…Excluding motor vehicles and parts, sales fell 0.6 percent in July…
Analysts had expected a boost to retail sales from the government's "cash for clunkers" program and predicted a 0.7 percent advance in overall July sales.
They said the program…had pulled spending away from other sectors.
Just shocking that people took advantage of the government's give-away of cash and spent some of their own money to buy the cars and thus did not spend that money elsewhere.
In other words:
- Cash for clunkers took money (borrowed from the future) and gave it to others (wealth distribution).
- People took money the they would have spent on other items anyway and spent it on cars (so little change in total money they spent).
Tell me again how this stimulates the economy?