Read What I See

     It may appear that way if you are not employed in those dealerships or if you are not the owner who has put his life savings into that business and is now losing everything.

Follow up:

     Have no fear for Obama has promised that consumers do not have to worry about getting warranty services.  Of course when it comes to service, if before it was a half day project to service your car in a dealership that was ten miles from your home, now it may become an expensive one day event to drive sixty miles one way to the nearest service department.  If your car cannot be serviced while you wait then it will be a two day 240 mile round trip.  If you own a model that is less than three years old you may even lose the use of your vehicle for days as the new models parts makers will also be filing for bankruptcy and slow or stop production of those parts.  So don’t be concerned, trust Obama, he always tells us the truth although everyday is a different truth from the one he told the day before.  It is not his fault he only said what he was told to say.

     Chrysler just made public the list of 789 dealerships that are closing; you can see here if your neighborhood dealer has been axed.  My city is on the list.  Fortunately, I have to admit that I don’t own a GM or Chrysler vehicle but always purchase from a U.S. automaker.  GM is planning on closing 2,600 dealerships and just today, it sent notice to 1,100 of them.  The combine closing of the dealerships will add close to 400,000 to the list of unemployed.  This is just one of the side effects of the auto industry bankruptcy.  Then we have the tens of thousands that are directly involve in the production.  Last but not least the hundreds of companies that manufacture parts for these cars.  Ford has so far managed to escape the fate of GM and Chrysler.  Their operation may be affected if they have trouble getting new vehicle parts when the parts makers begin to shut down.

     Who is really scared?  The state of Michigan that is not only loosing so many of these jobs but are now concerned that GM may even pull their headquarters and move it to another state.  Those huge corporate buildings that are setting in Detroit will be half empty by the time the dust settles.  They may conclude that relocation may suit them best.  It will just be another cobwebs filled office building.  Don’t feel bad New York, you are not alone.

     It is amazing to see that on the economic front the stock market appears to be unaffected today's news.  Is this an economic indicator?  No, the reality is that investors pumping money in the stock market today have about as much sense as the politicians in Washington running our nation.  They are as confused as a herd of cattle in a stampede.  Their gloomy talk and the nonsense of an imminent recovery in 2009 is seen by many people as pure rubbish.  They are not convincing the people who can see beyond their lies.  The people or are least those who know better are preparing for the hard economic times that are heading our way.  The government and investors are counting on the rise in consumer confidence and more borrowing on their part.  The people are looking at the real news and are saying, “You guys are nuts, we are not falling for that nonsense”.

     To summarize the bad news on the auto sector we cannot overlook what it does to the already suffering Real Estate market.  Anyone with common sense can see that the residential real estate market has not bottom out yet.  Anyone that can see beyond that is also aware that the commercial real estate collapse is going to be even more damaging, especially to the banks.  As a person who lives by the numbers, for they do not lie let’s do some simple math calculations:  We have been told by GM and Chrysler, some 3,400 dealerships are going to close.  Let’s put aside the massive lose in buildings and equipment that will become useless.  As a conservative figure, let’s say that the average dealership is setting on 10 acres of land. An acre of land is roughly 209’ by 209’ which makes it exactly 43,560 square feet.  Using this figure, we can estimate that a dealership may be setting on 43,560 x 10 = 435,600 square feet of land.  If we go one step beyond and multiply that times the 3,400 dealerships we have 435,600 x 3,400= 1,481,040,000.  That is 1 billion 481 million 40 thousand square feet of commercial land most of which will be foreclosed and contribute to draining the banks and the economy even further.

     Can you see yet that this dominoes effect is taking us to a depression and that our government is in denial?  Better said yet, they are not in denial but trying to conceal the truth (lying).

The fall of a giant. Is the U.S. economy next?