R Carlson

Clunkers and Home Buyer Tax Credit: All the Same Thing

What success?? Clunkers deals & housing subsidies borrow from the past as well as the future. Consumers were hoarding clunkers and waiting for many months before the long announced program finally kicked in. Subtract that reduction in sales while waiting, and the programs net grand total increase in sales is pretty small. Furthermore, it made the depth of the recession for the auto industry even worse. Ditto for housing.