Ontario to offer $10,000 electric car incentive

Peacenik keeps asking why Ontario is any different from the bankrupt California. Ontario, Canada's new have not province, is trying to revive the housing bubble and the dead automotive industry. Ontario owns some portion of GM. Peacenik can't remember how much. But a deficit ridden Ontario is going to go all in on electric cars? Is going to give non-existent tax dollars to the public to buy electric cars? Here's what Jim Kunstler had to say about electric cars:

"From a purely practical standpoint, the electric car is absurd. If they were produced on a mass basis, they would crash the electric grid -- assuming that the masses could afford to buy them, which assumes a lot. We simply don't have the electric generating capacity to run even one-quarter of the current car fleet on volts, and building the necessary nuclear or coal-fired power plants in five years is also an absurdity. (Don't expect wind, solar, biomass, or anything else to pick up the slack.) If electric cars were produced as just a niche product for the elite (e.g. Goldman Sachs employees), they would soon provoke the resentment of the non-elite left to the mercy of the oil markets."

Peacenik wonders how desperate Ontario is. This is lunacy. This is Social Credit redux. Who in Ontario, other than the bankrupt government, wants to buy a $40,000 electric car? Ontario can't even keep air conditioners running ferchrissakes.

Ontario to offer $10,000 electric car incentive

Ontario's government will announce a plan Wednesday to offer purchasers of electric cars incentives of up to $10,000 in a bid to make the environmentally-friendly vehicles more accessible to the average consumer.

The plan is part of the province's attempts to boost the struggling auto sector and position itself at the forefront of the emerging technology, sources told The Canadian Press.

"It's clear that cars are moving in this direction," a government source said.

Read on...

Why Bankruptcy For Autos But Not Banks?

The news this morning would be amusing if it weren’t so sad.

The Obama administration is undergoing a battle between its own good instincts with those of its Treasury Secretary.

Away from Treasury, on the side of intelligence, new policies, a clean break from the Paulson/Bush plans — I believe during the campaign, it was called CHANGE — and inevitability, are prepackaged bankruptcies, clean balance sheets, and a fresh start. This is reflected in the Fed exploration of $40 billion in bankruptcy funding for GM.

On the side of more of the same, bad decision making, regulatory capture, worshiping sacred cows, and a hard-to-understand goal of saving the banks rather than the financial system, is the utterly absurd proposal to somehow spend 10X the market cap of Citigroup for a 40% stake in the apparently insolvent firm.

Read on...

The fact that this discussion about the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler and the insolvency of CITI and BofA is not surprising is the biggest surprise of all. Just months ago, the economy was sound according to our lying leaders. Just months ago, the banking system was strong according to those same leaders. Just months ago GM and Chrysler had survival plans: they were going to sell 10 million vehicles this year. They will be lucky to sell 2 million.

Peacenik wants to know the following answers: Will those who know the truth and have the facts start telling the truth? Would someone start cataloguing the lies we've been told? Is the Canadian banking system solvent? Are Canadian pension plans solvent? What happens to GM and Air Canada and countless other pensioners if their pensions go poof? It is time for citizens to be told the truth. It is time for citizens to demand the truth.

Debt Rattle, November 16 2008: Everybody Now!

Ilargi: Now the G20 meeting is finished, we see confirmed once more what I've said all along: the whole circus was an emtpy charade from the start, and nothing was achieved. Except perhaps for one notion that stands out: the vast majority of so-called leaders (isn't that a title you need work to deserve?) understand that it's everybody for himself.

The best illustration of this is provided by the fact that all participants agreed that a lot of studying and talking is left to do, before they meet again. Which is supposed to be in April 2009 (?!). That’s half a year away. Until then, the world will supposedly stand still. May I suggest you look back 6 months, to April of this year? Try some of the media headlines in those days. It'll give you a good indication of how much change can occur in such a relatively short period, and how useless therefore an agreement like this is.

Read on...

Peacenik watched the Sunday morning talking heads, went to the mall, did some shopping, and everything seemed "normal". The talking heads were more interested in Obama's new dog than they were in the G20 meeting. Lots of bonhomie. The mall was busy. The liquor store was busy. People enjoyed the Santa Claus parade. Meanwhile the economy continues to evaporate. While the ideologues argue about whether or not to save GM, GM is vaporizing. Peacenik thinks all this is very weird. It should be an interesting week.

Three Zeros: Circuit City, GM, Fannie Mae

Circuit City (CC) is now trading at 11 cents. CC beat the Christmas rush by filing Chapter 11.

Circuit City Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy amid rising competition from Best Buy Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and online electronics retailers.

The petition for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, listed $3.4 billion in assets and $2.32 billion in liabilities, driving the shares down 56 percent before the New York Stock Exchange halted trading. The company said it is entering court protection owing Hewlett-Packard Co. $119 million and Samsung Electronics Co. $116 million.

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Peacenik can't keep track of the carnage and doesn't have a lot to say. What can you say? How is this going to get turned around? Mish is very pessimistic.

Debt Rattle, November 6 2008: Building Character

Ilargi: As Obama builds an economic team consisting entirely of Wall Street insiders, a decision he, and all of us, will come to deeply regret, the economy keeps on tanking like there's not even a tomorrow morning.

A 1.5% rate cut in England, an 0.5% cut in continental Europe with a promise of more, and none of it has any positive effects anymore: shares tank regardless. Governments will have to start buying companies outright, or let them go down, that is all that's left. The Dow Jones lost 5.1% yesterday, and is so far today well on its way towards shedding another 5%.

Read on...

Peacenik hopes that Ilargi is being a little bit alarmist, but the top headline in the Globe and Mail on Friday screams "Auto makers plead for 'survival' loans." Yesterday the Dow and TSX were down bigtime....again. Oil is below $57 a barrel. Reality seems to be asserting itself in the financial/industrial markets. Does anyone have a plan? Does anyone know what is going on? Can this implosion be managed? Like you, Peacenik can only watch and hope.