A Good Sign

The big North-American car factories recently reported awesome news. One of them, Ford, declared to have made some of the biggest profits in their history during the first months of America’s “cash for clunkers” program, while General Motors, the biggest of them all, said that it will start repaying the 1.2 billion dollars of help provided by the Yankee Government.

This is the result of money well spent. This is also a consequence of cheap loans with much lower APR’s than those offered by the banking market. It is possible that other companies benefiting from the largesse of the U.S. Treasury and Central Bank will follow the example of General Motors, starting with Ford, who said it is a return to the fat cow times, i.e. profits originating from selling cars directly to consumers.

It is not known to what extent patriotism influenced these increased sales, which of course went on to boost U.S. car sales while decreasing imported auto purchases within America. It is known to be hard for the North-Americans’ powerful local factories to produce and sell cars (and others types of economic goods) when, on the other side of the world, Japanese and Korean automakers can produce on the same scale. Koreans and Japanese always were present in the market with the spirit of little sparing ants who do not hesitate to save their laborious cents. For now, they are receiving only pocket change while Americans follow their spendthrift whims, which are now leading buyers to U.S. car lots. The merchandising slogan from British origin, “Buy English,” was rekindled as “Buy American” from the North to South and East to West of America, a country whose basic industry seemed to have sunk irretrievably.

Apparently, the advertisement linked to signs of patriotism and sense of urgency gave the American consumer that awesome power of retaliation that features a strong economy that is robust, but only momentarily weakened, and full of dominant motives which together produce an indescribable reaction, benefiting all citizens concerned with reviving the economy.

The head of General Motors, Fritz Henderson, commemorated the decision of his corporation with these simple words: “It is a commitment by the leaders of the company to return money to taxpayers.” The decision was made to repay its loans far in advance, meaning that GM will be more than punctual.

Only time will tell whether GM’s results will be achieved by others. GM pays months in advance what the government, exhausted by too many serious problems, was still able to provide for economic structure in defense of the country. The refunds commented on here and many others announced in the U.S. are the typical indications of a man arising from his slouch. That man is the economic crisis, which can shape the world positively or negatively over the near future. Do not have the slightest doubt that the worldwide crisis is still at stake.