Makes sense, doesn't it?
I don't mean to insinuate that politicians, economists and Wall Street investors are blockheads or anything like that, but sometimes I wonder about it.
Today they are in a tizzy because the rate of inflation has shot up 0.6 percent. Yesterday they were celebrating because retail sales were up 1 percent. No one seems to connect the two.
I'm no economist and certainly cannot lay claim to being a mathematician, but I figure that inflation has caused the price to go up on the shirt I bought a year ago. If I buy an identical shirt today, doesn't that mean retail sales figures go up? So isn't the 1 percent increase actually 0.4 percent? If they say inflation was factored into the 1 percent figure, how can that be when the new rate of inflation wasn't announced until today?
#
No one can accuse the big shots at GM, Ford and Chrysler of being the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. After all, they once had a near monopoly on auto sales in this country. Sure, some rich guy would import a Rolls Royce every now and then but that was about it. So a decade or two after World War II they had run Studebaker, Packard, Hudson, Nash, Kaiser and everybody else out of business, which meant the Big Three could start turning out crap. Why not? People still had to buy cars, didn't they?
But wait, the Japanese and the Germans decided to move in on the market and just look at the state of the Big Three today. Now they are trying to build a little quality into their cars but they waited a little too long to make that decision. So are they right up to date and on top of the situation today? You might think so because a couple of days ago Jackie received a notice from Ford's Mercury division saying, "Our records indicate the factory warranty on your Mercury has expired or may be expiring soon."
Yes, all you folks at Mercury, the warranty has indeed expired because the car was purchased in March of 1977. That would make it 31 years old if it was still running. Don't see too many '77 Mercury Monarchs on the street today, do you? Ours, the one under discussion, was totaled in a 1981 head-on collision with a big International Scout.
It does appear that Mercury needs to do a little work on updating its records. We didn't purchase the extende warranty, of course, and unless Toyoto quits selling Camrys (ours was made in Lexington, Ky.) I doubt we'll be putting Mercury on our list. You'll have to give them credit for one thing, though. When they talk abut an extended warranty they mean a really extended warranty.
Today they are in a tizzy because the rate of inflation has shot up 0.6 percent. Yesterday they were celebrating because retail sales were up 1 percent. No one seems to connect the two.
I'm no economist and certainly cannot lay claim to being a mathematician, but I figure that inflation has caused the price to go up on the shirt I bought a year ago. If I buy an identical shirt today, doesn't that mean retail sales figures go up? So isn't the 1 percent increase actually 0.4 percent? If they say inflation was factored into the 1 percent figure, how can that be when the new rate of inflation wasn't announced until today?
#
No one can accuse the big shots at GM, Ford and Chrysler of being the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. After all, they once had a near monopoly on auto sales in this country. Sure, some rich guy would import a Rolls Royce every now and then but that was about it. So a decade or two after World War II they had run Studebaker, Packard, Hudson, Nash, Kaiser and everybody else out of business, which meant the Big Three could start turning out crap. Why not? People still had to buy cars, didn't they?
But wait, the Japanese and the Germans decided to move in on the market and just look at the state of the Big Three today. Now they are trying to build a little quality into their cars but they waited a little too long to make that decision. So are they right up to date and on top of the situation today? You might think so because a couple of days ago Jackie received a notice from Ford's Mercury division saying, "Our records indicate the factory warranty on your Mercury has expired or may be expiring soon."
Yes, all you folks at Mercury, the warranty has indeed expired because the car was purchased in March of 1977. That would make it 31 years old if it was still running. Don't see too many '77 Mercury Monarchs on the street today, do you? Ours, the one under discussion, was totaled in a 1981 head-on collision with a big International Scout.
It does appear that Mercury needs to do a little work on updating its records. We didn't purchase the extende warranty, of course, and unless Toyoto quits selling Camrys (ours was made in Lexington, Ky.) I doubt we'll be putting Mercury on our list. You'll have to give them credit for one thing, though. When they talk abut an extended warranty they mean a really extended warranty.
posted by Dick Stodghill | 6/13/2008 10:56:00 AM
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