Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Cash for Clunkers

A Common Thread in the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit and ‘Cash for Clunkers’

By Elana Schor | Jan 20, 2010 | 1 Comment

Back in the days of "cash for clunkers," which saw the Obama administration send nearly $3 billion in taxpayer-funded rebates to boost the sagging auto industry, our Ryan Avent and several other economics wonks pointed out an inconvenient fact: Many participants in the program would have bought cars anyway, and the rebates only pulled their […]

Grassley Looking Into Citibank’s Million-Dollar ‘Clunkers’ Deal

By Elana Schor | Jan 5, 2010 | 2 Comments

Chuck Grassley (IA), the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, today asked the U.S. DOT to answer a question Streetsblog Capitol Hill first wondered about months ago: How did Citibank, the beleaguered recipient of a $45 billion government bailout, snag a contract to administer the Obama administration’s "cash for clunkers" program? Sen. Chuck Grassley […]

‘Cash for Clunkers’ Backer Sutton Steps it Up for Ohio Transit

By Elana Schor | Dec 11, 2009 | 1 Comment

Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) was one of the prime movers behind the economically and environmentally misguided "cash for clunkers" program, but she is switching gears to help save transit in Lorain County, Ohio, where bus service could be canceled in 2010 after voters rejected a sales tax increase to raise operating funds. Rep. Betty Sutton […]

Has the Government Been Bailing Out Sprawl?

By Ryan Avent | Nov 2, 2009 | 10 Comments

One of the themes of the financial and economic crisis we’ve faced over the past two years is that government, pressed into responding to serious economic pain, has often found itself supporting the activities that got us into this mess in the first place. Sign of the times? Side-by-side foreclosures in Massachusetts. (Photo: Yovani via […]

Advice for Policymakers: Time to Check Your Blind Spots

By Ryan Avent | Oct 27, 2009 | 2 Comments

Last week, I left my Washington home, walked to the nearby Metro station, rode a train downtown, walked to the National Press Club, and settled in to hear Steven Rattner, former head of the Obama administration’s auto task force, declare that "no one has yet invented a substitute for the automobile." Steven Rattner (Photo: WSJ) […]

A Last Word on ‘Cash for Clunkers’

By Ryan Avent | Sep 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

One thing the government’s CARS program — a.k.a. "cash for clunkers" — has clearly stimulated is commentary. For a policy involving a shade under $3 billion in federal spending, it has enjoyed no shortage of media coverage. (Photo: Newsday) In part this is because the program looks like a big success, and certainly congressional leaders […]

Show More Stories