New car prices and ousting Maduro

New car prices and ousting Maduro

New car prices – Ouch!

Word is that car buyers are finally suffering sticker shock and new car sales are falling. I remember when I had a Saab 900 convertible and the local Saab dealer said that he was doomed because the new models were all priced over $20,000. Now the average new car price is over $50,000. I presume that people are buying more used cars – but that will drive their prices up too. They are also probably looking to finance longer – but that will lead to higher defaults when the value of the car falls below the remaining payments. To really date me, my first new car was a 1968 Toyota Corolla that I bought new for $1,650. That is not a misprint. The same year I bought a 13” Sony Trinitron color TV for $350. Now a Toyota Corolla costs over $30,000 and for $350 you can get a 65” 4k smart TV. So the question is why did cars get so expensive while its components like electronics and computers got so cheap? 

One thing that I don’t quite understand is what happened to the lower priced cars. In 2019 there were 72 models priced under $30,000. In 2024 there were only 22. Was this because production costs have risen so that the lower priced cars are money losers? Was the only reason the lower priced cars were there in the first place was because of the fleet milage requirements? I also guess that the labor costs are a major factor. Another factor would have to be all the government mandated safety equipment. I once read that GM was a pension fund that made autos on the side. The bottom line is whether the automobile companies can profitably make cars under $30,000 and if the public would buy them. Yugo anyone?

Regardless, I have no plans to ever buy another car, new or used. I plan to drive the wheels off of mine. Only if a vehicle is totaled will I then buy another and it will be used. 

BTW, one cost factor that I have not seen talked about is the property tax some states charge on cars. Our neighbors to the north in Virginia pay a yearly tax of between $4.15 and $5.33 per $100 assessed value of a car. That’s an additional cost of ownership. So a $100,000 car would be assessed an additional $4,150 – $5,330 per year. Empirically I would bet that states with higher car property taxes would have relatively more used car sales than states without automobile property taxes.

We are not really going to war with Venezuela, are we?

Apparently Trump has issued an ultimatum to Maduro (my favorite type of cigar) to get out of the country or we will shut down their air space. I believe that doing so would universally be considered an act of war. There is a reason that Trump has deployed 10,000-15,000 troops, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier task group, the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, several destroyers and one attack submarine. Is that reason an actual attack on Venezuela? It is apparent that Trump is trying to force Maduro out. Now whether he will go is another question. But somehow I don’t think that the American public will support an invasion of Venezuela that imperils American troops. But if we shut down their airspace, their forces attempting to counter us might lead to a loss of American lives. Although it is highly unlikely, I hope the president goes to the congress to ask for authorization to use military force. All this reminds me of George H. W. Bush’s invasion of Panama to depose its de facto leader, Manual Noriega also accused of drug racketeering. 

Maduro is illegitimate. He has lost two elections but has refused to vacate his office. He has plundered the country, impoverished it and has driven 8 million Venezuelans into exile. Most have gone to Columbia and Peru. About 900,000 have come to the United States with 600,000 holding Temporary Protected Status. Homeland Security’s Kristi (Border Barbie) Noem of the false eyelashes and hair extensions has announced that the Venezuelans no longer meet the conditions for TPS and it is terminated as of November 7, 2025. However, the courts have extended that to October 2, 2026. The question is where will they go?

Trump initially said that the purpose of all of the forces in the eastern Caribbean was to interdict drug trafficking to the US leading to the destruction of a bunch of boats and killing 83 and counting. But actually more drugs are going from Venezuela to Europe than to the US. The drugs go to West African jihadists and then to Europe. The cocaine is produced in Columbia but shipped out of Venezuela financing criminal gangs, jihadists and al-Queda affiliated groups. One expert said all this is fueled by growing demand for drugs in Europe and “The quantities have gone up so much, the problem that traffickers have now is moving them.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Venezuela’s role as a drugs transit hub is a justification for the U.S.’s strikes on alleged drug boats. He said that instead of Europeans criticizing the U.S. action, “maybe they should be thanking us.”

If Maduro goes then so do the ease of drugs flowing from Columbia through Venezuela to feed US and European demand. The core the problem is the demand for drugs. Without the demand there would be little supply and little need for interdiction. 

Lastly, isn’t Trump’s pardon of Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández a bit contradictory? He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for receiving millions of dollars for protecting drug smugglers. Hernández was accused of being at the center of “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) said “Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States, Lock up every drug runner! I don’t understand why he is being pardoned.” Well neither does anyone else. Presidential apologist White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said without elaborating that Hernández had been falsely prosecuted by the Biden administration. Trump said that “Many people that I greatly respect” had told him Hernández had been “treated very harshly and unfairly.” I thought Trump wanted drug lords to be “treated very harshly and unfairly”? If this had happened during the Biden administration the republicans would be calling for an investigation, asking if Hunter were somehow involved and if there were a kick back. The right wing press would be howling. But its Trump and there is silence. 

This stinks.