Today’s Headlines

  • Anonymous White House official admits: "What we ended up with is a program in which you trade in old clunkers for new clunkers" (NYT)
  • Meanwhile, "clunkers" rush shows signs of a slowdown (Dow Jones)
  • Obama’s green jobs adviser wonders why conservatives are so resistant … (WSJ)
  • … while one Idaho conservative flies his Amtrak flag (AP)
  • Tiny airports sure are getting a lot of stimulus money (ProPublica)

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Today’s Headlines

By Elana Schor |
After years of arguing that transit demand is too low to matter, conservatives protest D.C. transit’s failure to accommodate high demand from conservatives (WSJ) More on the Senate’s vote to let Amtrak passengers travel with guns (CNN, AP) LaHood still reassuring auto dealers they’ll get "cash for clunkers" money (Bloomberg) Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) gets […]

The Times’ Thickheaded Train Tag Team

By Ryan Avent |
The New York Times has now turned loose writers at two of its economics blogs to make weak arguments against the construction of high-speed rail lines. Eric Morris of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies (Photo: ericandrewmorris.com) I have been following Ed Glaeser’s attempt to do a back-of-the-envelope assessment of the costs and benefits of a […]

GAO: Economic Recovery Benefits of ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Are ‘Uncertain’

By Elana Schor |
"Cash for clunkers," the White House’s much-touted program encouraging trade-ins for more fuel-efficient autos, had an "uncertain" impact on economic recovery, according to a new audit from the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) — largely because it remains unclear how many of the car sales it spurred would have occurred without taxpayer subsidies. Were "clunker" […]

As “Cash for Clunkers” Sputters, a Privately Funded Spinoff Picks Up

By Elana Schor |
The U.S. DOT began signaling yesterday that it would bring the "cash for clunkers" program to an end amid growing unease from auto dealers about the government’s slow pace of reimbursement and General Motors’ decision to begin fronting "clunkers" repayments to its own salesmen. (Photo: AmericaJR.com) But with auto-industry forecasters predicting a cool 1 million […]