Submitted by Michael Gipp of The World Complec
How QE helped Main Street, Example 2: Maserati dealerships
I haven’t written on this topic in a long time, but it is time once again to look at the magnificent benefits that have accrued to main street businesses as a result of bailing out bad bets of banks. Today I have selected another typical main street business–the car dealership. I have randomly selected the Maserati brand as the subject of today’s investigation.
Sales data for Maserati sold in North America are available here.
Annual sales of the Maserati brand (in number of cars sold) ranged from less than a thousand per year in 2002 to nearly 13,000 in 2014, thanks to the benevolent leadership of the Fed.
This is a chart that truly screams “Recovery!” In fact, it is quite clear that things are far better now than they have ever been before. If your life seems to be at odds with the obvious economic reality, you are clearly not working hard enough (or perhaps not at all).
All the propaganda to the effect that the goal of quantitative easing was to make the richer even richer still is thoroughly debunked. We can see that small, struggling family businesses like high-end diamond retailers and Maserati dealerships have indeed benefited from quantitative easing.
Randomly selected, you say. Reached into a fish bowl of car manufacturers and pulled out Maserati, hmmm. What’s the chance of that happening, I wonder?
But…I know what you’re saying. The 1% are doing well, not only well, but great. All thanks to Ben and Janet.
The 1% do find it hard to flaunt their exceptional-ism driving a Pinto. Where status matter most, it’s to the 1% and Maserati says it best to all, loud and clear, “I got it, you Neanderthals, and if you were as smart as me, you would be driving a Maserati, too.
I remember when I bought the key to a Maserati, not the Maserati, just the keys. I couldn’t afford the car, I could hardly afford the keys. I felt pretty good about myself. I felt better than the rag-tag lot, I was forced to co-mingle with. On occasion, I would amuse them with my sagacious wit and erudite charm.
Homer , it called deception . In other words you lied in order make others think you were well to do when
In reality you’re poor.Right? Trying to impress people makes you do stupid things. Right?
Now repentance is your only hope.Confessing your sin will do you well .If you don’t . You will forever remain a no good lying POS eternity bound for Hell.
Remember the time Ofra got mad because the Swiss shopkeeper wouldn’t show her a $35,000 purse? The message was, we are in charge now and the white folk are out in the fields picking the cotton.
You people (heh) wishing you’d picked your own cotton, pick a bail of cotton for the one percenters, you owe it to them.
This country looks more and more like Mexico where the rich are rich and the poor have no clue.
I confess, I confess! You’re right, Anonymous, I’m a hopeless boob, trying to gain a modicum of popularity and respect by inflating my image among my peers. That’s done, I feel better now.
Catharsis or whiskey have always worked for me.
Thank you, Anonymous for this moment of redemption.
bb the banderillero has been the cause of many a repentance. I still love his ‘guilt cookies’ shiv.
There are billboards on i95 here advertising maserati leases for 699. a month. You could get one for yourself, and one for the wife, for less than the cost of one minimum wage employee.
Maserati is joke. Alfo-Romeo is recycling the name. I’d venture a guess that in 3 years resale values will drop at least 50%. This car is for wanna-be’s.
A wealthy friend of mine was leasing a Maserati a few yrs ago. At the time I was single and we would go with a couple of other friends to clubs to do the club thing. There were a few time when the gold diggas were friendlier as soon as they saw what we were driving. Other than that, nothing special…. So, yes. It’s a status thing bc we need shit to feel better about ourselves.