Monday, April 7, 2014

Rising Interest Rates: Autoimmune Disease

The following chart shows the "rising interest rate" environment as seen through the eyes of commercial banks offering 48 month new auto loans.


Click to enlarge.

1. Note that auto loans appear to be immune.
2. Check out that Motor Trend (we're right on it).



Autoimmune Disease

The treatment of autoimmune diseases is typically with immunosuppression—medication that decreases the immune response.

Alternatively, the Fed can just keep giving this economy more crack cocaine. Tough call.

Crack Cocaine

Crack cocaine is a substance that affects the brain chemistry of the user: causing euphoria, supreme confidence, loss of appetite, insomnia, alertness, increased energy, a craving for more cocaine, and potential paranoia (ending after use).

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

8 comments:

mab said...

I just can't figure out what's up with the bond vigilantes. It's almost as if they ceased to exist. Shocking!

Similarly, I'm shocked that banks aren't loaning out all their excess reserves. What gives? It's almost like the system doesn't work as advertised.

I sure wish I had a phd in eCONomics. Then maybe I could make sense of all this.

Shocked, I tell you!

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

I think the banks could raise interest rates on 48 month new car loans (and rake in even more profits), but they simply choose not to do so. It's sort of a mass humanitarian effort in this sluggish economy.

I also expect my bank to not only raise the interest rate they give me on my checking account to 10%, but actually start to send me personal $500 stimulus checks as a thank you each month for being such a loyal customer.

And lastly, I expect an alien race from a planet located 273.2 lightyears from here to immigrate to our country and buy so many cars that our auto industry will never experience another cyclical downturn!

As you can see, my expectations are well-anchored.

mab said...

my expectations are well-anchored.

My expectations are well Othelloed too!

Unequal measure for measure. As you wouldn't like it. Nothing ado about much. All's well that never ends well.

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

Doubled, doubled, spoiled then troubled, FIRE burned as housing bubbled.

Friends, Caymans, Countrywide, lend me your Sears.

Anonymous said...

The average loan for a Dodge charged an APR of 7.4 percent, and 23 percent of the loans had APRs of more than 10 percent, making it the brand with the highest percentage of loans for more than 10 percent, followed closely by Chrysler and Mitsubishi. Rates on subprime auto loans can climb to 19 percent, according to S&P.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-08/good-job-is-good-enough-as-subprime-car-buyers-lift-sales.html

Josap

mab said...

Friends, Caymans, Countrywide, lend me your Sears.

Nice!

I know very little about Shakespeare. But years ago I used to do lots of crossword puzzles.

My all time favorite was a 1990s puzzle in the NY Times Sunday edition entitled "The Battered Bard".

I started working on the puzzle in a sports bar in Hoboken, NJ while watching NFL football. The bar owner was also a crossword fan. Before we new it, dozens of people wanted in.

Most of the puzzle was completed in the bar, but it took me a few more days to actually complete it.

Pre-internet and no clue books either. I did make a phone call to an English major friend though.

Shakespearian clues with answers that were battered and bruised! Clever to say the least.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Josap,

Who is foolishly loaning at 19% to subprime borrowers when that money can grow even faster in the stock market with much less risk?

The whole world's a f@#$ing casino, lol. Sigh.

Stagflationary Mark said...

mab,

Awesome story!

I'm not at all good at crossword puzzles. My brain just isn't wired that way. I do much better at anagram games (like Scrabble) that require pattern recognition but not much memorization (a larger vocabulary clearly helps though).

There's a reason I never became an English major, and history degrees were right out. Fortunately, physics came naturally to me. Whew! ;)