Yes, I thought the new figure WAS $36B. I kept hearing that on C-Span, though I didn’t hear the whole thing.

Hopefully, then, that is the number it would take to be able to sustain themselves with N. American sales of say 8M. They can’t keep misoverestimating the market year after year!

=D~~~~

Just saw Bob Lutz on Larry King Live. Just caught the end with Lutz summarizing GM’s great strides with both high quality, and high fuel efficient cars, especially the Volt.

Larry’s comment was “Ge Bob. You don’t look 77 years old.” Lutz said, “Thanks Larry. You don’t look 88!” (Larry is 75)

I say, lets put Lutz in charge of GM.

=D~~~~

Thank you for your very interesting insight.
I specially like the part about the ultra capacitor.
Also, I like your idea about the lith battery being used for long range trips, while the ultra caps can charge everytime the vehicle would hit the electromagnetic fields. It would suck a lot of power, instantly charging and providing additional power to the lith batteries.

Also, I believe that the electromagnetic field can be utilized, by having the car lower an induction coil close to the groud everytime the vehicle would hit an electromagnetic field. This smaller distance could make the system more effecient. The coil could retract once the vehicle passes the magnetic field…

What do you think?

Thank you for the further explanation.

It reflects the fact that in the US there are a lot of people who are interested in working if-as-when there is a good opportunity, but who come in and go out of the labor force as they see an opportunity. Some are individuals in distress, but others are people whose work interest is conditional, i.e., “..when I can get a reasonable job in my home town, but I’m not interested in commuting or moving.” I know lots of people who are this way (and of course lots of others who really have to have a job).

While hardly perfect or complete, there are some good parts about the present tracking system that one should keep in mind

1) The Labor department does follow its own system without bias, so the data is consistent over time, whatever it means

2) The results are independent of other results as they include new information involving numbers of people actually looking for work. In that regard, the number gives new information rather than simply reflecting jobs gained or loss.

3) The values reported come from interviewers talking to individuals, not somebody sending email or tabulating numbers from the internet. Often the same interviewer talks to the same individuals over periods of years (so long as they live at the same address). As such, the results are “primary” data, not derivatives.

637,000 people dropped out of the labor force completely. (That means they are not working…and looking for work).

According to the report the ’share’ of people working in the US is the lowest since they started tracking it…which was sometime in the 40s.

/still hate this system of tracking…it is practically useless

Thank you.

Let the Democrats pass the INVESTMENT act (they will be loans, not handouts like AIG and the banks got) to save the US auto industry and let the Bush administration sink into the ash heap of history.

“The 4 people who signed that letter to President Bush are more at fault for our economy problems now than President Bush himself. Why should we trust them now?”

———–

Well stated. George Bush is not as dumb as they think. The democrats want him to approve the money from TARP/EESA so the blame can be placed on him when people complain about “the taxpayers bailing-out Detroit”. If congress has to vote on and approve a “bridge loan”, congress will be the responsible party. Plus they are not sure of two things. One, they don’t think enough republicans will vote with them to provide “cover” and two, they are not sure Bush would sign the bill. Not signing the bill would place Bush in the spotlight supporting the majority of taxpayers who seem to be saying, rightly or wrongly, that we should not bail-out anyone. They don’t want that kind of PR going into a new congress.