How TrueCar and other Third Party Auto Retail Vendors Work

by David Ruggles

How do the third party vendors like TrueCar, and the others, actually work? It’s really quite simple. The auto buying Consumer belongs to retail Auto Dealers. They have the money invested in inventory. They have substantial investment in facilities. The third party vendors spend large amounts of money to “hijack” those auto buying Consumers and take them “hostage.” They then “ransom” them back to the Dealers for a sizable chunk of change. In the case of TrueCar the “ransom” is about $400. on a new vehicle and $300. on pre-owned. That money is reinvested by the vendor and used to “hijack” and “ransom” even more car buying Consumers. They are able to “hijack” these Consumers by pretending to protect them from the Auto Dealers, as if the Consumers are helpless sheep. These vendors don’t lead their message to Consumers with the fact that they raise the cost of the Dealer’s sale, and the Consumer’s purchase price, by the “ransom” amount. How many consumers would knowingly pay an upfront fee to these vendors?

Do the "Jobs" Arithmetic: Trump Calls for 19 million Immigrants

mike smitka

In the first presidential candidate debate Donald Trump proposed creating 25 million jobs. Now currently 152 million people are employed in the US, out of a potential labor force of 156 million. Yes, we're short – by 4 million jobs. Now because of baby boomer retirements and lower birth rates over the past 20 years, the size of the potential labor force will rise to only 158 million by February 2021. So while he could oversee an economy that creates 6 million additional jobs, the only way to add 25 million new jobs would be to bring in 19 million working-age adults from outside the US. Yes, Trump must be pro-immigration.

4% Growth?! – Trump channels Bush's 2015 pipe dream

mike smitka

Just a quick cross-reference to a February 2015 post on this topic, "Promises versus Deliverables: Jeb Bush and 4% Growth". The argument that 4% growth is unrealistic is even stronger than it was 18 months ago, as labor market slack is less. We do not have 25 million Americans just waiting for a job to be created. Here is the latest update with data through the September 2016 employment data release of my periodic projection of actual vs "normal" employment levels, where the latter is adjusted to reflect the slowdown in population growth including the retirement of the "boomers."

A Puzzle: long-term interest rates

mike smitka

I'm hesitant to post this graph: rates are volatile and I know that looking for trends in financial markets is silly. OK, provisos out of the way. But I've faced a puzzle for the past several years in the flatness of the yield curve. Comparing the difference in rates at various maturities, say between 7 year bonds and 10 year bonds, allows us to calculate the implicit return investors expect to have on a 3-year bond in 2023, some 7 years hence. I normalize all those into equivalent one-year bond rates. Here, that means the rate that you need for back-to-back purchases of three 1-year bonds to make the total return of a 7-year bond and three 1-year bonds equal to that of a 10-year bond.

Evolution or Revolution? Yes, and Margin Squeeze

mike smitka

When it comes to claims of technology revolutions, I'm reminded of The Who's song:

There's nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me ...
Don't get fooled again!
Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss ...