Spotlight on a Particular Newsbite via Today's WSJ

First... (*SIGH*)... the story.

Now... (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)... my response to it:

* SUBTITLE THIS NEWSBITE: "RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN..."

It sounds like a bad commercial for a local car dealership: "These rates are so low, we're barely making money!" But more than three years after the recession threw car sales into a tailspin, many dealers have started offering loans at interest rates so low they don't make much of a profit...

* BUT, WAIT... IT GETS WORSE THAN "THEY DON'T MAKE MUCH OF A PROFIT"!

Typically when dealers offer a loan, they do so at a rate several percentage points higher than what a bank or credit union might offer. The dealer isn't lending his own money, he's just a middleman - the money for the loan comes from the lending arm of the dealer's associated automaker. And everybody makes money.

* RIGHT... (*PAUSE*)... THE KEY WORDS BEING "MAKES MONEY."

* BUT WAIT...!

But now dealers are offering interest rates that are 0% or close to it - for less than what it costs a financing arm to raise capital to lend. In this case, the dealer is not making money...

* REPEAT: "...THE DEALER IS NOT MAKING MONEY..."

(WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...)

...and, because the automakers subsidize the loans to help dealers move cars that aren't selling, the automakers are losing money.

* ONE MORE TIME: "...LOSING MONEY."

(*PAUSE*) (*BLOOD PRESSURE RISING*) (*HEADACHE BUILDING*)

On average, automakers lost $2,139 for each car they helped finance in 2010, slightly less than the $2,229 they lost per car in 2009, according to Edmunds.com.

* SO... TO RECAP... OVER THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS WE'VE ALL BEEN READING THAT TARP AND THE BAILOUTS WERE SUCCESSFUL, THAT GM IS DOING GREAT... THAT FORD HAS BEEN DOING GREAT ALL ALONG... THAT EVEN CHRYSLER IS STARTING TO GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER, YET...

(*PAUSE*) (*REITERATING*)

On average, automakers lost $2,139 for each car they helped finance in 2010, slightly less than the $2,229 they lost per car in 2009, according to Edmunds.com.

* AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES A BIT OF... er... umm... A DISCONNECT HERE...???