Who is delusional here? Credit's Crunch &Car Sales

Sadly, it seems the media suffers under the delusion that car sales fell in September because people couldn’t get loans. As proof they point to how the rate of approvals fell from 83 percent to 64 percent over the last year. Besides the drop-off in subprime lending, there is a logical reason for that decline in approval rates; it probably had little to do with severe changes in lenders’ loan-buying requirements. It’s not a secret; it’s historical fact.

When traffic slows down at new car dealerships, the first customers you miss seeing are the best informed with the best credit. For whatever reason, people with good credit who are aware of the world around them are the ones to first show due caution. What is left for dealers are those of lesser means – the kind of customer whose credit elicits higher decline ratios for new loans. Credit rejects were that much higher because there were so many fewer people with exceptional credit applying for automobile loans.

The price of oil (and soon cars) is falling rapidly, but people have no money.

A few do, of course, and the result of any downturn (blip, depression, what's the difference) is to enrich a few at the expense of many. Pretty clearly, Peak Oil has set a ceiling for Peak Money. The "derivatives" were a desperate bid to deny the physical reality of money/food/energy. Their collapse will necessarily bring us back into some rough balance -- at the expense of billions whose lives will be upended, possibly ended.

My main question is the timing of all this -- is it just coincidental that it all comes apart at the end of an 8-year administration? Is it just co-incidental that the last investment bank standing is Goldman-Sachs? Was Sec. Paulson really blind-sided and totally surprised by the rapid collapse of everything?

Was there maybe just the teensiest push in one direction or another by some powerful players?

I saw a once/twice run item in Bloomberg's scroll of GM,
Ford, Chrysler facing bankruptcy. The next morning, Saturday,
replaced with GM in merger talks with Chrysler.

With Ten Year yields rising with every US gov't move now,
who is going to issue LOC's to finance car dealers, much less
loans to dead broke consumers.

This is the watershed moment where the monetizing of everything out to infinity collides with the peaking and decline of the energy growth that makes/made the monetizing possible.

Houston Chronicle a few days ago ran an article about the lottery ticket sales have declined around the state. They are ignoring the ecomnomy/credit crunch, and instead are blaming low sales on scratch off designs. The Texas lottery commision will rededign the lottery tickets to attract more buyers.

and lastly, about 2 weeks ago i went to the antique shopping event in Roundtop TX, and not many people were there, vendors have noticed less people shopping, to the tune of more than 50% from 6 months ago.