Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.

Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce.

The lack of interest in the car has prevented GM from coming close to its early, optimistic sales projections. Discounted leases as low as $199 a month helped propel Volt sales in August to 2,831, pushing year-to-date sales to 13,500, well below the 40,000 cars that GM originally had hoped to sell in 2012.

The weak sales are forcing GM to idle the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant that makes the Chevrolet Volt for four weeks from September 17, according to plant suppliers and union sources. It is the second time GM has had to call a Volt production halt this year.

GM stock closed today at $21.48 per share down slightly yet still over $30 per share below where the US Government needs the stock to trade to break even on the bailout.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/10/us-generalmotors-autos-volt-idUSBRE88904J20120910

Showing:
7:30 PM
September 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29
2:00 PM
September 23, 30

Welcome to Truvy’s Beauty Salon, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant Annelle, the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, who’s been in a bad mood for forty years; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby, is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play turns from light hearted comedy to a harsh reflection on loss. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the women, but also draws on their underlying strength—and love—which gives the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

Visit http://evansvillecivictheatre.org for more information

The Board of Trustees at the University of Southern Indiana met on Thursday, September 6 and reviewed and approved the 2013-2015 operating and capital improvements budget request that will be submitted to the Indiana General Assembly.

The operating budget was developed using the performance funding metrics created by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE). The trustees learned that USI showed improvement in each of the five metrics for which it could compete; overall degree completion; at-risk degree completion; student persistence;, on-time graduation rates; and an institution-defined productivity metric to increase distance education programming and participation.

The performance funding metrics generated funding of $2.9 million in 2013-2014 and $3.4 million in 2014-2015. The ICHE proposes creating a Performance Funding Pool by reducing each institution’s 2012-2013 operating base by 6 percent in 2013-2014 and 7 percent in 2014-2015 to fund the metrics. To reach those amounts, reallocation from the University’s operating budget of more than $2.4 million in 2013-2014 and $2.8 million in 2014-2015 would revert to the pool. Based on the recommended metrics and funding formula, USI’s base operating appropriation would increase by approximately 1.5 percent over the biennium.

USI will request the Indiana General Assembly also address the base operating funding differential through an appropriation adjustment of an additional $5 million in each year of the biennium. This would increase USI’s appropriation per-Hoosier-full-time student to approximately 75 percent of the statewide average.

In its 2013-2015 capital improvement budget request, USI seeks bonding authorization for one capital project. The proposed $18 million project includes renovation and expansion of the Physical Activities Center and renovation of classrooms and laboratories in the Science Center and Technology Center. The request also includes $2.7 million for general repair and rehabilitation in both years of the biennium.

The budget includes a line item appropriation request for the operation of Historic New Harmony of $519,807 for 2013-2014 and $574,387 for 2014-2015.

The trustees also approved housing rates and meal plan rates for the 2013-2014 academic year.

In other business, the trustees approved a new degree program. The College of Liberal Arts will request approval from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to offer a bachelor degree program in anthropology to begin in spring 2013. The program is comprised of 120 hours.

The anthropology program will meet regional and state needs by providing students the knowledge and skills to succeed in a variety of positions related to anthropology and will prepare students to succeed in graduate study in anthropology, medicine, archaeology, cultural and heritage management, and other closely related fields. The degree will prepare students as cultural and linguistic anthropologists who work in federal, state, and local government, including the military, healthcare centers, nonprofit associations, and marketing firms. The degree also can prepare physical anthropologists who work in biomedical research, human engineering, private genetics laboratories, pharmaceutical firms, and archaeological work.

Source: USI.edu

– Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 96,000 in August, the Labor Department said, versus expectations of 125,000 jobs or more. The manufacturing sector, much touted by the president in his convention speech, lost 15,000 jobs.

– Since the start of the year, job growth has averaged 139,000 per month vs. an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.

– As the chart at the top shows, the unemployment rate remains far above the rate predicted by Team Obama if Congress passed the stimulus. (This is the Romer-Bernstein chart.)

Excerpts:

– While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July, it was due to a big drop in the labor force participation rate (the share of Americans with a job or looking for one). If fewer Americans hadn’t given up looking for work, the unemployment rate would have risen.

– Reuters notes that the participation rate is now at its lowest level since September 1981.

– If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%.

– If the participation rate had just stayed the same as last month, the unemployment rate would be 8.4%.

– The Labor Department also said that 41,000 fewer jobs were created in June and July than previously reported. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised from 64,000 to 45,000, and the change for July was revised from 163,000 to 141,000.

– The broader U-6 unemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who want full-time work, is at 14.7%.

– The employment-population ratio is perhaps the broadest measure of the health of the labor market. It just shows how many Americans — not in the military or in prison — as a share of the population actually have some sort of a job. That number fell last month to 58.3%, just off its Great Recession lows.

– The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.4 hours in August. The manufacturing workweek declined by 0.2 hour to 40.5 hours, and factory overtime was unchanged at 3.2 hours.

– The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.7 hours.

– In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 1 cent to $23.52. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings rose by just 1.7 percent.

– In August, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees edged down by 1 cent to $19.75.

Again, a terribly anemic report that shows a stagnant economy — not one ready to boom.

Very good charts and graphs to show data on link.

Link:

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/09/the-awful-awful-august-jobs-report/