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Message: <blockquote data-quote="brocknroller" data-source="post: 1612641" data-attributes="member: 665">Well, since Chrysler made DeSotos and Daimler still owns 19.9% of Chrysler after it sold the rest of the company to Cerberus Capital Management, it might come out with a second-tier line. It needs to make up the money it lost on the company somehow. Daimler bought Chrysler for $36 billion in 1998, and sold it for $7.4 billion in 2007. Then Chrysler got bailed out last year with $7 billion in taxpayer dollars that it does not have to repay, which must mean that you and I own Chrysler now! I'm still waiting for my shareholder dividend checks from GM's and Chrysler's "cash for clunkers" deals. Did you get yours yet? My dad had a 1954 DeSoto, same color as this one:<a href="http://www.imcag.com/Images/Cars/1954_Desoto.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.imcag.com/Images/Cars/1954_Desoto.jpg</a>But alas, the reporter didn't misspell the name, he was referring to the Mercedes experimental engine: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiesOtto" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiesOtto</a>However, my point about the irony, is that the better value of Chinese ED roofs vs. German roofs was being alluded to in the Fiat vs. Mercedes comparison (even though Fiat is Italian, so I didn't quite follow that analogy except perhaps that Fiat now owns a piece of GM, and the US borrowed more money from China to fund the bailout to GM so perhaps there's a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon connection there). However, what I meant is how ironic that China should be the biggest market for Mercedes "S" class luxury sedans! Americans are buying affordably-priced Chinese alpha bin knock-offs, because they can't afford über-priced German bins, thanks to our greedy bankers, brokers, hedge fund managers, and irresponsible home buyers. But let's not forget to credit the free marketeer politicians on both sides of the aisle and their political appointees  who made all this possible through their "don't ask, don't tell" free-wheelin' financial and energy markets deregulation, which allowed the cyclic "bubble and bust" economy to finally implode. We now owe China $772 billion and have a trade deficit with them of $181 billion (2008). Think about that the next time you purchase a Chinese bin or Chinese goods at Walmart, Lowe's, Target, Home Depot, etc.And while you're at Chinamart, don't forget to pick up a copy of my new CD, "Bubble To You Bust," (original Klingon recording available by special order, with liner notes by P'aul Kru'GmaN).<a href="http://www.metrolyrics.com/capitalism-blues-lyrics-willie-nelson.html" target="_blank">http://www.metrolyrics.com/capitalism-blues-lyrics-willie-nelson.html</a></blockquote>

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