GM Sales Fall 45 % YoY; Average 31 % Drop

That's going to leave a mark! USA automobile sales are way way down in October 2008 versus October 2007, as consumer sentiment and credit heads South fast.

About 25 per cent of GM's volume in October 2007 was from leasing, but the auto maker did almost no leasing last month through GMAC, Mr. LaNeve said.

As I mentioned in the comments of this post, when you have to relax your credit requirements to sell cars, you're setting yourself up for trouble in the long-run. I've actually been impressed how well the USA has been holding up under the credit crisis thus far (compared to countries like Iceland, Hungary, Pakistan, etc.) but obviously if the steady drip—drip—drip of job losses continues things will really come to a head. I definitely still stand by my prediction of the US financial sector shrinking in half. The US Treasury bail-outs to date are not solving the trust issue as everyone continues to hoard cash. Tacking on $500 billion a month in federal debt isn't sustainable either.

I'm working towards my doctoral candidacy at the moment so posting will remain sparse until the middle of December.