Welcome to the Eric Erickson Show podcast, Hour 3.

Hello, America. It is Eric Erickson here. I hope you are doing well. Today, we've opened the phone lines.

You can call in about topics you're concerned about that maybe I haven't gotten to.

877-97-973-7-425 should you wish to be on the program.

I want to begin actually with a bit of relevant news for a lot of you.

Have you been trying to buy a car lately? with a bit of relevant news for a lot of you.

Have you been trying to buy a car lately?

Do you need a new one?

This is from CNN business.

High prices and rising interest rates are putting used cars out of reach.

That's bad news for CarMax,

the nation's largest used car dealer saw its earnings plunge 54% as the number of cars it sold fell 6.4%. The company blamed vehicle affordability challenges that stem from wide spread, inflationary pressures, as well as climbing interest rates and low consumer confidence although high prices lifted the company's overall revenue the results were below forecasts from analysts

set off alarm bells car max shares plunge 24 percent thursday other car retailer stocks were hammered. Shares of used car rival Carvana fell 23%.

An auto nation, the nation's largest new car dealer, fell 10%. Shares of many automakers, including GM, Ford, Stalantis, and Tesla were all lower.

Car prices have been up for two years straight as shortages of parts,

particularly computer chips, has limited supply.

The higher prices have been a major factor in overall inflationary pressure.

The effort to curb prices has prompted the Fed to raise interest rates.

Use car prices, although down 2% from August,

or down 2% in August from the record high of January, are still up 48%. New car prices are only up 30% still high.

I got thoughts on this because it's relevant to so many of you who are in need of a car,

a new car for you, but maybe not a new car.

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