Explain this.

The past couple of days I've been reading nothing but glowing reports about auto sales. Absent auto sales, consumer spending would have been flat. Which sets of my bullshit meter in the first place. I'm slightly suspicious we are going to find subterranean garages filled with Fiat's when this whole thing is over.

Add to that - I just read  this:

"TURIN, Italy--Fiat SpA (FIATY, F.MI) Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne Sunday said new car sales in the Italian automaker's home market had fallen in the "double-digit" range in June, the latest reminder of the battering automakers in Europe have suffered as the crisis has turned off drivers from visiting showrooms.

"For Italy it will be less than 20% down...down by a double-digit number on (the same period in) 2011," he told reporters" Here.

Yet they felt rich enough to buy another 3% of a stake in Chrysler. Bringing it's total ownership to almost 62%. Which seems odd in a market where you are down "double digits".

Update: It's interesting to note that Chrysler just posted a 20% increase in US sales. In what the Church Lady would call "convenient". Taken this news - I would expect sales to be flat. 20% up in the US, 20% down in Europe.

Normally I make take my ball and go home. That explains that, I'd say. If I wouldn't have read about GM prepping for "Drastic" Layoffs in Brazil. Here.

"GM, which ended a shift last month at an assembly line producing midsize cars at its Sao Jose dos Campos plant, is seeking to curb production even further, the autoworkers union at the factory said, "

Something doesn't add up here.