All Clunked Out

If you're reading the New York Times while sitting inside of a clunker today, don't turn to page A16. That where the paper announces this was, "the final weekend of the federal government's phenomenally popular "cash for clunkers" program, officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, in which car owners could receive up to $4,500 by trading in cars worth a fraction of that amount for new cars with better gas mileage." The deadline is officially Monday night, but many dealerships around the country have already ended their participation, to allow time to enter paperwork on the government's cumbersome system. Over half a million rebate applications have been received, and the Obama Administration has no plans to ask for a third round of funding after the $3 billion allotted was claimed far more quickly than had been predicted.

Meanwhile the stock of the old General Motors (MTLQQ), saddled with nothing more than a "hodgepodge of outdated factories and a pile of debt," says the Washington Post, is still being actively traded, to the chagrin of the company and the government. "There are people who think they are buying the new General Motors. Stop. You're not. You're buying the detritus," a bankruptcy expert told the paper. Nothing good will come out of investing: common stockholders, one the company is unwound, are likely to be wiped out. "But for now, there are still traders who haven't gotten the message that Motors Liquidation is merely a shell set up to oversee the sale of GM's bad assets, get as much money for creditors as possible and then be dissolved."

On the front page of the Times is a story about former Senator Tom Daschle's unique traversal of the health care industry and the Obama Administration. Daschle, an advisor to law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird, had a tax flameout when nominated to be Obama's HHS Secretary last year. But the paper writes that since then, "it often seems as if Mr. Daschle never left the picture." Critics say that Daschle, who is not a registered lobbyist, acts as one, yet receives the kind of access Obama promised to curtail. For his part, Daschle "preferred to describe himself as a ‘resource' to those in government and industry." The paper notes Daschle has been selling a compromise health plan for weeks now, and the plan is gaining steam, but the Washington Post has a story examining the heavy criticism coming from the left as Obama is seen to acquiesce to those compromises.

The Times profiles Sony/ATV chief Marty Bandier. His company is not a label but a music publisher, which makes money when its artists' works are played on the radio, in movies or on commercials, in the form of tiny fees, dimes and nickels. Those fees though, sustain a $3 billion industry that is emerging from the shadow of the decimated recording labels. And some buys, like the Gap's use of West Side Story music in some commercials last year, can net "substantially over a million dollars."  Besides exploiting the synergy of having Sony artists signed with Sony/ATV appearing on Sony Playstation video game soundtracks or in Sony commercials,  Bandier is also opening the door to Sony/ATV's "sacred cow:" the licensing of its catalog of 250 Beatles songs for a video game and also "American Idol." "The fourth quarter will belong to the Beatles," Mr. Bandier predicts.

Gretchen Morgenson examines "What the Bank Stress Tests Didn't Predict" in her Times column, using a study to wonder if bank fundamentals are really matching up to the incredible recovery in the stock market, especially in financial stocks. "Unfortunately, that assessment shows that the number of financially sound banks is declining and that the ranks of troubled institutions are growing."

The Times examines the privileged world of the secret Swiss bank account falling away, in light of UBS' decision to release the names of 4,450 account holders to the US government in a tax evasion lawsuit. It also looks at how the residents of one Cul-de-Sac in California have weathered, or not, the real estate meltdown. Finally, fallout from the Porsche-VW deal continues. Deposed Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking's home and former office were raided by German authorities searching for evidence of insider trading. Der Spiegel will publish the full report tomorrow, according to Agence France-Presse.