Depending on your perspective this could be good news or bad news. The auto industry was successful in their lobbying efforts to avoid inclusion in the recently passed financial regulatory reform that puts would have meant mandatory reporting and oversight by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This essentially means status-quo for the auto financing industry, and is good for dealers as well as OEMs. Consumers who are responsible borrowers will not really be impacted, but consumers with poor credit perhaps could have used this layer of oversight to protect them from overspending in what is perhaps the one area that gets consumers into financial trouble more than anything else.

For satellite radio investors, the situation means that car sales and loans can continue as normal. very good news in the short term, but long term, it may put people in cars at prices they can not afford, making the chances of converting that promotional subscription down the road harder.

The auto industry used some sound data in their argument. Delinquency rates after 60 days are less than 1% and have been for quite some time. On average many people do indeed make their car payments. The deeper issue is whether most Americans buy more car than they can realistically afford, and that is where some oversight could have helped. Typically I am not a fan of government being involved, but financing has been a major issue across the board, and something does need to change. People in many cases were able to make their car payments because they used equity in their homes to do so. While someone may keep their car, they wind up losing their house.

In the end, the car selling formula will remain the same, and the loan process will not be tied up by more bureaucracy.

Position – Long Sirius XM Radio