Forgive us for the constant harping on how big a failure, fraud, and swindle the Cash for Clunkers program was for us, the tax paying citizens of America. You’re probably sick of it by now. Still, we fell it is necessary to release any interesting information or analysis of the program to you.

This time it is Barron’s providing the analysis and to say it isn’t positive would be an understatement. In the piece, economists from Citigroup are quoted saying things like, “On closer inspection, we do not see lasting, tangible benefits for the economy.” Sweet.

According to this story, the group of people who most benefitted from the program were the dealers themselves. Since the money was sent directly to car dealers, who have almost complete control over what they are going to sell their inventory for, the story seems to imply that the dealers built more profit into the cars by allowing the dealers to avoid using incentives and deep discounts. The government basically paid for that stuff. Sweet.

You’ll be annoyed reading about how ill thought out and executed this program was.