The report was no surprise to my readers, but it somehow surprised the stock market: Toyota stock went up 4%. [NYT]

So why did it take the government so long to release the report? As Walter Olson asks, "Did it make a difference that the federal government has taken a proprietor's interest in major Toyota competitors GM and Chrysler, or that a former trial lawyer lobbyist heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration? Those questions might be worth a hearing at the newly reconstituted House Energy and Commerce Committee."

Meanwhile, the entirely bogus "economic loss" class action against Toyota continues; the court refused to dismiss the case. I hope when a class certification motion is made, Toyota argues that the attorneys are not adequate representatives of the class because it is the class attorneys, by contributing to a pseudoscientific hysteria over nonexistent electronic flaws in Toyota, that created any economic loss. Certainly any settlement that pays any attorneys' fees will register an objection from this Prius owner.