The Government can monitor the incomes and finances of 300+ million Americans and maybe 5+ million businesses but can not determine how 208 banks used $162 billion of which most was given to 20-30 banks? This is utterly preposterous. I think the more likely explanation is the Treasury does not want the public to know [...]
With the lack of growth in wages, that level of consumption is not sustainable. Consumers tried to sustain it by using easily available credit - credit cards and home equity loans. Now, those sources of easy credit have dried up (maybe not a bad thing in the long term, but very painful in the short [...]
The Fed is trying to stimulate buying by the consumer by just increasing the money supply through the banking system. THAT WILL NOT WORK.
The problem here is credit worthiness of the consumer which is trickling up to businesses. Banks have restricted credit to only those with very high credit scores no matter how low interest [...]
1.Federal Open Market Committee
2.US politicians
3.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
4.Financial innovators
5.The Basel rules for banks
6.Regulators
7.Rating agencies
8.Banks and mortgage lenders
9.Investment banks
10.US Consumers
11.Asian and OPEC countries
12.Everybody = Consumers, corporations, banks, politicians, the media — indeed everybody
The Federal Reserve Board
Alan Greenspan, Fed Governor in 1987-2006, was once hailed as a genius for keeping the US booming, but is now [...]
I can agree with the assessments that banks are to blame for the unprecedented debt faced by the American consumer, BUT, I do feel that there is a considerable amount of responsibility that should be placed on the consumer. We are a fairly educated and intelligent mass of U.S. citizenry. The consumer should be held [...]
‘Staycation’ Trends Surface in Products That Consumers Purchase
NEW YORK, November 26 /PRNewswire/ — Retail Decisions (ReD), a payment card issuer and world leader in payment card fraud prevention and payment processing, predicts a bustling Black Friday on November 28 with 10.00 am - 11.00 am being the busiest online shopping hour of the year, with [...]
All the bad data over the past week is wearing on the minds of consumers, and businesses. I’ve spoken to some of my friends who have small businesses, and most of them say that if this current climate persists, they will be out of business by the middle of next year, if not sooner. Some [...]
I am reading articles on several states and cities cutting jobs. So, where did those increases in government jobs in the job report come from? From the Birth/death model?
We are trying to paint this as good as we can with manipulated numbers and it still looks bad.
Until consumers stop saving and paying down debt, this [...]
“Consumer confidence had already declined by mid-2008 by more than prior to any past recession and the steep October loss indicates that accelerated cutbacks in spending can be expected during the months ahead,” according to Richard Curtin, director of the consumer survey.
“Consumers rated the current administration’s economic policies more unfavorably than ever before in the [...]
Stock futures pared declines after some of the economic data, including the Commerce Department’s report that U.S. consumer spending in September tallied its largest drop in four years.
Yeah - that makes perfect sense. Largest drop in four years…so the futures bounce off the lows!!! As usual…was not “abysmal” or “wasn’t worse than expected.”
Another [...]
y MrArbitrage
“As I have been hearing the complaints of many disillusioned consumers that gasoline prices are barely moving down despite the significant drop in oil prices, I think this would be a good time to point out the reason why that is.
When crude oil goes up, you see it immediately reflected in the [...]
All the Fed can do to help the market is lowering the rate now. The recovery hasn’t even start yet, the interest rates will sit just like that (1% or lower) through out the year of 2009. You can realize it from the worsen economic data, especially the job market and housing stats.
Ben S. [...]
We only have 300 million consumers that will probably be cutting back in spending for a decade or more as they move away from debt spending to saving and paying down debt. It takes years for the savings to build up to a point they feel like spending instead of saving.
During the depression there [...]
Consumers still haven’t FULLY exhausted their personal credit lines.
I went to the mall this weekend to pick up a friend and was ASTOUNDED to see how many people were BLOWING money on shoes and high end consumer goods.
So, it will only be a matter of time before consumer credit is maxed…and about a year later [...]
I believe we have stagflation. Food going up and other things going down. Wages stagnant or falling while cost of medicine goes up. Gas price dropping but, so is the number of new drilling projects that will later cause a shortage of supply.
We have less money here but more money globally. The U.S. is just [...]
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