Hey shoppers...You're not doing your jobs.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

I just heard on The Today Show, Anne Curry and CNBC's Margaret Brennan discussing the upcoming shopping weekend. Did you know that there's 27 BILLION dollars at stake? Well, according to Ms. Brennan there is, and she is doing her part to insure the retailers get every penny.

She started her piece with a blurb about how Macy's, as one example, is offering deep discounts and is staying open 24/7, etc.,etc., blah, blah and then this.

Ms. Brennan's quote, with BHP's smilies:

"Sales are expected to be their weakest in five years, and that has many on Wall Street worried. :dilemma:

"Why? Consumer spending makes up about 70% of all economic activity...the amount of buying and whether or not retailers make their sales goals this year could determine whether or not this economy heads toward recession...:scared:

However, economists continue to be surprised by Americans' ability to spend, often times beyond their budget." :yourock:

So, shoppers and consumers, your country needs you. Buy, damn you, BUY!!!!

You show courage and fortitude by helping these retailers, even if you can't afford their stuff. Because the economists know you're willing to take on yet more debt, they have faith in you, oh dear purchaser.

And, Wall Street is depending on you, and if you don't consume the Christmas products we'll be in a recession, which we most positively, definitely have not been in for weeks, months, years, now, definitely not, but if you don't buy, well don't say they didn't warn you. Poor Wall Street. They care so much and all we can do is walk past purchasable discretionary items in our selfish desire to hold onto our hard earned dollars.

Thanks Ms. Brennan, for setting us miscreants straight!

Happy Holidays!

MKJ

[bdamomma]

1. let Wall Street worry cause we know that they could not

give shit what Main Street thinks.

[rocktivity]

2. I'm working in the same area in where I worked two years ago

and I wasn't looking forward to my evening commute between Thanksgiving and Christmas because I drive past a mall, and I knew that the traffic would get slower every day. But so far, traffic past the mall has been no heavier than it has been all year. And it's a high-end mall--Nordstrom's, Neiman-Marcus, AND Bloomingdale's, dahling!

:headbang:
rocknation

[snappyturtle]

3. Well, maybe the weakest sales in five years will FINALLY get the

message across! I'm wondering how these low figures will be spun to look good?

[Tesha]

4. "Consumers debt not deepening this holiday!"

There, is that positive enough for ya?

Tesha

[TommyO]

5. I'll get right on it!

Oh, wait, I've already bought everything that I need, except for a few ingredients for the risotto that I'll be making for Christmas dinner.

I spent more than I wanted, but less than in previous years, so I guess I'm one of those miscreants.

[jaksavage]

6. My UPS driver pal

says her truck is just average full.
No Overtime.
No extra help.
Not Christmas as usual.
Good, says I.

[BuelahWitch]

12. No long line at the post office either

Knowing it's Dec. 21st, I put enough money in the meter for 2 hours, and I bet I was in and out in 15 minutes!

[treestar]

18. Therein lies the rub, no?

A UPS driver is the one who'll suffer. Or someone they won't hire for next Christmas.

[AlCzervik]

7. i still have to go food shopping, does that count?

i also looked at my christmas gift receipts from last year verses this year, this year i spend $300 less than last year.

[marylanddem]

8. The older I get, the more revolting frivolous shopping becomes

In addition, as we baby boomers confront retirement, we will be spending much more judiciously.
Shopping really is not fun.

[Johonny]

9. Frankly I DO buy this time of year.

Sure I buy Christmas presents for others but I also shop for myself. The Holiday sales are too good to pass up. Why buy things the rest of the year when things are 30-70 % off in price this time of year? I think a lot of people are betting the post holiday sales are going to be even better this year because of the lack of pre-holiday sales. (although many stores cut inventory ahead of the season since they were predicting a down year). So I'm a little worried I won't get the insane deals I was getting post Christmas last year. Basically if you need to buy stuff, buying when the stuff is on sale seems smart.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

10. Psst,

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I'll be buying a particular coat, as a gift, a really nice one that's a steal, later today. :-)

I completely agree with you on your point about the deals.

What's so grating is the expectation, nay, demand, as presented by the corporomedia, that to be a good citizen I must buy lots of items and walk around in the shopping the mall with bags full of stuff, which emerges Christmas season after Christmas season.

Especially because now the message being touted is that it's the only way to save us from recession, as if that isn't happening anyway.

Your points about the after Christmas sales are well taken. It seems we're all watching the economic implications of this particular holiday season very closely.

I hope my seatbelt's buckled tightly enough for the impending bumpy ride. MKJ

edit, grammar et. al.

[Yavin4]

11. This Is Fallout From The Collapse of the Housing Bubble

As homes lose value, people cannot get HELOCs and buy stuff at the mall. In sum, consumers are tapped out. No savings. No wages from good paying jobs, and no borrowing against rapidly rising home values.

[Tesha]

13. Ahh well, it looks like we blew it.

The end-of-the-season results are starting to trickle
in and looks like the wealth didn't trickle-down and
into the retail channels like it was supposed to.

The positive "spin" that's being put on it is "Well,
you know the sales of gift cards aren't counted when
the card is sold, but only when the value on the card is
spent..." so the blathering folks are claiming that will
make the difference and bring the shopping season back
up to snuff.

As if...

Tesha

[JohnyCanuck]

14. And just why are they so all-fired anxious to get us into more debt.

"the economists know you're willing to take on yet more debt"

Our modern economies rely on consumers, businesses and government going into debt to create most of the money supply. Without people and institutions borrowing money and taking out loans, mortgages etc. from banks, i.e. going into debt, there would not be enough money in circulation to maintain economic activity as people and businesses would be unable to buy and sell without having available a convenient medium of exchange. Behind it all is the fact that when Banks lend money, they basically create the money for the loan out of thin air, so to speak. They are not lending out the money that they have on deposit (for the most part). They are creating new money with a book keeping entry for each loan granted. The fly in the ointment with debt based money creation is that the money created by each round of debt is only enough to pay back the principle owed on the debt. To ensure that the interest on the debt also gets paid back requires increasing the money supply. And just how do you do that, you might ask? It's very simple really, you just encourage more debt - and so on, and so on, and so on.

How it all works is explained in the video Money as Debt, also available for viewing on Google Video. Just google "Money as Debt" and click on the topmost link in the results.

From Paul Grignon, the Money as Debt video's producer:

Money created as interest-bearing bank credit is a magic trick, a fraud - now 3 centuries old; one that very few people have seen through despite, or rather because of, its utter simplicity.

It is my intention to make this mysterious debt-money system comprehensible to everyone. It is also my intention to foster sufficient understanding of the problems with this money system that citizens will be motivated to join the monetary reform movement and/or create local alternatives to the global monetary system - a system in which most of the productive people of the world are collectively chained to an ever-increasing and perpetually unpayable debt.

This is a system designed for elite control of the people by those who have given themselves the privilege of creating money. It is also, I believe, a system that is designed for catastrophe. As the movie explains, there can be no sustainable civilization without a sustainable money system. (my emphasis /jc)

http://paulgrignon.netfirms.com/MoneyasDebt/ProducersComments.html

Here is what Elizabeth Kucinich (wife of Congressman and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich) had to say in her review of the video "Money as Debt":

"I have worked for a long time looking into monetary reform and after 10 years, finally someone has produced a DVD entitled "Money as Debt". It is a fabulous fun yet powerful introduction to the issue of monetary reform. It's the best over view I have seen so far; the best by far. ESSENTIAL! Everyone should watch it!

The topic of DebtMoney is THE issue of our times. It forms the basis to every nation's areas of core material and spiritual concerns such as economic development, employment and environmental sustainability.

If only government officials, civil society organizations, environmental groups, unions and well meaning international development strategists trying to eradicate poverty really understood this topic... the world would be a much better place.

Only 47 minutes long, this DVD is ideal for public education in schools, colleges and universities, as well as individual or family viewing, with lots of juicy re-useable quotes from prominent bankers, economists and presidents."

http://www.moneyasdebt.net/ (click on Reviews button)

Some quotes from bankers and economists used in the video:

"Each and every time a bank makes a loan (or purchases securities), new bank credit is created — new deposits — brand new money."

Graham F. Towers, Director, Bank of Canada


"The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled."

John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist


"I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that banks can and do create money
...And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people"

Reginald McKenna,
past Chairman of the Board, Midlands Bank of England


“Thus, our national circulating medium is now at the mercy of loan transactions of banks, which lend, not money, but promises to supply money they do not possess.”

Irving Fisher, economist and author


“That is what our money system is. If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.”

Marriner S. Eccles, Chairman and Governor of the Federal Reserve Board

And many more at: http://paulgrignon.netfirms.com/MoneyasDebt/references.htm

Over time debt based money results in this:

[Javaman]

15. Gonna be a lot worse next year...

Just from my point of view.

My wife and I have decided that we aren't going to give gifts next year.

Instead we are going to donate money to charity.

[underpants]

17. That's what I told everyone this year

Not only was it my training for the marathon (there was some expense there) there my trip last week to Vegas but mostly I just realized that I didn't need anything so I told everyone GET ME NOTHING. They still got me dress shirts (for work) and of course the Simpsons movie but that was about it and that was fine by me.

[underpants]

16. Ha! I got that mesage too AND --how desperate do retailers have to be

that they are counted on... PRAYING FOR people to come in with returns and buy other stuff

This is new to me. I'm no retail expert but it seems to me that they have been moving the goalposts repeatedly this season because things are so bad. Look Christmas on a Tuesday should have made for an absolute goldmine this weekend (I did all my shopping in 4.5 hours Sunday) so if they can't make money under these circumstances it don't look too good. Again I am no expert.