NY Times: Cash-Strapped Consumers

[marmar]

Cash-Strapped Consumers
Published: December 29, 2007


During the holiday shopping season, Americans bought fewer gifts while paying more for necessities. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, spending rose only 3.6 percent over the same period last year, the weakest performance in at least four years, according to early tallies from MasterCard Advisors, a unit of the credit card company. One-third of that increase was for gas purchases.

Go to The Board » That’s bad news for an economy that is dependent on free-spending shoppers for growth. When consumers pull back, the economy slows. Employers respond by delaying hiring plans, reducing work hours and, if problems persist, laying off workers. Once a downturn starts, it is always hard to reverse, and especially now, with the White House unwilling to acknowledge that six years of debt-fueled growth is proving unsustainable and with most candidates for president only beginning to talk about how they would fix the economy.

Of course, one season does not a trend make. And after-Christmas bargain hunters have yet to spend their last penny. But the preliminary results are not likely to change much. Earlier this month, the government reported that personal spending surged in November, but the boost was mostly due to higher outlays for food and gasoline. More troubling, the rise in spending far outstripped the rise in Americans’ income, with the mismatch covered, in part, by a significant drain on savings.

All of that portends economic pain for families, even if growth, over all, does not contract — the general definition of a recession. That’s because even optimistic growth forecasts — about 1.5 percent for this quarter and next — are too tepid to counter recessionlike conditions in which job growth slows, unemployment rises and paychecks shrink or disappear. If inflation continues, rising prices will only feed the pain.

To make matters worse, many Americans are ill-prepared for tougher times.

...(snip)...

Dismal income growth is no accident. It is the result of misguided tax, labor and social policies — including government disregard of the downsides of globalization for many Americans — that have concentrated income in the hands of the few. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/opinion/29sat1.html

[Toots]

1. But but but.... we were all supposed to get trickled on...

They promised......

[marmar]

2. We've been "trickled on" alright....

:hide:

[Captain Hilts]

3. We got tinkled on instead. nt

[JHB]

4. But...but...That's just a myth! FOX News said so!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2550927

But all FOXy viewers know how far they can trust the ultra-liberal socialist New York Times, eh?

:sarcasm:

[marmar]

5. That reminds of the promo of Nova M Radio, mocking right-wingers....

.... when they all say in unison: "If it's not on Fox News, it's not true."

[bronxiteforever]

6. Outstanding editorial.Hence the GOP stance on Mexican immigration

It keeps the focus off all the jobs that have been outsourced through Tommy F's flat earth phantasm. The GOP needs the immigration issue as the fig leaf that covers up the very real decline of the working class/blue collar strata. The Raygun democrats are dying and their offspring are facing a step down from their parents standard of living.

For the life of me, I wish the our candidates would talk more about the spiraling national debt. A war funded with tax cuts is insane and the Democratic Party should stand for the future of the children in this country too. I say turn the moral issue on the GOP and its failure to provide stability for the next generations. Again our candidates need to speak to the youth. Did you know that the largest birth year since the 1950s is 1987? That youth cohort is almost 21. We need to speak about their future.The GOP is not the daddy party its the selfish old man scrooge party that cheers when Tiny Tim dies to decrease the surplus population.