Stimulus Tracker: Results Are Scary

Remember the good old days when all we were concerned with was whether a simple fiscal stimulus package would boost the economy?

This morning, the BEA released the latest personal consumption report and the results were scary. In real terms, Americans consumed the same amount they did last year, or in other words, growth in consumption was a big fat zero:
Meanwhile, the personal savings rate also dipped but was still higher than before the stimulus:
This could finally be the start of the much-anticipated global rebalancing.

Comments

[Smarty_Pants:]

How much scarier can it get than relying on government handouts to keep the economy afloat? You don't need a graph to grasp that concept.

2008 Sep 29 04:59 PM

[User 265729:]

Nobody has jumped out of windows. I haven't seen any drivers slumped in their BMW's after blowing their brains out. No angry mobs surrounding people in Hummers. No long lines at the banks. No panic buying.

Get a grip!

2008 Sep 29 05:00 PM

[User 265729:]

Is there something wrong with Chris Dodd? I was just watching him and he said that if we don't pass the bill people will...

*lose their jobs, have trouble sending their kids to college and may lose their homes*

What the hell? What hole has Chris Dodd been living in for the past few years?

UP YOURS DODD-PELOSI! TAX AND SPEND!

Members of the House of Representatives DON'T CHANGE YOUR VOTE. VOTE TO SAVE YOUR CITIZENS FIRST!

McCain... Listening to you today... YOU ARE ALL PART OF THE PROBLEM TOO! DID YOUR WIFE LOSE TOO MUCH ON INBEV TODAY?

2008 Sep 29 05:17 PM

[MarvinMBA:]

Its important to save main street instead of wall street brokerage houses...the supply and demand for the toxic paper will eventually reach a equilibrium without a bailout....what the country needs now is to get M1 on the move upward and that requires a return to fundamentals...reduce taxes, lower energy prices, adequate jobs for whoever wants to work. This is the Main Street Bailout that will answer all questions going forward.

2008 Sep 29 06:04 PM

[MarvinMBA:]

MAIN STREET BAILOUT INSTEAD OF WALL STREET
Its important to save main street instead of wall street brokerage houses...the supply and demand for the toxic paper will eventually reach a equilibrium without a bailout....what the country needs now is to get M1 on the move upward and that requires a return to fundamentals...reduce taxes, lower energy prices, adequate jobs for whoever wants to work. This is the Main Street Bailout that will answer all questions going forward.

2008 Sep 29 06:09 PM

[eddie6442:]

McCain:
Listen up if you want to make a leadership difference by thinking outside the box. Every problem in Washington can't be solved by throwing money at it! This "bailout" in particular.
Solutions:
[1] Stop the financial hemmoraging by [a] rescinding SARBANES-OXLEY O/D personal liability & [b] rescind FASB 157 Mark-to-Market;
[2] Get funding for this bailout from the 450 Billionaires and 3,000,000 millionaires collectively worth $11 Trillion [many of whom benefitted substantially] from the demise of the market;
[3] SEC must reinstate UPTICK RULE & prosecute NAKED SHORT SELLERS & MARKET MAKERS;
[4] Turn the Justice Department loose on those who committed FRAUD & MALFEASANCE, making certain this isn't repeated as tyhe wrongdoers will be incarcerated.
[5] NO EARMARKS ---- NONE!!!!!!!
Americans, especially Republicans, are MAD AS HELL AND NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!
Wanna be President---ACT LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!

2008 Sep 29 06:15 PM

[thedozer:]

Pelosi is a windbag!
Chris Dodd is a f'ing liar

watch this video!
www.youtube.com/watch?...

2008 Sep 29 06:42 PM

[oceanhang:]

How can people be so ignorent to the simple fact that the bill is not intended to save wallstreet but to save the main street by helping banks back to business.

2008 Sep 29 06:44 PM

[User 265729:]

oceanhang If it's to save Main Street, why do they always speak to the Asian markets first?

2008 Sep 29 07:22 PM

[otbricki:]

eddie64 - Mostly agree but I think we should keep Sarbox. Anything on the books that could be used to put senior Wall Street execs in jail is a good thing. Crooks, the bunch or them. Anyone who has ever worked in the investment business knows this.

2008 Sep 29 07:37 PM

[Smarty_Pants:]

oceanhang: ANY bank can loan money on main street if the businesses' credit is good. It doesn't take a Wall St. bank for that. Do you think the local pizza hut owner went to JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs for a loan to start up? NOT.

The bailout is not much more than an attempt to funnel money into the Mega Banks so they can stay in business and continue to donate to the re-election campaigns of the incumbents in Washinton.

Anybody care to guess what difference there might have been if the vote on this bailout hadn't been 5 weeks before elections?

Think maybe hundreds of calls/emails/letters from upset constituents might have swayed some congress-critters to vote against the bailout or risk losing in the upcoming election?

Whether a bill is passed tomorrow or not, you can probably bet that a bailout will happen AFTER the elections even if it fails repeatedly before them.

2008 Sep 29 07:55 PM

[whidbey:]

This conversation may be under done; too tame by half. It appears that it is not re-balancing we are into, but rather the start of a ruin path. The entry to the slide is never too bad, or even noticeable, but further down the path it steepens (unemployment accelerates) and falling consumption becomes routine, then the realization dawns that disinflation and the ice box decade has come. I think it is unavoidable no matter what they do: we are well into the slide and the decline will only gain speed. The bail-out is so irrelevant.

2008 Sep 29 09:01 PM

[bayswim:]

Amazing how uninformed most of us are. We are in a 'global' economy where, believe it or not, other countries invest in us and vice versa. And this insistence on private individuals having their assets basically seized to take care of this problem only because they have more than someone else? What is that? Hardly the American way. And give me a break, but there do happen to be a few honest people working on Wall Street who run companies, actually honestly......

Most of what I read here is uninformed bashing seemingly based upon jealousy,fear and ignorance.

Blame will be affixed in this whole fiasco, but some of the blame has to be, folks, placed squarely at the feet of the unrealistic consumer who thought they could fool the loan company into belieiving that they made more, owed less, etc. etc. And the loan officer who works on commission and needs to sell this loan and the appraiser who 'slightly, only slightly', overstated the value of the house, And the greedy, naive homeowner who bet on prices staying up there, And the mortgage company who sold the bad debt to the 'big bank' and the big bank who sold it to China, and on and on and on.

Deregulation back then ends up being the first part of the bailout in that scenario. Think about it.......

2008 Sep 29 09:14 PM

[pochovilla:]

The next time you hear "economic headwinds", "rebalancing" or "protecting the taxpayer" make preparations in a tornado shelter and hope that it's not a flood that will kill you.

2008 Sep 29 10:00 PM

[willyboy:]

Good buying opportunity.

2008 Sep 29 11:22 PM

[Paulo:]

Hope so!!!

2008 Sep 29 11:48 PM

[Rogelio:]

How about a bailout for American public: let everyone refinance to a long, long term of mortgage in regardless, the value of the house, credit, and income, as long as they willing. Anyone who has a mortgage now, let be allow to refinanced into a 40 years, 50 years, 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years or even 100 years mortgage at a low interest rate. However long it takes, as long as it is refinanced into a more affordable mortgage payment. This way, people will not walk the house they don't have to pay too much for monthly.

So long as people are paying their mortgages, banks are not losing money on papers. With this, people are happy, and banks are happy. Of cause, we could put some restrictions on this type of loan to prevent some fraud and abuse. This is minor concern compare to what benefit it will reap.

2008 Sep 30 05:04 AM

[Lark Williams:]

Keep the border with Mexico open! Where else will Americans get jobs??

2008 Sep 30 06:55 AM

[wagman:]

Well said Zooey. Disinflation/deflation is the operative force right now. Somewhere along the line here the realization that owning a home is a consumption choice and not the American dream will set in. If you need to be bailed out of your mortgage then maybe you shouldn't own a home right now. Homeownership can be just as big of a value trap as equities in a deflationary/disinflat... cycle. Rent, consume less and save for better times ahead (probably several years).

2008 Sep 30 02:35 PM