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CONDITIONS DETERIORATING RAPIDLY 9 comments
The consumer confidence index dropped to 50.4 in July. After 18 months of Keynesian stimulus and $2 trillion added to the National Debt, consumers are less confident than they were in May 2009 at the height of the crisis. It appears that the only people who are confident about the future are the criminals on Wall Street and the criminals in Washington DC. They are collecting bonuses and hiring like there is no tomorrow. The MSM cheers on the fraud, but the average American is coming to the realization that the ruling elite are screwing them again. There are no jobs in the real world. Small businesses are closing up shop. Consumers aren’t able to pay down debt. That is a lie being perpetrated by the MSM. The reduction in consumer debt is from bank writeoffs. Taxes are going up at the local, state and Federal level in the next 6 months.
The Case Shiller home price data showed an increase in May. Shocking. The government gave away your tax dollars to morons so they could buy houses. This artificially juiced demand. Come and see me in September and October when prices have plunged because the artificial stimulus is long gone. The MSM still reports as if the housing market is well on its way to recovery. Are they just plain stupid, or is this part of a master plan?
The average American’s lack of confidence is totally justified. The morons on CNBC who all make a million dollars per year and live in NYC penthouses are perplexed at your lack of confidence in the future. Why don’t you ignorant masses get out there and spend, so the economy can recover. You are being unpatriotic by not spending. Keynesian theory says you should be spending by now. What the hell is wrong with you? Get out there and lease a BMW SUV. Whip out that credit card and get that 52 inch flat screen. Take a vacation to Disney World. You confidence-less pussies are ruining the party for the ruling elite. While your at it, could you buy some stocks? The computers at the mega-criminal banks are getting tired of trading between themselves.
Consumer Confidence Index(Index)
1985 U.S. Average = 100
Region Index*
Consumer Confidence in U.S. Declines to a Five-Month Low on Labor OutlookConfidence among U.S. consumers declined in July to a five-month low, a sign the lack of jobs will limit the economy’s recovery.
The Conference Board’s confidence index fell to 50.4 from a revised 54.3 in June, figures from the New York-based private research group showed today. The gauge was forecast to drop to 51, according the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.
Sentiment may be slow to improve until companies start adding to payrolls at a faster rate, and the Federal Reserve projects unemployment will take time to decline. Today’s figures showed income expectations at their lowest point in more than a year, posing a risk for consumer spending that accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
“The concern is that the unemployment rate will start to push up again,” David Semmens, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, said before the report. “Consumers need to start seeing more hiring to lift their moods. We’re expecting a feeble recovery.”
A separate report today showed home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 4.6 percent in May from the same month last year. The increase in the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values was the biggest since August 2006, the group said in New York. While higher than a year ago, the measure is still down 29 percent from the peak reached in June 2006.
Estimates for consumer confidence ranged from 46 to 55.5 in the Bloomberg survey of 73 economists after a previously reported 52.9 reading in June. The Conference Board measure averaged 98 during the expansion that ended in December 2007.
Present Conditions
The group’s measure of present conditions decreased to 26.1 in July from 26.8 a month earlier. The gauge of expectations for the next six months dropped to 66.6, the lowest since February, from 72.7.
The proportion who expect their incomes to rise over the next six months fell to 10 percent, the lowest since April 2009, from 10.6 percent. The percent of respondents expecting more jobs to become available in the next six months decreased to 14.3 from 16.2 the previous month.
The share of consumers who said jobs are currently plentiful held at 4.3 percent. Those who said jobs are hard to get increased to 45.8 percent from 43.5 percent.
“Concerns about business conditions and the labor market are casting a dark cloud over consumers that is not likely to lift until the job market improves,” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s consumer research center, said in a statement.
Michigan Survey
Today’s report is in line with the preliminary reading of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan confidence index, which declined in July to the lowest level since August 2009.
“An important drag on household spending is the slow recovery in the labor market and the attendant uncertainty about job prospects,” Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers on July 21. He repeated the central bank’s forecast for a “moderate” economic rebound.
It’ll take a “significant” amount of time to restore the almost 8.5 million jobs lost in 2008 and 2009, Bernanke said.
Americans are less willing to take on debt without an improvement in the labor market. Consumer borrowing dropped $9.1 billion in May, following a revised $14.9 billion slump in April that was initially estimated as an increase, according to a Fed report on July 8.
Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, said U.S. vehicle sales in 2010 will be 11.5 million to 12 million. That’s down from the Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s prior forecast of 11.5 million to 12.5 million. Last year’s 10.4 million vehicles was the lowest annual total since 1982.
“Consumers are worried about their personal balance sheet,” Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer, said in an interview on July 23. “While they’re paying back their debts, they’re reluctant to take on more debt. And a car is a big purchase.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Shobhana Chandra in Washington at schandra1@bloomberg.net
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This post has 9 comments:
Great stuff, and true.
My city ramped up taxes last year, and again this year; overvaluing homes and simply raising tax rates and fees.
We are facing tough times. The bureaucrats (Govt & Educators) , politicians and rich execs have no idea what is happening since they have not been impacted.
Also just spoke with a friend who said his property taxes were increased 14% and currently at something like 9600 a year prop taxes before the increase it is a big increase.
It amazes me how the media, REhores and Banksters get all excited when house prices go up. Why the excitement? Houses need to fall more to come into line with local incomes, but the Fraudsters will not allow it.
Time to vote the Barney Fwanks and other sleeze OUT now. The MFing FHA needs to be shut down!
Why any tax payer money was used to bailout Wall Street is a question that no tax payer can answer. With campaign funding coming from the big Wall St. firms it is easy to understand why they were bailed out by D.C. Other than their assist in creating an immense housing bubble through their chicanery, what has Wall St. contributed to anyone's betterment?
...this topic always makes my blood pressure rise...what we have seen is the single largest ripoff of the American public and then we have to listen to these jerks pontificate...the very ones that created the mess that the rest of us had to pay for.
...I am beginning to understand why ammo is in such short supply...many Americans have no more faith in their government or its ability to even manage the simplest things. Local governments are forced to cut their police force; Arizona is forced to do a job that the Federal Government is supposed to do, but cannot. We are going to bring democracy to Iraq, but we cannot even manage ourselves...what arrogance from D.C.
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