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Guest Post: 16 Signs That The Middle Class Is Running Out Of Money
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
Is "discretionary income" rapidly becoming a thing of the past for most American families? Right now, there are a lot of signs that we are on the verge of a nightmarish consumer spending drought. Incomes are down, taxes are up, many large retail chains are deeply struggling because of the lack of customers, and at this point nearly a quarter of all Americans have more credit card debt than money in the bank. Considering the fact that consumer spending is such a large percentage of the U.S. economy, that is very bad news. How will we ever have a sustained economic recovery if consumers don't have much money to spend? Well, the truth is that we aren't ever going to have a sustained economic recovery. In fact, this debt-fueled bubble of false hope that we are experiencing right now is as good as things are going to get. Things are going to go downhill from here, and if you think that consumer spending is bad now, just wait until you see what happens over the next several years.
Even though the Dow is surging toward a record high right now, everyone knows that things are not good for the middle class. A recent quote from CPA Howard Dvorkin kind of summarizes our current state of affairs very nicely...
"The fact of the matter is that America is broke — whether it's mortgages, student loans or credit cards, we are broke. The old rule of thumb is that people should have six months' of savings," Dvorkin says."If you talk to people, most don't have two pennies."
These days most Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck, and thanks to rising prices and rising taxes, those paychecks are getting squeezed tighter and tighter. Many families have had to cut back on unnecessary expenses, and some families no longer have any discretionary income at all.
The following are 16 signs that the middle class is rapidly running out of money...
#1 According to one brand new survey, 24 percent of all Americans have more credit card debt than money in the bank.
#2 J.C. Penney was once an unstoppable retail powerhouse, but now J.C. Penney has just posted its lowest annual retail sales in more than 20 years...
J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) slid the most in more than three decades after the department-store chain lost $4.3 billion in sales in the first year of Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson’s turnaround plan.
The shares fell 18 percent to $17.40 at 11:28 a.m. in New York after earlier declining 22 percent, the biggest intraday drop since at least 1980, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. J.C. Penney yesterday said its net loss in the quarter ended Feb. 2 widened to $552 million from $87 million a year earlier. The Plano, Texas-based retailer’s annual revenue slid 25 percent to $13 billion, the lowest since at least 1987.
How much worse can things get? At this point the decline has become so steep for J.C. Penney that Jim Cramer of CNBC is declaring that they are in "a true tailspin".
#3 In the United States today, a new car has become out of reach for most middle class Americans according to the 2013 Car Affordability Study...
Looking to buy a new car, truck or crossover? You may find it more difficult to stretch the household budget than you expected, according to a new study that finds median-income families in only one major U.S. city actually can afford the typical new vehicle.
The typical new vehicle is now more expensive than ever, averaging $30,500 in 2012, according to TrueCar.com data, and heading up again as makers curb the incentives that helped make their products more affordable during the recession when they were desperate for sales. According to the 2013 Car Affordability Study by Interest.com, only in Washington could the typical household swing the payments, the median income there running $86,680 a year.
#4 The founder of Subway Restaurants, Fred Deluca, says that the recent tax increases are having a noticeable impact on his business...
"The payroll tax is affecting sales. It's causing sales declines," he said, estimating a decline of about 2 percentage points off sales at his restaurants. "There are a lot of pressures on consumers," Deluca said, adding "I think this is on the permanent side, but I think business will adjust to it."
#5 Many other large restaurant chains are also struggling in this tough economic environment...
Darden Restaurants, which owns the casual dining chains Oliver Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Red Lobster, said blended same-store sales at its three eateries would be 4.5 percent lower during its fiscal third quarter.
Clarence Otis, Darden's chairman and chief executive, said that "while results midway through the third quarter were encouraging, there were difficult macro-economic headwinds during the last month of the quarter."
"Two of the most prominent were increased payroll taxes and rising gasoline prices, which together put meaningful pressure on the discretionary purchasing power of our guests," he added.
#6 The CFO of Family Dollar recently admitted to CNBC that this is a "challenging time" because of reduced consumer spending...
At Family Dollar where the average customer makes less than $40,000 a year, the combination of a two-percent hike in the payroll tax, rising gas prices and delayed tax refunds has created a "challenging time and an uncertain time for the consumer right now," said Mary Winston, the company's chief financial officer.
"In our case, anything that takes money out of our customer's wallet gives them less money to spend in our stores," she told CNBC. "So I think all of those things create nervousness for the consumer, and I think there are sometimes political dynamics going on that they might not even fully understand the details, but they know it's not good."
#7 Even Wal-Mart is really struggling right now. According to a recent Bloomberg article, Wal-Mart is struggling "to restock store shelves as U.S. sales slump"...
Evelin Cruz, a department manager at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pico Rivera, California, said Simon’s comments from the officers’ meeting were “dead on.”
“There are gaps where merchandise is missing,” Cruz said in a telephone interview. “We are not talking about a couple of empty shelves. This is throughout the store in every store. Some places look like they’re going out of business.”
This all comes on the heels of an internal Wal-Mart memo that was leaked to the press earlier this month that described February sales as a "total disaster".
#8 Electronics retailer Best Buy continues to struggle mightily. Best Buy just announced that it will be eliminating 400 jobs at its headquarters in Richfield, Minnesota.
#9 It is being projected that many of the largest retail chains in America, including Best Buy, will close down hundreds of stores during 2013. The following is a list of projected store closings for 2013 that I included in a previous article...
Best Buy
Forecast store closings: 200 to 250
Sears Holding Corp.
Forecast store closings: Kmart 175 to 225, Sears 100 to 125
J.C. Penney
Forecast store closings: 300 to 350
Office Depot
Forecast store closings: 125 to 150
Barnes & Noble
Forecast store closings: 190 to 240, per company comments
Gamestop
Forecast store closings: 500 to 600
OfficeMax
Forecast store closings: 150 to 175
RadioShack
Forecast store closings: 450 to 550
#10 Another sign that consumer spending is slowing down is the fact that less stuff is being moved around in our economy. As I have mentioned previously, freight shipment volumes have hit their lowest level in two years, and freight expenditures have gone negative for the first time since the last recession.
#11 Many young adults have no discretionary income to spend because they are absolutely drowning in student loan debt. According to the New York Federal Reserve, student loan debt nearly tripled between 2004 and 2012.
#12 The student loan delinquency rate in the United States is now at an all-time high. It is only a matter of time before the student loan debt bubble bursts.
#13 Due to a lack of jobs and high levels of debt, poverty among young adults in America is absolutely exploding. Today, U.S. families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.
#14 According to one recent survey, 62 percent of all middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year.
#15 Median household income in the United States has fallen for four consecutive years. Overall, it has declined by more than $4000 during that time span.
#16 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the middle class is currently taking home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Retailers are desperate for sales, but you can't squeeze blood out of a rock.
For much more on how the middle class is absolutely drowning in debt, please see this article: "Money Is A Form Of Social Control And Most Americans Are Debt Slaves".
But if you listen to the mainstream media, they would have you believe that happy days are here again.
Right now, everyone seems to be quite giddy about the fact that the Dow is marching toward an all-time high. And I actually do believe that the Dow will blow right past it. In fact, it is even possible that we could see the Dow hit 15,000 before everything starts falling apart.
But at some point, the financial markets will catch up with economic reality. It is just a matter of time.
In the meanwhile, those that are wise are taking advantage of these times of plenty to prepare for the great economic drought that is coming.
Don't be caught living paycheck to paycheck and totally unprepared when the next wave of the economic collapse strikes. Anyone that believes that this debt-fueled bubble of false hope can last indefinitely is just being delusional.
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PART 2: The following deals with the phenomenon of the shrinking Middle Class...
1. The reason the Middle Class (MC) is "running out of [fiat] money)", is because it is in the middle of a great extinction, like so many other species. We have this 'debt of gratitude' (sarc!) to pay our overlords of modern banking & finance, and the house of money-cards they have built upon our willful and voluntary enslavement.
2. The MC is getting milked daily, sheared regularly and fleeced once a generation. They get 'milked' via taxes of all kinds. They get 'sheared' (of their accumulated wealth) via "market corrections" and job-losses, and 'fleeced' by losing virtually everything via market crashes or extended job-losses. They truly are sheep.
3. Some are even getting 'butchered' in military events (wars!) with soothing and "patriotic" names, which are suppose to evoke a nationalistic fervor and zeal in a certain portion of the populace (the 'poor', the lower parts on the fooodchain and socio-economic totem pole). It does not matter if these wars are re-active, pretexted or preemptive. They key is that they occur, and enrich the financiers (banks) on the sweat, tears and blood of its debtors (taxpayers and soldiers). As admirable as this patriotism and zeal might be -- and it IS -- what most people forget (surpress?), is that "national interests" are always, Always, ALWAYS the 'interests' of those who actually 'own' the nation via leveraged control. That would be the Top 10% who 'own' it. But in reality, this leveraging method has a series of nested leverages, like a MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) scheme (Amway, Mary Kay, etc), until the true levers of power that make fundamental decisions on monetary plicy and end-game goals in their global game of Stratego, rests in VERY few hands.
4. These few hands were a few hundred families. Perhaps in the '400 Club' of old, where ONLY the 400 richest families were running the nation. If you were family 401, you were not "in". The incentive was therefore very strong for the "401-10,000 Club" to get into The 400, and helped perpetuate the whole pyramid. Like in any group or large orgnanization, the real decision are made by a small group of people -- purely out of operational and organizational efficiency. The visible portion the elite) is a useful target for the masses to direct their hopes, fears, love and hate. But the invisible portion (the power behing the throne) is the one that trult wields the fate of nations. They are the true Elite. Think of the robber barons of America's 1800's or those of Europe's Middle Ages (when robber-knights eventually became gentrified and respectable). "Nothing smells better or is more honorable than dirty money that's aged for some decades or generations", I dare say. This has and will always be true. Today's crime lords will be tomorrow's "gentlemen", as they discover that, in order to keep their wealth, their underlings now have to behave honorably also. This is a natural process, and not a 'conspiracy'.
5. The current Elite in the West -- especially in the Anglo-American and Jewish-American alliance -- have their vision of the future, their "worldview" (as it "ought" to be), but their pathological sense of supreme dominance compels them to impose their worldviews on all "lesser" men. They are the new Aristocrats, Monarchs and Oligarchs, who think and feel themselves 'entitled' to their perpetual wealth and power. Nothing's changes, except for the names of the players, their mascots & attire, the rules, tools and tactics, and the PR. Otherwise it's still the same old game of conquest and world domination (damnation).
6. We have become the Latter-Day Slaves (LDS). Slavery has never disappeared from America. And the Civil War was NOT about elimination of slavery, but merely a revisionist history version to suite the bankers' and ploticians' agenda. We have merely replaced the visible and overtly cruel chains of physical slavery with the invisible and subtle chains of mental slavery.
One of Napoleon's many great quotes seems appropriate: "Religion is what we have to keep the poor from murdering the rich".
"And organized religion is a great vehicle for a nice and sustainable lifestyle for its purveyors." I might add.
Diderot's quotes comes to mind for closing:
1. “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
2. “The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.” Duh, yeah, they (organized religion) cannot tolerate competition any more than Central Bankers can.
If you are a true freedom-loving soul (libertarian/Libertarian), feel free to review and enjoy the others:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/210910.Napoleon_Bonaparte?page=1
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/11004.Denis_Diderot
Here's to: Vision, Clarity, enduring Purpose and Perseverance. Cheers, ZH'ers!
p.s. I apologize for not peppering my blog with enough expletives or abusive language. I will try to do better. ;-)
kind of rings the bell...
Today I went to add to my shinys while they are on sale... had to wait behind about 5 people offloading "scrap" silver.
I no longer feel sorry for the sheeple I see at "cash 4 gold" shops pawning their gold away for a couple bucks. There's a nice looking one in the mall (I walk around it after the gym, also in the mall, to cool off) brightly lit and wide open. It's one of the stores left, this mall is about 40% empty and that's considered "good" these days. Well anyway, I was looking at what looked like a single mom holding a kid in her lap while the 2 employees (both bald 6'0" used car salesmen looking dudes) just had smug looks of satisfaction at the new "sucker" who walked in. Good for them though.
More than likely she'd just use the money to buy garbage at the mall. The government and maybe the kid's dad will take care of (be foreced by the courts to take care of) them. They were obvious sheeple and I didn't feel sorry for someone who paid retail for jewelry and then pawned it, possibly considering buying more of the same in the future as soon as she had a few bucks (those temporary increases all pay-check-to-paycheckers get from time to time) in her purse. It's a sad inditement of our society, but I no longer feel sorry for them. They made the choices they made for years and years.
you remind me of every smug slf righteous little shit I ever beat the fuck out of. have a good life
Baltic Dry Index 776. Note the 2008 low was 666.
FYI: S&P 2009 low was 666
http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BDIY:IND/chart
2008 BDI low = 663
Close, but no Lewinsky
North American and European economies based on never ending growth are coming to an end. Look at the list of retailers in trouble. Mostly bauble sellers. Produced off shore by slave wage labor. People are in debt and low wage service jobs are not going to support an advanced society. North America and Europe need to seriously look inward and find the good work that needs to be done. Those jobs will be in renewing infrastructure at all levels. Out with the old inefficient and crumbling and in with the new efficient, renewable based, high quality. This will provide decades of decent work. Of course you need to have your citizens do it. Not just import labor, paid with taxes that are ultimately borrowed. That will just put all levels in more debt. Use materials created in country. While this is going on, start teaching everyone that an economy is a feedback loop. Cheap out somewhere and it comes around to bite you in your own wallet. Hoard cash and you just die with a pile of it that you never got to spend, and neither did anyone else. A well run economy can sustain by consumption and renewal without having to keep adding consumption. You end up with an ever increasing quality of everything. Not bigger, but better, and that is the real point of it. Better. Better as your life passes, better for the future. We keep getting a bigger economy, but it is worse, the bigger it gets. Just more money/labor moving faster to the garbage dumps. Getting more like garbage the second you buy it.
The god of "Growth" IS the problem. It is a Keynesian concept, and calculated in a manner which does not reflect economic realities. We need to calculate PRODUCTION. Transactions of the same item from one hand to another of the same value are not production. Loans are not production, they are facilitation.
Example a house gets built: This is production. (the land price does not count). Bank makes a loan, this is not production, merely rent seeking for 30 years based on a loan. Owner decides to sell, maybe at a higher price, this is not production either. Our economy was based on that for decades.
luv me sum kipling.
The fact we call it GDP when really it's just spending is your first clue that we value our economy with the wrong measures.
GDP = production = gov't spending + consumer spending
Not really production per se.
Keynesianism and MMT and neo-classical economics are all just ivy tower pabulum for the army of "court intellectuals" whose role is to rationalize, promote, justify, and defend the state's actions. They all ignore, obfuscate, or severely underrepresent the role of energy in the economy. Even the Austrian school does this. Hell, it's not even remotely confined to economics, it happens in all of the human "sciences". I can't say if it was intentional or not, but if the aim was to totally deceive entire societies as to the truth of real economics - the central roles of energy and information - it is hard to imagine a better system for doing so.
the term "better" is very subgective.
What ever beter for one might be not as as good for another.
I am the one who defind better as durable, usable, integriable but there are many who will choose replaceble, renewable or plain cheep.
dobble bobble
"Don't be caught living paycheck to paycheck and totally unprepared when the next wave of the economic collapse strikes. Anyone that believes that this debt-fueled bubble of false hope can last indefinitely is just being delusional."
It's all hands on deck in the IridiumRebel household. Talk about a "no shit Sherlock" statement. We here get it. The zombies around us are in for a nasty wake up call.
What's the Ammo for? Are you finally going to grow some balls and go after those that are making your life a living hell?
If one had put up a boat load of ammo 5 years ago, they can now sell the surplus ammo for 3X the initial investment and buy Ag or freeze-dry. The rifles they built can now go for 4X the initial investment. Some r doink OK w/o fiats.....wives are now happy and more frisky events are possible.
:)
"Outfit for a whole squad, you'll have enough in a pinch."
-LC55
You go first....I'll be right behind you.
I can't afford shit. Well over 50% of money goes straight to to beef, carrots, carrots, potatoes, canning jars and ammo.
"You said 'carrots' twice"
"I like carrots"
So does he, apparently :-)
me 2.
How's maxing out the consumer with debt while exporting all the productive hjobs overseas working out???
Bernanke, Evans, Dudley and Yellen, you have financially hollowed out the muppets!!!!
If the muppets realize what you have done it's boiled rope time!!!
“The Mass Of Men Lead Lives Of Quiet Desperation.” -- Henry David Thoreau
Great article, double dip is looking like a fait accompli, Fed will keep disgorging mountains of paper to no avail.
#15 Median household income in the United States has fallen for four consecutive years. Overall, it has declined by more than $4000 during that time span.
Now what the hell could have happened 4 years ago to cause Tyler Durden to list this as a sign of middle class monetary insolvency?
So Obama's war on the middle class is working. Has Obama thanked all of the folks who voted Ron Paul last November?
It does not matter.Forget the Paul,it's the Globalist plan my man.
Just because you see people going to restaurants or going shopping, doesn't mean they are getting richer. It means they are spending money. Alot of them may not even have that much money at all.
Given zero interest rate policy and market manipulation, I don't blame them.
Do you go around and ask people...how much money do you have? In the modern world it is impossible...impossible to judge wealth based upon looks/behavior. This is because there are too many of us, we have too much stuff, and we are very individualistic. Also, poor people often imitate the rich because they think it's cool, and the rich often imitate the poor because they get bored.
In the old days, mid 20th century and before, you could tell who was rich and poor. There were patterns of behavior and looks and clothing handed down over the generations that didn't change much.
Americans on average are the most brainwashed retards on the planet. They get what they deserve if they believe there is a middle class. There is nothing middle about being a little better than homeless. It's the criminal Jew class and two lower classes of goyim, that's it.
"Marta, it's those Kazars again."
"Tell them we're broke, Henry."
The USA started life as a Protestant Colony before becoming a Presbyterian Republic and then an Irish/Italian Catholic Bloc and then a Jewish Homeland and then an Hispanic Overflow Zone......
Not difficult to see why Obamarama wants to disarm people.
How long before a revolution?
fwiw: it's no better in the UK. Retailers closing down all over the place.
Or, a New-New Deal... Americans are by and large (quite large) so dumb/coopted/greedy/selfish/ignorant they'll go for it again, hook, line, and sinker.
It's much the same everywhere. Our phony-democratic political systems are carefully designed to give the impression of choice and voting is the safety valve. When one party wrecks the economy or at least makes a complete dog's breakfast of it, we can vote them out of office and vote in the other party, believing that everything will be better from now on. We think we are in control. ho-ho.
99% of people don't realise that the government machine is not owned and run by the political parties but by unelected, faceless and nameless public servants and banksters. In the UK that's 'Civil Servants'. And it's widely believed that the last Labour Govt spent its 13 years in office stuffing the ranks of the Civil Service with like-minded Lefties to ensure that it was always in power, if not in office.
When a new govt takes office, it does not begin with a clean sheet - there are countless policies in all areas of govt already at various stages of development and implementation. It takes a very dedicated and astute elected politician to change course and even if he does, it will usually only apply to one or two policy areas which he has a strong opinion on (ID Cards was one such issue in the UK which the last fascist govt under Blair/Brown wanted to impose on us but Cameron hated them, so he got them cancelled). The rest continue as they were and the elected political elites are simply public talking heads, aided and abetted by MSM. Economic policies of the last government continue virtually unchanged because they are essentially dictated by unelected civil servants in the Treasury and the Bank of England.
You forgot to mention HIPs - the dreaded Home Information Packs which were essentially Government Licences to be permitted to sell a house. Maybe Americans have not had to pay $800+ for a Government Permit to sell a residential property as in Britain and pay Sales Tax on top. The ID Card Scheme collapsed on the cost of the readers. Every doctor and agency and business would need to buy a dedicated ID-Card reader costing several thousands. Then there would need to be an infrastructure to update every time a Cardholder moved house or job. Attempts to merge the costs with Credit Card Companies failed
You're right, HIPS was another one that got cancelled.
But in truth there are many thousands of policies/rules/regulations introduced into the government machine by the last government and its like-minded Civil Service - or have existed for a long time - that still exist today even though they are flawed or plain wrong.
I can recall three successive Home Secretarys describing the Immigration Agency (now UKBA) as "unfit for purpose". And it most certainly is. Despite having a headcount of 25,000, being caught introducing unlawful regulations and then slightly modifying them after two years of court cases so they just get around the law, major change to its operational rules/regulations are simply not made due to enormous pressure from the Civil Servant apparatchiks who run the show.
I can also recall Philip Hammond saying numerous times during the 2010 general election that he wanted "to end the war on motorists" started under Labour, with particular reference to TfL (Boris Johnson's private army). As Transport Secretary he did nothing whatsoever to reign back these anti-motoring fascists. Why? Because he was confronted by powerful people.
Whenever a Tory Minister attempts to change the culture, reorganise a major dept of State or change its operational regulations, he often finds himself confronted by the Civil Servants. They will sometimes leak dirt on the Minister to force him out of office. This is almost certainly what happened to Liam Fox at MOD and attempts were made to oust Teresa May from the Home Office. Let's not also forget the police scandal aimed at Andrew Mitchell where police setup a sting and fabricated evidence against him to force him out of office.
It goes on. Civil Servants and other public sector workers run the elected government. Local government is even worse in my experience.
there has been no money in the usa after 1971, silver certs gone, gold certs gone, silver coins by by in 1964.
what we all have is FRN's that shit ain't money.
But but car sales are up!
Want to have some fun? Remember all those record sales last year?
Go on to any car sale website, go to Craigslist, and search for 2012 cars. You'll see pages and pages of cars listed.
How is it one can get 1 year old cars so readily?
It's only a matter of time that there are so many "new" used cars on the market, the auto companies can't force another car down our throat.
There may be demand for new cars...that doesn't mean there's money for new cars. There's a reason the average age of a car is around 11 years.
But let's keep pretending it's the 1990s and we can afford a $30K car every 4 years.
"a unit of the Experian credit bureau, reported recently that the percentage of auto loans delinquent by 60 days or more increased in the fourth quarter of 2012, for the first time in three years."
Auto bubble. What's funny is that Forbes thinks this is a good thing and not a portend of an economic collapse.
http://autos.yahoo.com/news/why-more-late-payments-on-auto-loans-are-act...
Who needs a car if you have no job and can't afford gas regardless, now or in the future?
I drove my pick up 3,300 mi last year. I used to put 12K a year on it and not blink. So take that US economy, I ain't playin' no more. Find another sucker.
Late payments are up, Repo's are up. They can't even do $0 down and $199. a month. But sales numbers are numba #1.
My plan all along.Fuck you Citi,BANK O Americo and ahhh what ever is left LOL.
I saw this coming 15 years ago when my job went to Asia.
Then I worked for JPM and GE, and I saw how they rape the public. They are efficient machines at tearing money from people that have barely anything to give.
The economy works for a few. And they have all the money so good luck changing it.
When I lost my 6 figure job and whined and cried....and was laughed at, I accepted my fate. I understood if people didn't care to listen it would affect them eventually.
We're becoming the 3rd world. We let the rich treat us like they treat the workers at Foxconn. They're the Apples of the world selling us marked-up garbage made by kids that work 80 hours per week for $200 per month, then they sit on $1 trillion cash.
The bankers win. The big corporations win. For now anyway. Until everyone is affected it will keep happening.
Did you ever suggest they live within their means? Or they don't need every toy available? Have they ever raised their head, from whatever toy phone, to talk to the person next to them?
Ok, they might hurt you, don't go there.
But,when you need tech stuff look at TigerDirect.com I buy recertified IBM laptops with XP. The machine is stable and runs very well.
I get e-mail & stock info when I have time to read them.
Your points are valid, but we must each get on with our lives!
"granpa, what was 'discretionary?'. Momma says you had some in the old days."
My math skills aren't stellar, but if instead of buying $85b in treasuries or MBS or whatever every month, the fed could mail about $250-$275 to every American (or at least 300 million of us). So a family of 4 would have an additional $1000 a month to pump directly into the economy, instead of the fed simply pumping equities and trashing fixed income. That would certainly do more to stimulate employment than the current madness. I say Ben should roll out the helicopters and start stimulating like he said he could. I hate the way they're debasing the currency, but I'd rather it go to all of us, rather than the chosen few in finance and government.
Ben couldn't care less about US citizens. He's just the head of a banking cartel who's sole interest is preserving the cartel.
Seriously, I am so fucking sick of these bleeding heart poor me articles. I mean what someone said about most young people (I am 37 by the way don't know if that makes me middle age or old) somehow they can "afford" all the latest gadgets, the latest Iphone with the $130 a month plan, designer clothes, $150 sneakers and of course the $15 shots and $16.99 microbrews several nights a week... I mean these kids (from the ones I have met) are so narcissitic, touchy feely (15 year old girls in 25 year old male bodies) and somehow the world revolves around them.
Now for these stats -- well somehow car sales are back to 2007 levels and auto delinquencies are still at historic lows.. Credit card debt is greater than money in the bank?? yes, I spent years racking up credit card debt to over $70,000 by 2008.. I then found a good therapist & psyc doc and realize that $30 a month in copays for psyc meds is better than charging hundreds of dollars a week in order to impress someone. Now mostly paid dow but still carry around $15,000 in credit card debts which honestly is lower than what the average person under 40 has just in credit card debts. I didn't go whining to CNN reporters, didn't stiff people because somehow it is a cool thing to do. Something called taking responsibility and paying ones bills -- it is foreign concept for most of the younger entitled generation
JMT, +1 for "15 year old girls in 25 year old male bodies".
Seriously, I am so fucking sick of these bleeding heart poor me articles. I mean what someone said about most young people (I am 37 by the way don't know if that makes me middle age or old) somehow they can "afford" all the latest gadgets, the latest Iphone with the $130 a month plan, designer clothes, $150 sneakers and of course the $15 shots and $16.99 microbrews several nights a week... I mean these kids (from the ones I have met) are so narcissitic, touchy feely (15 year old girls in 25 year old male bodies) and somehow the world revolves around them.
Now for these stats -- well somehow car sales are back to 2007 levels and auto delinquencies are still at historic lows.. Credit card debt is greater than money in the bank?? yes, I spent years racking up credit card debt to over $70,000 by 2008.. I then found a good therapist & psyc doc and realize that $30 a month in copays for psyc meds is better than charging hundreds of dollars a week in order to impress someone. Now mostly paid dow but still carry around $15,000 in credit card debts which honestly is lower than what the average person under 40 has just in credit card debts. I didn't go whining to CNN reporters, didn't stiff people because somehow it is a cool thing to do. Something called taking responsibility and paying ones bills -- it is foreign concept for most of the younger entitled generation
Enjoy your cognitive dissonance.
#9 does not prove that Americans are running out of money. These companies are losing because of competition.
Best Buy, RadioShack = Amazon beating them
Gamestop = Walmart, Target and Amazon beating them
Office Depot, OfficeMax = Staples online service beating them
Sears Holding Corp., J.C. Penney = every store is better. Their image is that old people shop there, people go to the "cool" Old Navy instead.
Barnes & Noble = the internet is winning recreational time. The internet is stealing tv viewing hours as well.
"a nightmarish consumer spending drought"
I believe you mean, "a slightly less unsustainable but still nowhere-near sustainable economy".
16 signs that the middle class is running out of money--
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Inflationary dynamics for sure--prices will have to go up now-retailers will be front running a decreasing consumer money/credit supply-
once again I'm at the end of the line! End of the line, yes!
That's all I have to say.
Does anyone know who has built more stores over the last six years? GOODWILL. What does that tell you?