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This Wasn't Supposed To Happen: 7 In 10 Americans To Save, Spend Gas "Tax Cut" On Bills Not Gifts
The lower-gas-price-tax-cut is "unequivocally good" meme is becoming more and more full of holes by the day. All that extra disposable income means moar iPhones, moar dining-out, and moar GDP... right? Wrong! As CBS reports, a new poll finds 73% of Americans will not use any extra cash from lower gas prices to buy additional gifts. What is even worse for America's credit-growth-dependent economy - 69% of Americans will use this extra disposable income to pay down outstanding bills and expenses. The final nail in the coffin of exuberance, two-thirds of Americans say they see no benefits from lower gas prices. But apart from that... keep the narrative going...
While "common knowledge" is that lower gas prices must be good for everyone, as CBS reports, this is not the windfall of disposable income-driven GDP-boosting exuberance so many extrapolating Keynesian economists are hoping for...
Despite a recent drop in the price of gas, 45 percent of Americans still think the price is too high. Thirty-nine percent of Americans think gas prices will go up, while 40 percent think they will go down.
Sixty-three percent of Americans say lower gas prices have not had any effect on their financial situation, but for a third, the price drop has been beneficial.
Majorities say they will use any savings from lower gas prices to pay bills or save; fewer will pay off credit cards, do home repairs, spend more on holiday gifts, or travel more.
Americans are now more skeptical that the president can have an impact on the price of gas. Most Americans - 53 percent - think the price of gas is beyond the control of the president.
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So of course - these facts about American consumers do not compute with how the textbooks say it should all work... but we should ignore reality and believe in hope for now.
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they spending all their $$ on the fresh IPO's? .. and or ComED bills?
http://hedgeaccordingly.com/2014/12/small-business-lending-platform-prov...
7 out of 10 Americans think Obama sets gas prices.
Mr. Yellen,
I hope your Loose Lips, both – down there and up there, get a bad case of Athlete’s Foot. Permanently and incurably. Cunt! ;-)
Looney
Keep spending the same amount every time you go to the gas station. Where before it was just a tank of gas, now its a tank of gas, plus an ounce of silver. Every little bit helps.
NRG just raised rates 2 cents a kwh to kick in first of the year.
Utilities new it was coming all along. Any kind of price break will immediately be taken away by some related price hike, and or govt tax.
It's the Progressive Liberal Democratic way...
Ha ha. In Texas we deregulated electricity and now we pay twice what we used to. Progressive conservative republican way. Funny, however the co-ops that are still left in the state with controlled pricing; pay half what the rest of us do.
deflation deflation deflation deflation......
pretty sure things are going to get really bumpy soon.
have a plan, gang....... have a plan.
Americans are acting more and more like Depression babies. Our psyche is getting more and more modelled by the 2nd Depression.
Actually I think it is good as debt becomes a bad word and I hope it takes a few WS Banksters down the tube with them.
This is not something that will switch overnight. I remember relatives of that era who would pocket napkins from barbeques for later use....
FUCK WS and their ilk.
OMG bad memories brought back. My X mother in law loved Disneyland, where 40 year old son worked.
When I dated her daughter they would take us there and the son as an employee could sign us in for free
Well momma would go up to tables that people had just left, garbbing napkins, salt, pepper, food boxes, anything with Disney logos or was usable at home.
Shopped goodwill, so on and on.
Their net worth 3 million
people who don't spend money tend to have money... a generic observation certainly, but I've seen it proven true more often than not
Work your plan, don't just talk about it here on ZH.
They will never allow deflation. Instead, they will do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRTdeYHoQgg&list=UUfn9El5up8chXbd6cEnj4HA
You have to be on powerful pain meds to believe anything coming from CBS news or network news in general. Those spineless news toadies remember what happened to Dan Rather when he okayed a report that President Bush went to the head of the line to get in the Texas Air National Guard, to avoid service in Viet Nam. What, saving ten or twenty dollars a week on gasoline will offset your Obamacare silver health insurance plan doubling in price when you renew it? CNN just gave Candy Crowley, its shill Obama mouthpiece reporter her walking papers, saying she retired. You can still see the outline of Jeff Zucker's size 11 Oxfords on Crowley's rear, from his booting her from CNN. Now if only someone could toss Wolf Blitzer from a high floor window at CNN HQ.
Because $10 or $20 really adds up per week especially if you are in a household only making $30-40k annually.
They can afford to eat ham instead of Spam for a few months until gas prices head back up
you do have a point but so does your poster above. It saves me some money, but everything else is screeming up. Health insurance took every nickel of that $500 savings away, and then some.
Will we see healthcare insurance becoming not deductible when it takes too much of a bite out of fed tax revenues??
It just gives the assholes a chance to further tax the shit out of gasoline without anyone noticing. Shit, they could tax it all the way back up to $4.00/gal average and the American public would think it's just market fluctuations or somethin'.
"market fluctuations" are not in the vernacular of 7 in 10 Americans.
"In the parlance of our times"
It still costs me £1.19 a litre. Maybe £10.00 a month cheaper (that's less than 4 beers).
No jobs, no commutes. All you have to do is drive to the unemployment office once a month and Flea Markets on weekeneds.
The non-word "moar" appears 3 times in your first paragraph. Does anyone edit, or even proofread, these articles?
"MOAR" was invented here.
As in "he used ONE MOAR comma than he had to."
Just wait until its moar woar.
Coming to a country near you.
didn't i just read an article explaining that overleveraged households desperately need to pay down debt and increase their savings rate? oh yeah it was right here on ZH, right below this one.
somehow spending less on gas and more on paying bills isn't going to achieve... paying the bills
ok
cheers
Paying bills?
Should that not be deemed as a form of terrorism?
These tin foiled hatters need to rounded up and sent off to camp for reprogramming.
I'd like to spend the savings on punching a banker in the face. How much does that cost?
No offense Tyler, but this article is complete BS. As you quite often say, 'Money is fungible'. Consumers get break at the pumps and they pay down their bills. How would they have paid those bills beforehand? If the answer is they wouldn't, then clearly the break at the pump is causing them to 'purchase' sometng they otherwise wouldn't have. If they would have paid those bills anyways then it' a moot point because, without any ambiguity, they have more cash in their pocket.
Clearly the only answer is that lower oil pricing is a net transfer of wealth from those involved in the production/distribution of oil to those that produce other resources with the net effect on the consumer being an increase in total utility. There is absolutely no way that a lower price for something we all consume is a bad thing. I will caveat this by saying that an artifically low price for anything is bad and could cause uis to underinvest in something we need, but whether or not this price drop is an economic or political issue is another discussion.
One could argue that the restructuring caused by lower pricing will be painful for those in the sector and nobody would disagree with that. For the economy as a whole however, especially one that is a net importer, the effect will be a decidedly positive one.
I read this website all the time, but if you're going to make an argument at least be consistent and not always negative.
US consumers painted as ignorant spendthrifts all this time, but the nanosecond they start to grow up and pay down their debts it's somehow bad... go figure
The answer to how they would have paid their bills before hand, is right there in the statement, "they pay down their bills." These consumers are rolling over there credit because they are just as leveraged as everyone and every other entity out there. That is why there are so many self help books & scams for getting out of debt free.
The consumers aren't going to pay down all of their debt because they won't be able to, they are just going to try and stop digging the hole deeper & climb out part of the way. Most of these consumers don't know how to manage a credit card let alone the twenty they've been issued on top of the home loan they shouldn't have been given and the new car they couldn't afford. Now they can pay off some of the revolving credit to try and sleep easier.
What they should be doing is selling their homes, their cars, and cutting up their credit cards, then paying off their debts. Then moving into places they can afford and buying cars they can afford.
One of those moments like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoTirOwta4w
yellen was hoping they would buy amzn, baba, & twtr common
half these surveyed assholes think the price is about right ?????????? and who the fuck are the 4% that think its to low banker assholes???
and who the fuck are the 4% that think its to low banker assholes???
Soon to be unemployed oil workers. All those shale and fracking states are about to see their tax base implode and median earnings plunge.
and the hundreds of girls who flooded that fracking boom town in N Dakota will leave, driving the price of a Hooker sky high, and there will be plenty of rentals available-CHEAP
Folks like me that got family in oil and gas? Pooh hole?
Yup, the stores are relatively empty, even in Northern CA, where I live. People have money up here for the most part, but they're not shopping much. It may just be that they're shopping online more now. I'm not buying anyone presents this year.
BAH! Humbug!
Yup, the stores are relatively empty, even in Northern CA, where I live. People have money up here for the most part, but they're not shopping much. It may just be that they're shopping online more now. I'm not buying anyone presents this year.
It is good news that Americans choose to save. But the backdrop, a squeeze on the middle class, makes me sad. What price corporate largesse? Who really cares about Americans in Washington?
Big Brother is watching.... https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/17/billion-dollar-surveillanc...
I'm putting my windfall in the bank so I can earn 3/4 of one percent.
It doesn't seem like much until you factor in the power of compounding, which will allow me to buy a T-bill, backed by the full faith and credit of the US government!
Is this just more proof that the average American is too lazy to even track their monthly expenses on a detailed basis desptie so many applications that make it easy to do so and understand how much they spending on gas monthly? I say 'yes.'
You should post over on Kitco. They love to denigrate their fellowman all the day long; stupid, fat, lazy, worthless, etc. I imagine you talk to your kids like that too, if the wife hasn't all ready left you.
No but I don't praise them for just getting up in the morning and getting ready for school or a host of things that they should do. I not going to denigrate them (certainly not yell at them or hit them) but it is depressing that people don't think this means much to them. It is likely something that improves their monthly budget by a minimum of 3-5% and maybe a bit more. Not going to suddenly make a profound difference but it is going to help alot of people.
Just a thought? If one/seventh invested a few (quid/pence/cents dimes/ nickles) last week.
They would be ahead of the game/
Hump Day my fellow traders. Play that trading piano.
The point is that this does not create any more money, we are all still broke. No paying off bills, but you might be able to eat a meal instead of ramen 5 out of 7 nights in the week. I can splurge on a 6 pack instead of it all going to the gas station. Yep, a real economic turn around in the making there. They still will not give me a raise at work, and I still have to pay bills or sit in the dark.
Not one post suggesting that this might allow the FED to finally raise rates. That way they (banksters) can extract yet more blood from their debt slaves. Three cheers for fiat!
Hip hip...
Since Thanksgiving, the best place to be by yourself and read a good book is my local mall--the biggest and fanciest-schmanciest in the state. Same with all the stores in Big Box land. Crickets, with tumbleweeds rolling down the isles.
It used to be that by now, UPS and Fedex trucks would be tearing up my neighborhood all day long like the helicopter attack scene in Apocalypse Now. This year, you rarely see one.
I have never seen anything like it.
It is a canary of a harbinger of an omen, I tells ya.
There is a black fucking swan out there.
hell im still getting packages of books and things from Amazon.uk in three days-NORMAL shipping...i live in Oregon-used to take a week or more
They mean "pay for health insurance premiums" that they still haven't been told what the prices really are yet
Our entire family is staying home making things for each other and working up some of the fine canned and dehydrated foods we put up in the fall into gifts. Weza not planning on going anywhere, or spending one red cent until after the first five days of the year.
Our $67.00 electric bill is payed, the water is stored up, and we have an unlimited supply of free energy(wood) to cozy heat the house with. It's called self-subsistence, and now becomes the new way of life for 89% of America.
Give thanks, for the Victory Garden!
Don't they need to have cash first to have any extra...
Not only am I not using the extra to buy things, I am not using it to pay bills either. Don't have any, just rent and utilities. Nothing else. So I am saving it. PERIOD.
Told my family two years ago to not buy anything for me for Christmas, because I am through with the farce called Christmas. Yes, it's nice to visit family and friends. That's what it is to me, time to get re-aquainted with some I may not have seen all year. No need to go broke, or go in debt buying things, that mostly are not needed or even wanted.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. ;-)
If a lot of people are forced to pay bills instead of buying useless garbage for christmas , the retai shop sales will not do well and we know that a lot of shops relay on big sales during this period to survive . There could be a lot bankruptcies in 2015 !