dailyfinance.com — Evidence of a new consumer mindset keeps piling up. Today's New York Times front page reports Americans are becoming savers. When they shop, it is for necessities. They are spending less on impulse purchases.
Aug 30, 2009 View in Crawl 4
philzAug 30, 2009
Amount of Money Saved = Amount of Money InvestedMacro economics 101
4antistupidAug 30, 2009
For what? So businesses can get loans to cover the expanding sales demand?
Closed AccountAug 30, 2009
The funny part is the credit crunch, then the mortgage crisis had to pop up as we were all wondering how much longer we'd be able to keep on maxing out credit cards to buy our 50" TVs and fastfood meals.Not saying that credit cards caused the crisis, but I think the crisis has taught us some important lessons--but at the price of a promise of a future in which loans will be more difficult to obtain.
philzAug 31, 2009
There are a lot of cycles one can see in the economy - for example, when you look at the dow jones index: <a class="user" href="http://www.seasonalcharts.com/zyklen_dekad_dowjones_100j.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.seasonalcharts.com/zyklen_dekad_dowjone ...</a> (the site has other interesting cycles as well, like the election cycle).My rule of thumb always was the 7 years cycle, and when you take the difference between the peak and the bottom, you get those 7 years.
freakflagAug 31, 2009
Too long or just right? You decide.
amnesia10Aug 31, 2009
But the spending/stimulus does not have to be for ever. Plus the vast majority of the US national debt are the Bush Tax cuts. he just never worked out how he was going to pay for them. If you are upset now, you certainly should have been when he borrowed to pay for the tax cuts.There is unlikely to be any inflation for a few years anyway. After that then yes, it is possible. Though I do think that interest rates should go up sooner, or all that will happen is that there will be another bubble funded by zero interest rates. Housing should have stable interest rates not crazy low rates that only lead to bubbles. If you could only buy a house with 5% fixed rates for 30 years then you would not have had the sub prime collapse, or the collapse of the Alt-A's or even Option ARM's. The alternative is let the economy slump seriously into a depression and watch the deficit rise even further. Fiscal policy is important, though the problem is that Obama is carrying on Bush's monetary policies.
stoanhartAug 31, 2009
What dianebl said, plus savings provide the money that is loaned to firms for capital investments, meaning more wealth down the road.
linageeAug 31, 2009
I'll buy crap when that crap keeps it's value for longer than a year. No cheap electronics that break and lose lots of value over time, kthanks.Better yet, show me where I can buy some assets that appreciate.
Closed AccountSep 5, 2009
Who gets basics at Macy's? Way to be thrifty!