Comments on: The Financial Sky Is / Is Not Falling

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:13:04 +0000

The economy is built on confidence, and while this indicator may not be a ‘real’ indicator of economic health, it certainly doesn’t help. If people believe things are getting better, that they will make more money, have more to spend, etc., things improve.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:02:35 +0000

Ok sales were up 3%, but isn’t inflation this year more then 3%? so that actually means that spending is down.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:54:42 +0000

I thought this was an indication that people are trying to get the best price for items when the sales are good…if sales continue up then I am wrong. We draw names in our family and decided to drop the $$ amount in half. I also use a Christmas Club to save up for the holiday each year. Enjoy your blog.

By: Direct TV vs Dish Network

Direct TV vs Dish Network — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:50:42 +0000

My wife and I are trying to spend a little less this Christmas as well. We’ve spent the past 3 years getting out of debt (except for our house). We would like to fit a nice HDTV into the budget to replace the one we bought when we got married 8 1/2 years ago – but we may have to go another year still…

By: BuildMyBudget

BuildMyBudget — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:34:58 +0000

Yeah, I’m not so sure that this report is 100% either, but I choose to look at in a win/win light. On one hand, an increase in spending would greatly help restore a little confidence in the American economy and deter additional job cuts. On the other hand, if the report isn’t accurate then hopefully Americans have begun to tune in to the times and are cutting spending. Cheers!

By: SimplyForties

SimplyForties — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:44:13 +0000

I had the same reaction when I read that article. I wanted to see that consumer spending was down as a reflection that we had learned our lessons and were going forward more responsibly. We can argue as to whether a recession/depression truly exists but we can not argue with the layoffs and foreclosures.

People are hurting, they shouldn’t be spending. I wonder if they are spending as a reflection of what’s going on, as in “we lost our house and our jobs but at least we are going to have a good Christmas”. If that’s the case, it’s pretty short-sighted and means families are not pulling together and scaling back Christmas.

I’m afraid it means that lots of people are just not willing to change their spending habits.

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:31:50 +0000

old habits die hard. i said that the spike in personal savings rate a few months ago was people saving for the holiday’s, and it looks to be right. plus, habits are hard to kill. people will probably actually spend more this year than last year because, we are compulsive shoppers at the end of the day, so we will buy more because all we see is everything is on sale. so americans will end up buying lots of stuff on sale which will bust their budgets. a ton of feathers equals a ton of lead, it is just how we perceive how much we are spending to what we actually spend at the end of the day that differs. this doesn’t mean that retailers will win, because the margins will have been cut very low, so they will need higher sales volume to churn a profit.

By: Eva in TX

Eva in TX — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:09:57 +0000

There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics.

Has anyone considered that the price of consumer goods is up from last year, due to other factors like the cost of borrowing and the cost of transportation to distribute these goods?

People have complained on other forums that the Black Friday sales offerings weren’t as generous as in past years. Yet consumers spent more. That just tells me that things costed more this year. I’m only very cautiously optimistic . . .

By: Amber

Amber — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:24:41 +0000

I thought about this a lot when the economic stimulus packages went out and we all got IRS checks. My initial impulse was to stuff that money in my retirement savings but what made me pause was whether or not that was the ethical thing to do. It was meant to be spent, in order to help charge the sluggish economy. If everyone simply saved their check, it would have been for naught.

I ended up investing it all in the end, though I’m still undecided about whether that was the ethical thing to do.

I participate in Buy Nothing Day (http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd) so I wasn’t contributing to the spending on Black Friday.

By: Eric J. Nisall

Eric J. Nisall — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:34:13 +0000

Personally, I do not put much weight into all of these so-called “economic indicators”. The University of Michigan consumer confidence indicator and the retail reports such as this one are bunk in my opinion simply because people are irrational and take everything to extremes. When the market is suffering, people panic and sell everything causing the market to tank. On Black Friday, the deals are too good to pass up, due to lack of planning or self control or whatever you may think, and they tend to overspend. Regular people have no clue as to what makes the economy work, and most will admittedly tell you that they only know what they are told by the media, so consumer confidence levels are skewed. I honestly think if each person/family worried about their own situation and got a handle on their own finances, the rest would take care of itself.