Consumers Ain’t Confident
KEY ECONOMIC INDICATOR HITS 16-YEAR LOW
FITSNews - May 27, 2008 - A funny thing happens when you balloon government growth and choke off people’s ability to invest in the economy.
Believe it or not, the economy starts recessing, or contracting, or stagflating (to borrow the newest term ) and the people responsible for the mess start getting their asses handed to them at the polls.
Additionally, regular folks just flat out stop believing that things are going to get better, as evidenced by the plummeting consumer confidence index:
Consumer confidence sunk to a 16-year low in May, according to the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index published Tuesday.
The monthly index now stands at 57.2, down from 62.8 in April.
“Weakening business and job conditions coupled with growing pessimism about the short-term future have further depleted consumers’ confidence in the overall state of the economy,” says Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Consumers’ inflation expectations, fueled by increasing prices at the pump, are now at an all-time high and are likely to rise further in the months ahead. As for the short-term outlook, the Expectations Index suggests little likelihood of a turnaround in the immediate months ahead.”
Wonderful … so an economy that’s already in the crapper is about to spiral even further down the drain because nobody’s going to be buying anything for the foreseeable future except increasingly expensive gasoline.
Way to go, America!
Comments
By Waldo on May 27th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
“Stagflation” isn’t a new term. It emerged to describe the economy during the Ford and Carter Administrations. You could look it up. Maybe ask Jessica Alba or Heidi Montag.
By justWondern on May 27th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Will….I cant say for sure just what we can do to turn the economy around, but I think ole Waldo just kicked you square in the nuts.
By bird on May 27th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
There is nothing he wouldn’t ask or say to anyone or anything. Don’t tempt him and be careful what you wish for.
By fitsnews on May 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Waldo,
We defined stagflation and provided some history of the word in this post:
http://www.fitsnews.com/2008/02/28/stagflation/
-FITSNews
By Who Cares on May 28th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Exactly, Stagflation was a term that has been around since the 1980’s… Obviously they don’t know what they are reporting and are peeing in their pants because they are the first to report somthing