Consumer Spending Off at an Unprecedented Rate

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By Barry Ritholtz - February 9th, 2009, 11:15AM

Amazing chart via Merrill Lynch’s David Rosenberg:

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5 Responses to “Consumer Spending Off at an Unprecedented Rate”

  1. wunsacon Says:

    Gee, we’re broke.

    Best way to stimulate: give money not to the banks but to the poor.* They’ll spend it. So, businesses, banks, and state sales tax coffers will end up with it anyway. But, not before the poor spend it on housing, food, and transportation. Give everyone a debit card and put $500 into it every month. It’s a safety net and a stimulus in one package.

    (* To simplify administration, just give it to everyone. Don’t complicate it with phaseouts, income ceilings, etc. Those complexities waste too much space in the news and consume too much of everyone’s time.)

  2. Dow Says:

    At this rate, just about anything is better than the useless stimulus plan.

  3. carmen101 Says:

    I hate when that happens (looking at the line from left to right).

  4. deanscamaro Says:

    I don’t know that anyone could expect anything different. Debt that is out of site (personal and public), incompetent financial executives and what are and will always be the worst people to guide this country through troubled waters: our elected officials. The consumers are trying to back themselves out of problems they probably created themselves, while the other two groups are blindly dithering in a world gone bad.

  5. How the Common Man Sees It Says:

    :shock:

    Please let that money at least be going into savings