ethics
09-29-2005, 11:41 AM
Greenspan would be able to find a typically opaque way of saying it. But, I’m not Alan, so I’ll just go up and say it – the economy sucks (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/28/business/28econ.html) and it's getting worse.
As evidence has it, overall consumer confidence took a hit (http://www.conference-board.org/economics/consumerConfidence.cfm) this week as the Conference Board measurement dipped more than 18 points, from 105.5 to 86.6. This dip outpaced the 17 point drop experienced in consumer confidence following the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and was the sixth sharpest decline since the measure was developed in 1967.
Of course every Economist on the street is blaming it all on the weather.
Katrina and Rita didn’t help, sure, but many of the economic indicators which feed the Conference Board measurement reflect trends which predate the hurricanes. The Commerce Department released a new report (http://www.census.gov/const/newressales.pdf) (pdf doc) showing new home sales falling from an annualized estimate of 1.35 million units down to 1.24 million in August. America’s bankers tell us more of us are overdue on our credit cards (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/28/D8CTGEIO2.html) than ever before--as mentioned yesterday.
I'd like to add a less than inspiring piece of a report from American corporate bosses forecasting a downturn in Gross Domestic Product growth (http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=5725) over the next six months. With the government ATM machine spewing money left and right to pay for the weather and the costs of the war in Iraq showing no signs of tapering off, how long before this economy goes barreling off into arecession or, worse yet, a depression?
As evidence has it, overall consumer confidence took a hit (http://www.conference-board.org/economics/consumerConfidence.cfm) this week as the Conference Board measurement dipped more than 18 points, from 105.5 to 86.6. This dip outpaced the 17 point drop experienced in consumer confidence following the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and was the sixth sharpest decline since the measure was developed in 1967.
Of course every Economist on the street is blaming it all on the weather.
Katrina and Rita didn’t help, sure, but many of the economic indicators which feed the Conference Board measurement reflect trends which predate the hurricanes. The Commerce Department released a new report (http://www.census.gov/const/newressales.pdf) (pdf doc) showing new home sales falling from an annualized estimate of 1.35 million units down to 1.24 million in August. America’s bankers tell us more of us are overdue on our credit cards (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/28/D8CTGEIO2.html) than ever before--as mentioned yesterday.
I'd like to add a less than inspiring piece of a report from American corporate bosses forecasting a downturn in Gross Domestic Product growth (http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=5725) over the next six months. With the government ATM machine spewing money left and right to pay for the weather and the costs of the war in Iraq showing no signs of tapering off, how long before this economy goes barreling off into arecession or, worse yet, a depression?