"Apparently the markets are going to go gangbusters this week. While that's good, I still don't have a lot of faith that the rotten fruit has been shaken out of the tree. We still have the credit card shoe to drop, and consumer spending is going to continue to get worse and worse - of those two things I am certain. Housing is going to keep declining until credit frees up and prices reach an equilibrium level based on the absence of fantasyland mortgages and the death of the fable that home prices always go up. I'm not building the bunker quite yet but there will be a lot of "the worst is past" statements circulating this week, of which I am not a buyer."
And the consumer spending numbers for September came out. And they suck. Trading cheeseburgers among each other does not an economy make. When your economy is 70% consumer driven, and the consumer is being 100% driven in the pants, your economy does not have a lot of hope.
Summoning up my best spirit of Hillary Clinton voice, I will say "I call on you, the Masters of the Universe, who between the one or two hundred of you made like 68% of total American income last year, to spend and spend. Spend like there is no tomorrow. Tap open the college savings accounts of your great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren (hell we'll probably have mutated into a different species by the time your families have to sweat money) and buy some damn cheeseburgers, would you?"
All this talk of cheeseburgers makes me hungry. I'm out.
Oh yeah, I told you so.
No comments:
Post a Comment