Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Waiting For Demand

Yes, I think that Obozo's totalitarian/socialist ideology is a serious drag on the economy.

Yes, I think that Governments, Fed, State, and Local, are far too large and inefficient--not to mention contentious and obstreperous--for growing an economy.

But those problems are hardly the biggest ones faced here.

Barry has a chart which is ghastly. Consumer discretionary spending on services and quite a few durables has near fallen off the face of the earth; this is the worst it's been--by FAR--since the 1960's.

Seek ye then, 'demand'? Persuade people that it's safe to spend.

One good way: Dump Obozo and McConnell, too.

4 comments:

J. Strupp said...

The savings rate is still below historical average which means we haven't even reverted to the mean yet. This is a deleveraging story not a confidence problem.

Dad29 said...

Chicken/Egg.

The NYT maintains that it's deleveraging. I'm willing to buy that--but not without the confidence problem.

Correlation/causation? Let's be serious. Steve Wynn IS a Democrat and he's very clear about Obozo.

J. Strupp said...

If you're trying to tell me that consumers aren't very confident that they can sustain a near zero savings rate with negative equity in their biggest asset than yes it's a "confidence" problem.

Dad29 said...

De-leveraging, the burden of Ritholtz's post, necessarily implies low savings.

So yah, it's 'confidence.'

Doesn't take a PhD Econ to figure out that when things are uncertain, you pull in a bit.