30% peak to trough. How far down that slippery slope are we so far?

Christmas is gonna be a bloodbath. oh noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

You need money to spend. No money, no income, no job.....

Silver Lining:

The tide has turned: The people as a whole (yes, still with plenty of exceptions) are no longer being led down the path of economic self-destruction by the green-shooters. 'My income has dropped, therefore my spending must drop'. The new reality...and it's about darned time.

I was reading Bloomberg's account of the spending report, they included yesterday's news that Kellogg's was up. The day before, McDonald's CEO said business was terrible.

So let's rephrase that.

Consumer spending down - wages down - disposable income down-McDonald's down,
Kelloggs up. Less money, people are eating cornflakes at home instead of sausage-egg-McMuffins.

Only jobs and incomes matter.

I remember reading this article in early October (on CNBC) that was trumpeting September sales:

A late Labor Day holiday and delayed purchases for back-to-school helped the vast majority of retailers to post stronger-than-expected sales in September.

Huh. Guess it wasn't really true. (Or else retailers didn't expect to sell anything at all.)

When will analysts/reporters stop with these "beating expectations" memes for sales, earnings, etc.? It's getting very old.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/33221958

If Ya got no money then ya got no car then ya got no women and there ya are!

"You need money to spend. No money, no income, no job....."

Not true at all. You need money OR CREDIT to spend. You can be entirely broke right now, but you can still spend with that CC. You may not be able to afford a house, but you can still get 3.5% FHA loans at low interest rates, using the 8K tax credit for the down payment...

...People are idiots, not a lot of americans have learned their debt lessons out of this...

For those, like myself, that didn't understand what Personal Current Transfer Receipts were:

Personal current transfer receipts are payments to persons for which they do not render services in the current period. As a component of personal income, they are payments by government and business to individuals and nonprofit institutions. Although most of transfer receipts are made in cash, they also include Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps.

The increase in rental income makes no sense to me. Rents are falling everywhere and vacancy rates are up. Could it have something to do with increased BK on the part of landlords/property owners.

If the largest losses are wiped out of the calculation then you can take what's left and it is an increase?

Here's an example of personal green shoot spending:

My Q1 to Q2 SPENDING has INCREASED by 16%. Why?

I paid 100% of my personal taxes in April and also increased beer purchases crying over it. Beer actually paid off tho - see below.

My Q1 to Q3 SPENDING has increased by 74%. Why?

Because STUCK-up contractors who normally would not give me the time of day, found that I was the only cash game in town. I also celebrated (beer). I had been searching for a contractor since 2004 (five frickin' years). I also prepaid for a whole quarter of poultry feed - corn was 1/2 price.

Extra green shoot money came from:

Ebay prize coupons from beer caps Q1
Aluminum recycling projects Q1
Life Insurance premium refunds Q1
Roommate contribution in Q2
Last year RE taxes refunded Q2
Old disputed refunded CC charge Q2
This Year RE tax credit Q3
IRS refund for large NOL carryback Q4
Woodstove heat and electric generation Q1,Q2 and Q4
Food generation Q1-Q4

Don't you just love how they give us great GDP numbers only to sneak in a report like this the very next day. Stupid people you are supposed to still be rallying off +3.5. Don't let this spending report get to you!

KD, I think the report is a disaster vs. expectations.

Modernmystic had a recent vid that applys,well his term that that rang true was that as trees are cut down in an area, you dont notice it til you take a heli to see it.
I agree