Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Consumers Step Up Spending
After a few sluggish years in our economy, it appears as though things are finally turning around. But is it too little too late? A mere bubble perhaps? How do these minuscule improvements stand in the face of the economic downturn we are just finishing (slowly) as a nation? How do these numbers look for our potential presidential (re)electees? (link)
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This seems to be a glass half full/ glass half empty type of situation. In an election year, you can spin this either way you want. Opinions only go so far, but facts are what we need to try to look at here. Taking everything else out, the facts look good. If things keep looking good, then we can declare our recovery. How long until then? Again a matter of opinion. I like to side with the technical definition of the end of a recession and go with what is it? Two consecutive quarters of significant growth?
ReplyDeleteI think that the recent rises in several different sectors when considering consumer spending is a great sign. Not only does this show that consumers have extra money to spend, but that they are very optimistic about the future and are comfortable spending their money now. However, I do not think that this takes us out of the economic crisis. This is a positive step in the right direction, but just a start. As far as the election, I feel it won't have as great of an effect on the election because of how recent this information is being released.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Travis and Brandon on points. The facts are good to look at but they still can't be over analyzed. Just because we are doing better does not mean we are out of the woods yet. We will need more continued growth before we can say we are recovering but the fact people are out spending again shows we are doing better, and should hopefully help the economy recover faster as long as this keeps up. For the election, I don't know if it will have a huge impact seeing how the election is only a little over a month away, but if anything I would assume it would go in Obama's favor since he was in office when it seems like we are finally clawing our way back up.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this is at at least a start. In certain sectors of the economy we are seeing a bright points of light. Over the past couple of months we have seen continued resurgence in the automobile industry as pent up demand and increasingly innovative and redesigned vehicles have driven sales without the need for extra sales incentives. We've seen in the past month, the housing market finally bottom out as prices over the past three months have begun to rise (especially in the bottom third valued houses). These points in combination with the DOW being 500 or so points of could quite possibly indicate a bottom to the whole economic slowdown. This could work to Obama's favor but, it is not as convincing as a return to prosperity argument.
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