With house prices down 16.6%, consumer confidence at lowest level in 41 years


Are you better off than you were a year ago? Probably not. Since then, global markets have lost roughly half, or $30 trillion worth of their value. House prices fell 16.6% between August 2007 and August 2008 and 3.4 million people are expected to have foreclosed on their houses by the end of 2009. So you can't retire as soon as you thought and if you still own it, you can't borrow money against your house.

Looking ahead to the holiday season and witnessing thousands of people losing their jobs could put you in a bad mood. After all, median income is down since 2000 while it still costs much more to fill your gas tank than it did back then -- not to mention pay for health care. So it should come as no surprise to learn that consumer confidence is lower than it has been in the last 41 years.

But consumers are not smart. As John McCain advisor, Phil Gramm has said, Americans are whiners. And McCain himself has made it clear that the economic fundamentals are strong. After all, McCain (or more likely his wife) owns seven houses and thirteen cars. So the point is that his economic fundamentals are strong. And that's all that really matters.

As for American workers, let them eat cake.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+63.7612,864.99
NASDAQ+23.732,927.61
S&P 500+8.971,351.61

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 01:38 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.035+0.16(+0.85)

Alcoa

10.355+0.065(+0.63)

Apple Inc

499.32+5.90(+1.20)

Google Inc 'A'

612.22+6.31(+1.04)

Bank of America

8.285+0.215(+2.66)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.89-0.01(-0.02)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.395+0.595(+0.71)

Ford

12.55+0.11(+0.88)

Citigroup

33.41+0.485(+1.47)

IBM

192.67+0.25(+0.13)

Yahoo

16.16+0.02(+0.12)

Starbucks

49.14+0.32(+0.66)

Microsoft

30.55+0.055(+0.18)

Home Depot

46.025+0.695(+1.53)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329158292871 ms.