Maybe the government should start subsidizing the anti-depressant industry. That's the only way investors are going to be able to cope with the drumbeat of depressing economic news such as consumer confidence hitting near a 28-year low.According to Bloomberg News, The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to 57.9, from 57.6 in October. In 2007, the index averaged 85.6. I was able to tell things were bad this summer by the huge number of garage sales that I saw in my area. A few people placed their living room furniture for sale on their front lawns. It was among the saddest things I have ever seen.
Consumers have good reason to feel uneasy. Companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) are laying off thousands of workers. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson abruptly changed his mind yesterday about how to prop-up the ailing banking sector and still wants to keep details of the deals that have been cut secret. My colleague Peter Cohan persuasively argued that President-elect Barack Obama should scrap the Paulson plan when he takes office in January.
The housing crisis also shows no signs of slowing. Foreclosure filings jumped a whopping 25 percent in October even as financial institutions and government officials reached out to struggling homeowners. This is the 34th consecutive month where foreclosure filings have increased, according to RealtyTrac.
For many people, this is not going to be a joyous holiday season. Holiday retail sales may be the worst they have been since 1985. Even Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), the only stock in the Dow to post a gain, is not immune to the economic slowdown.
About the only bright side is that people who do shop will find plenty of bargains as companies hope that lower prices will calm the frayed nerves of the public. Too bad that many people will be buying presents at the dollar store.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-14-2008 @ 1:52PM
JCH said...
One bright spot. On happy SUV day. What makes all the pain worth: gas is under $2.00 a gallon. Yippee!
11-14-2008 @ 1:43PM
BHarrison said...
. . . and what are our Congressmen and CEOs going to say when the confidence levels falls to the lowest level in 79 years? (Of course they will be relatively content with their MILLIONS and HUNREDS of MILLIONS of dollars).
This is all just so outright CRIMINAL of our "leaders" . . . and the majory of the American people just apathetically sat back and watched it all happen. You've let them embezzle your assets and left our nation impoverished.
We've let, and have even participated in letting all of this to occur to our nation and to ourselves.
A little greed is normal for most people; but excessive greed is a despoiler and cancer of our society. Con men depend on the GREED of others to dupe them . . . to suck them into the conspiracies, and that is basically what has happened. There is nothing wrong with honest, capitalistic profits.
11-14-2008 @ 2:21PM
BHarrison said...
We all know that the economy needs spending and investments to stablize and to recover. However, at this point, without any integrity and "faith and confidence" in the market, it would probably be wise to refrain from investments.
At this point there is such volatllity, uncertainlty, and manipulations in the markets that while it will be an opportunity for some (who luck out), it might be the ultimate disaster for others.
There simply is no way for a lot of these disasters to be avoided at this point . . . better safe than sorry? There will be no easy solutions in any of this.