US consumer confidence in decline (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Job and salary fears have dented US consumer confidence, with more people saying jobs are harder to come by in a slowing economy.

Consumers were more pessimistic about economic prospects in October than the month before, the Conference Board survey of 5,000 households said.

More people were worried about their incomes and new jobs being created.

Economic growth fell to 1.6% in the three months to September, the lowest rate of increase for three years.

'Moderate expectations'

The Federal Reserve has forecast "a moderate pace of growth" in the economy in the near future.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6103448.stm

[Warpy]

1. Well, duh

They are seeing their houses lose paper profit as the market doesn't just chill, it goes into deep freeze.

The crash in the stock market didn't cause the Depression. What happened later caused it: people no longer had paper profits to count on so they just stopped spending on anything but the bare necessity of food. The collapse of the consumer economy is what triggered the Depression, a lack of demand coupled with a sudden oversupply of goods and services nobody was buying that fueled unemployment and added to the disaster. Remember, farmers had been hurting for a decade already and the stock market collapse didn't do that much but wipe out heavy speculators who'd gone overboard buying everything in sight on margin. The lack of confidence is what caused the consumer economy to collapse.

So it may be if the housing market really does start to collapse, rather than do the slow slide that's happening now. All it takes is a loss of confidence in the system and everything falls apart.

FDR was right that we have nothing to fear but fear, itself. Fear can be a powerful motivator, though.

[hvn_nbr_2]

2. But but but but... the Dow's up. What's wrong with those people?

Oh, you mean there are people in the world who don't live on trust funds? Who actually have to have a job to buy caviar? Well, why don't they just invest like sensible people do? Lazy good-for-nothings! They probably don't appreciate their tax savings on dividends and Hummers and incomes over 500K either. Ingrates!

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Republicans say the stock market is at a record high. Eh, not really. (link)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2909828&mesg_id=2909828