Tell me something I don’t know
Consumers probably won't buy big-screen TVs if they are worried about their incomes
Your online payday loan source shares commentary on the nation’s economy.
When I saw the headline “Consumer Confidence at Record Low,” it did not surprise me in the least. In fact, I think I let out an audible sigh as I thought “um, duh.”
But I clicked on the link anyway to see what kind of record we are talking about. Well, it turns out we are talking about the real kind of record. As in, “Consumer Confidence Lowest EVER.” Well, as far as we know.
Why the long faces?
The Consumer Resource Center began calculating and recording the consumer confidence index in 1967. The number for January is 37.7 percent, meaning consumers are displaying 37.7 percent optimism about the overall state of the economy. I wonder how many people feel optimistic knowing they can get an online payday loan if they need emergency cash.
Market Watch cites worries about income as the main cause for the drop in confidence. Only 10 percent of people surveyed said they thought they’d add to their income this year. That’s pretty rough, considering that yearly raises used to be standard fare.
Something I didn’t know
My sighs turned to laughter when I came across this part of the article: “The proportion of those saying jobs are ‘plentiful’ rose to 7.2 percent.” Say WHAT? You know, I support a healthy amount of optimism. However, I think the 7.2 percent of people who think jobs are plentiful are just delusional.
Granted, 7.2 is a tiny percentage, so at least most of the country got the memo about the astronomical unemployment rate and the crashing waves of layoffs that are washing workers out of jobs daily. Yesterday, between 5 companies, 45,000 jobs were cut. How’s that for plentiful jobs? I believe that unemployment checks are plentiful.
Where’s the presidential effect?
Even Obamania hasn't gotten people to feel more optimistic about the economy
Statistics show that when the economy is doing badly during an election, the party that is not in power generally gets elected. This indicates that people generally believe that if they put a different political party in power it will make the economy better.
However, the consumer confidence index fell from December to January. Considering that the index takes into account consumers’ outlook on the future of the economy, I am surprised that people were less confident during the month that we got a new president.
What do you think? You can leave a comment here, at your online payday loan source, sharing your opinion.
Of course consumer confidence is down – nobody is sure of being able to afford a new TV these days. I know these companies don’t want to lay all these people off, but we have to be able to do something to stem the tide of all these layoffs.
LOL… Leave the people to believe there are actually some good in our economic future. At least I do – but in the future. Of course it would be silly to think that there are tons of job opportunities when it seems like everywhere you turn people are either getting laid off or on a job search, for months! But hey… if they feel like pretending things are in place, let ‘em be.
IT’S A ROUGH CYCLE TO GO THROUGH. AS JOB LOSSES MOUNT CONFIDENCE GETS SHAKEN EVEN MORE, BUT FOR NOW THATS WHY IT’S CALLED A CYCLE AS THINGS WILL IMPROVE. OPTIMISM IS WHAT HELPS YOU THROUGH FOR THE TIME BEING.