Well it's been a crazy couple of weeks here in Sticky Jello world but now its back to the task at hand! Good current event satire.... I'd like to think of myself more as an astute media observer but I keep getting hung up on "astute". That being said, today is more of a personal post.
The family and I are gearing up for a big operation for our son this Friday and that has really captured the majority of our focus. It really makes you prioritize things in your life quite myopically. I don't want to say that work, hobbies, etc. have taken a back seat but I don't think about them nearly as much as what my son is going to endure the next few weeks.
How do you cope with this 24/7 world when someone you love is in crisis? What is the first thing that you cut out? The last?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Consumers are leaving in droves!
What are we going to do? First we give everyone a tax rebate, then all the market sages say "Save it, don't spend it!", then consumer spending drops. Go figure!
The vast majority of the US populace knows the equivalent of nothing about economics. Any advice that is given to them is going to be followed, at least half the time. Everyone is talking about a recession, high gas prices, mortgage failures, so everyone is buckling down. When it costs more than a year's tuition at Yale to buy gas to go to Walmart, is it any surprise that people aren't spending money?
What I would look for with all this economic goodness is an increase in online spending (correlated with a significant rise in shipping costs) as consumers look for alternative ways to shop.
The larger issue is that we have to come to grips with the fact that this isn't going away. Our dollar is cheap, goods are expensive and life is harder right now. Life on a budget isn't fun and America is finally learning this fact.
The vast majority of the US populace knows the equivalent of nothing about economics. Any advice that is given to them is going to be followed, at least half the time. Everyone is talking about a recession, high gas prices, mortgage failures, so everyone is buckling down. When it costs more than a year's tuition at Yale to buy gas to go to Walmart, is it any surprise that people aren't spending money?
What I would look for with all this economic goodness is an increase in online spending (correlated with a significant rise in shipping costs) as consumers look for alternative ways to shop.
The larger issue is that we have to come to grips with the fact that this isn't going away. Our dollar is cheap, goods are expensive and life is harder right now. Life on a budget isn't fun and America is finally learning this fact.
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