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JPMORGAN: The 'Slowdown In Consumer Spending Has Arrived' Matthew BoeslerMarch 3, 2013TheRealMichaelMoore / Flickr Last week's release of personal spending data revealed that spending rose 0.2 percent in February, at the same pace as in January. When adjusted for inflation, though, the data are less encouraging. In a note to clients, JPMorgan economist Robert Mellman declares that the "consumer spending slowdown is here," saying consumers are beginning to feel the effects of the payroll tax cut expiry and rising gas prices. Mellman writes: Slowdown in consumer spending has arrived: The first-round effects of the tax increases should mainly affect consumer...

Washington — Consumers saved nearly $1.5 billion in 2011 as a result of rules in President Obama´s healthcare law that limit what insurance companies can spend on expenses unrelated to medical care, including profit, a new analysis shows. Much of those savings — an estimated $1.1 billion — came in rebates to consumers required because insurers had exceeded the required limits. The study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund also suggests that the Affordable Care Act forced insurers to become more efficient by limiting their administrative expenses, a key goal of the 2010 law. In some cases, insurers passed savings...

First of all, I apologize for posting a vanity, but I have a serious question for the technology buffs on FRee Republic. Has anyone here had any experience with the scanner and OCR conversion software called NeatDesk? I am considering buying one of these digital filing devices, to clear the clutter, but I don't know how difficult it will be to actually produce reports for taxes, etc. from this device. How does it find dates, titles, and other data points from a scanned document, especially when they are all so different and the info is found in different places on...

While all eyes were on the Republican National Convention in Tampa and Hurricane Isaac on the Gulf Coast, the White House was quietly jacking up the price of automobiles and putting future drivers at risk. Yes, the same cast of fable-tellers who falsely accused GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney of murdering a steelworker's cancer-stricken wife is now directly imposing a draconian environmental regulation that will cost untold American lives. On Tuesday, the administration announced that it had finalized "historic" new fuel efficiency standards. (Everything's "historic" with these narcissists, isn't it?) President Obama took a break from his historic fundraising drives...

Democrats were riding high in the polls in 2006 and 2008, and one of their big issues was health care. Then, after passing the president's health care law, the politics shifted, and the issue helped sweep the GOP to victory in the 2010 midterm elections. A few months later, Republicans had a 14-point advantage in terms of voter trust on the health care issue. Then, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan introduced his health care plan, and the lead disappeared. Neither party has an advantage on the issue now. President Obama's plan is unpopular, and most want to see it repealed. Ryan's...

The annual Macy's 4th of July fireworks show in New York City provided the usual oohs and ahhs. But the pyrotechnics were quickly replaced by a dud of a June sales report from Macy's Thursday morning. Macy's (M) said that sales at stores open at least a year, the most widely watched measure of health in retailing, were up just 1.2% from a year ago. Analysts were expecting so-called same-store sales growth of 2.3% according to Briefing.com. But the tone of Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren makes the sales miss even more alarming. In a press release Thursday, Lundgren described the...

Shout Bits has argued that the Mortgage Interest Deduction is not so helpful to regular Americans, but with interest rates at historic lows, now is the time to eliminate this market distortion. Not only does the MID encourage buying unaffordable homes and promote market bubbles, the primary beneficiaries are wealthy individuals as large banks. Eliminating this deduction would actually help most ordinary homeowners. For 2012, a couple filing jointly can claim an $11,900 standard deduction, even if they have no otherwise deductible expenses like mortgage interest. Therefore, the first $11,900 in mortgage interest paid by such a couple generates no...

We have seen three very loud and very clear messages this week on the state of the US consumer's mind. After a few months of extravagance, on the back of what can only be described as depression-fatigue, reality is biting once again. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort index just missed expectations by its greatest amount in three years and has plunged over the last 5 weeks by the most in four years - dropping back to four-month lows. Do these two messages explain the catastrophe that is JCP's results this quarter? We suspect so as the outlook for the economy (sub-index)...

President Barack Obama has an ambitious plan for Washington bureaucrats to take command of the oceans—and with it control over much of the nation’s energy, fisheries, even recreation in a move described by lawmakers as the ultimate power grab to zone the seas. The massive undertaking also includes control over key inland waterways and rivers that reach hundreds of miles upstream, and began with little fanfare when Obama signed an executive order in 2010 to protect the aquatic environment. “This one to me could be the sleeping power grab that Americans will wake up to one day and wonder what...

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid car that seems to have everything the rich and famous — and environmentally correct — look for in a set of wheels. Sleek silhouette? Check. Green cred? Check. Six-figure price tag? Check. Reliable battery? Not so fast. In a test conducted Wednesday by Consumer Reports magazine, the niche-market $107,850 sports car conked out completely, after a short ride at 65 miles per hour on a Connecticut test track. “Our Fisker Karma … is super sleek, high-tech — and now it’s broken,” Consumer Reports wrote on its website late Thursday. “We have owned our...

When Republicans suspended the 100-watt-light-bulb ban, they said they were trying to protect consumer choice. But they also managed to show how regulations help big business at the expense of the little guy.

Record numbers of Americans found themselves stuck in Black Friday mob scenes across the country. There were reports of shootings, pepper sprayings, riots and a lot of bad behavior. As FinancialCollapseBlog.com said, "Look what's happening when people are trying to save $20, can you imagine what it will be like when millions of people don't know where their next meal is coming from?" This orgy of consumerism seems to bring out the worst in people. Understanding why is beyond the scope of this report, however, it seems to be indicative of a larger problem that is confronting the country and...

...Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 1.1% last month, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 0.8%... Excluding the auto sector, sales rose 0.6%, but that was still higher than market expectations of a 0.4% increase...

“How can the government help me?” This seems to be a growing sentiment among the American middle class. “The land of opportunity” is quickly becoming the “nation of the needy.” Here’s a question I received from a reader just last week: “I am not happy with how things are going since the Bush Administration allowed tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy. These cuts were supposed to end for those who just keep earning more off the middle class. My question is: I am told that investors can invest as little as $1000.00 in real estate, and make a living...

<p>The drop in auto sales was 2.9 percent, the sharpest drop in 15 months. But it was due, in large part, to temporary factors: Buyers received fewer dealer incentives, and dealers ran short on popular fuel-efficient models. The natural disasters in Japan disrupted shipments of cars and component parts to the United States.</p>

Memorial Day normally kicks off the summer vacation and heavy driving season, but with gas prices at the pump more than twice as expensive as they were two years ago, American families are being forced to stay close to home and pull back on normal family expenses.   The cost to fill up the tank is consuming 40% more of the family budget than it did last summer.  According to AAA, 17 cents of every consumer dollar is spent at the pump, up from 12 cents one year ago.  That has consequences, of course.  "Dining, shopping, museums, and gambling are taking...

(CNSNews.com) – Although the Obama administration officially lifted the six-month ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2010, a new report finds that the “de facto” moratorium still in place is harming American consumers and the budgets of local and state governments. Since October, the Department of the Interior has approved only a handful of deepwater drilling permits in the wake of last year’s BP well explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The report, issued by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), said increasing offshore drilling production could add nearly $5...

.S. crude oil prices soared by 8.5 percent Tuesday, stunning financial markets. The financial media fretted that the oil price shock from the Middle East turmoil would slow or stop the fragile economic recovery. Crude oil prices soared even though gas prices at the pump are already the highest in any February since 1990. The reaction was swift, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 178 points (1.4 percent) and NASDAQ and S&P 500 both also falling by more than 2 percent. This morning, with Libya teetering on the brink of civil war, gas prices continued rising. While...

A WSJ Investigation finds that iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone usersFew devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name—even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off. These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps"—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users'...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans slowed their spending in September to the weakest pace in three months and their incomes fell for the first time in 14 months. Personal spending rose at an annual rate of 0.2 percent in September, the Commerce Department said Monday. That's below the 0.5 percent gains recorded in July and August. Incomes fell 0.1 percent in September, following a 0.4 percent rise in August that had been pushed higher by the return of extended unemployment benefits. The drop in incomes was the first decline since incomes fell 0.3 percent in July 2009. The August gain had...