Posted on 03/12/2009 10:07:59 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. households suffered a record-large 9 percent drop in wealth and pared debt in the fourth quarter as a deepening recession battered confidence and finances, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday.
Household net worth dropped by $5.1 trillion from the prior quarter to $51.5 trillion. For the full year, net worth dropped by $11.2 trillion, reflecting steep declines in the housing and stock markets.
The declines in household net worth were the largest since quarterly and annual records began in 1951 and 1946, respectively, the Fed said.
Since a second-quarter 2007 peak of $64.4 trillion, household wealth has dropped by about 20 percent. That has put a chill on consumer spending and added to Americans' anxiety about economic well-being.
The U.S. central bank's quarterly Flow of Funds report also showed that household borrowing contracted at a 2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, after increasing at a 0.2 percent pace in the previous period. This was the first quarterly decline on record.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Who has Congre$$ional oversight? Who paid out huge bonuses to quasigubamintal entities? Who acts like they above the law?
From Frank to Rangel, From Pelosi to Dodd,, the Culture of Corruption is Countrywide... and growing under the socialist masked man called Obama.
I’m certainly not for absolving the Democrats of any of the blame, but I can’t absolve the Republicans either.
We had control of Congress and the White House at a time when corrections should have been made, and we didn’t make them.
Our leaders, just about all of them, really screwed us this time.
I wish it weren’t so.
Remember the new acronym:
O ne
B ig
A ss
M istake
A merica!
It really doesn’t matter ........Republicans or Democrats - the system is broken and most likely ...for good.
Look at these Earmarks on the latest bill that was signed by B.H.O. —— Everyone on both sides has a piece of PORK!
There is no advocate for the American Taxpayer.
This one belongs to the Democrats as does the current World Wide Drought, and this summer's famine that will kill millions of people.
They've had their eyes on Global Warming when they should have been watching out for Cool Dry Air and the absence of Sun Spots.
These disasters become the fault of the Democrats because they have prohibited everyone else from preparing for them!
Data here: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/Current/
It’s on track to continue on a (less extreme) downward trajectory for at least another year. When I posted here last year that we should anticipate a total decline to the $45T-$48T range - a decline in inflation-adjusted per-capita net worth for the past decade - with massive individiual losses creating points of failure that spread & prolong the problem... I was called a “crack-smoking” “Randian” kook.
Stop listening to the Pollyannas. This is a secular, long-term restructuring, not a typical cyclical recession.
Ex-Texan also took a lot of criticism at this forum.
The asset bubble faked out a lot of otherwise intelligent people, and people who should have known better. Two personal friends of mine in different mortgage businesses who overextended themselves will soon lose most of their wealth through foreclosure here in FL.
Sorry, I’m not going to line up to blame “the culture of corruption” for the DECLINE in wealth (as opposed to the ramp-up that inflated that wealth in the first place), anymore than I’m going to blame GWB for the decline in wealth following the dot com bubble burst.
By definition, a bubble overvalues property. By rights the “wealth” never should have reached the levels it did, because those levels were artificial. At lease some of the decline is justified. You can’t blame anyone for the evaporation of wealth that was never really there.
I pretty much agree with that.
If you were to explain your view in a bit more detail, I might agree with you. As it is, I think both parties played a significant part in what is taking place right now.
I do agree the Democrats demagogue some of the silliest nonsense, but it’s up to our guys to push back, and they just don’t.
Since we are for punishing leaders (private ones) for mismanaging companies and destroying wealth, let’s start punishing (deservedly so) our elected public servants - who gave themselves a pay raise this year.
Gee, maybe lets not pay them this year for overseeing an economy that lost 11.2 trillion on their watch. Pelosi, you’re flying coach you queen b****. Over the engines.
And it’s not like we don’t know they suck. They had a 9% approval rating for a long time within the last year, a historic low for the first female speaker destroying our country.
Usually there is no worldwide drought ~ early 1930s, and in the first half of the 1800s, and a couple in the 1700s ~ and possibly in earlier centuries.
Drought is a normal feature of life. Worldwide drought is simply a less well known but still normal feature of life.
What happens is you get a period of cooler dryer air and everything flows from that.
Those who forget to watch out for droughts are doomed to be hurt by them.
Thanks for your additional comments. I wasn’t challenging your claim about a global drought.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.