The whole economic situation right now is smoke and mirrors. Growth is coming from government spending money they don’t have, just print it.
People are hoarding, knowing things have to change to a worse economy. There is no similarity between today and the economy of any other time, back to the depression. At least, I don’t see it.
Morgan, I agree. I was discussing this with my sister last night.
Several years ago she started disposing of some collectible items which were quite popular at the time. She said that as people in our generation started downsizing, these items would be flooding the market and that younger folks didn’t share our generation’s appreciation for these items, so she was selling before the secondary market value collapsed.
She was exactly right. Now explode that same theory to the economy as a whole. Boomers (I am one) were the basis for the consumer economy of the last 50 years. Our numbers caused the expansion of Gerber Baby Food, the prosperity of the Mattel Toy Corporation, the success of Carnaby Street mod fashions, the expansion of universities, the housing boom and the expansion of the appliance, furniture, and decorating industries.
The Boomer echo (our children) has kept this consumption going for a while.
But guess what...we are now reaching retirement years. No one my age is acquiring more collectibles; they are selling them or passing them on to children because they are down-sizing. They aren’t buying any new furniture and are only replacing appliances that can’t be repaired. We don’t buy clothes very much, as we are past needing career wear and tend to spend a lot of time in jeans or seats.
And the generation after us doesn’t have the money for such things and are living a more frugal life style.
So, the consumption economy is pretty much finished for quite a while. Instead of gradually winding down, it has come to a crashing halt.
I expect Christmas is going to be a disaster for retailers, and I don’t see any improvement any time soon, because all the democrats are doing is making people nervous. They see nothing on the horizon but increasing taxes, higher energy costs, shortages, and unemployment. People like that aren’t going to spend money on anything but food and maybe ammo.
I am not optimistic about the economy, not because of the inability of the American people, but because the democrats are doing everything in their power to make it decline.