Kids Living in Basements Drag On U.S. Services Spending: Economy

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-13/service-spending-lag-called-culprit-in-slow-u-s-growth-economy.html

The U.S. economy is suffering a service interruption.

Consumer spending on services -- everything from rents and water bills to health care and haircuts -- is a laggard as the economy has recovered from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Such expenditures adjusted for inflation have risen 6.3 percent since mid-2009, compared with a 34 percent surge in outlays on durable goods such as automobiles and appliances, according to data from the Commerce Department in Washington.

Slow services spending is “the culprit behind sluggish growth” of the economy, said Carl Riccadonna, senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York.

Outlays have been held back by a slowdown in new household formation and meager wage growth. As young adults stay home with their parents rather than forging out on their own, spending on utilities and amenities such as cable television has languished.

[raccoon]

1. Gee, reckon this has anything to do with the demise of so many halfway-decent paying jobs

and the proliferation of so many crappy paying, no benefits jobs?

[Berlum]

2. "Whine" - - FoxFed RepubliTroll SuckerPuppets (R)

[Laelth]

3. Poverty will do that to people.

I.e. it will force them to spend as little as possible.

Too many of us are poor.

-Laelth

[KG]

4. 'meager wage growth' - the problem with the economy pretty much starts and ends there

[Wilms]

5. Oh, those poor real estate moguls.

They need ALL the kids out of the parents home, and all the marriages dissolved to maximize the number of customers.

[Skidmore]

6. Surprise, surprise

Turnips are still vegetables and don't bleed.

[djean111]

7. Well, duh!

Outlays have been held back by a slowdown in new household formation and meager wage growth. As young adults stay home with their parents rather than forging out on their own, spending on utilities and amenities such as cable television has languished.

Lessee - student loan debt, dearth of good-paying jobs, minimum wage cannot support a person unless they split expenses with others - what geniuses could not see this coming? Plus not as much being paid into Social Security and medicare, low earnings mean insurance subsidies - what money is left to the middle and lower classes is circling the drain.

When I watch something like House Hunters, and see the shining young couples blithely offering hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes - I just think - how the hell can you expect and plan on your current salary even being there for you, much less increasing?

The current state of the job market is paralyzing, and the TPP is just around the corner to make it worse.

[Chrom]

8. you can't get blood from a stone

You cannot simultaneously take all the money from society then complain when they don't spend more so you can continue making money.

Does logic have no meaning?