U.S. Consumer Confidence Now Lower Than At Height Of Global Recession

[discocrisco01]

Source: Reuters

LONDON (Susan Fenton) - Global consumer confidence fell in the second quarter to its lowest level in a year and a half as an uncertain economic outlook, a deepening euro zone debt crisis and rising inflation made people more cautious, a survey showed on Sunday.

Consumer sentiment in the United States was weaker than in the second half of 2009 at the height of the global recession, according to The Nielsen Company's quarterly survey of global consumers.

Globally, consumers plan to tighten their belts in coming months for everything from stock investing to buying clothes, taking holidays and upgrading technology, after being slightly less cautious over the past 12 months, the survey showed.

Thirty one percent of U.S. consumers said they have no spare cash for discretionary spending, along with 25 percent of consumers in the Middle East and Africa and 22 percent of Europeans


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/17/consumer-confidence-global-recession_n_901015.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Turbineguy]

2. It's the smart move.

There are crazy people in the US government who will gladly send the world into economic chaos to score some points.

[defendandprotect]

3. This "meltdown" is a depression .. and we should be calling it that --

not doing so prevents Americans from truly understanding what is going on ---

and what needs to be done --

Meanwhile, this was a financial coup on the nation -- which everyone here should

understand -- !!

[JDPriestly]

6. Great point, Defend and Protect

[ixion]

8. exactly. Call it what it is: A Depression

with a capital 'D'.

I think those of us who work for a living are already painfully aware of this. It's the pols in the Beltway who are out-of-touch, or just don't care.

[roxiejules]

10. Agreed & FRAUD brought down our financial system

Please revisit the 2009 PBS documentary, The Warning (at link below) about the events leading up to the current crisis - you'll be surprised at how much has been forgotten already:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x600885

[MrTriumph]

4. US jobs shrink as China grows. No wonder the dim outlook.

The sad thing its that it need not be this way. But so long as WalMart, Home Depot, etc. have an interest in stocking their shelves with artificially cheap and highly profitable Chinese goods American jobs will suffer.

[JDPriestly]

5. Thank you Obama.

Aren't you capable of figuring out that the assurance of Social Security in retirement is the steady foothold that keeps most working Americans standing upright during their lives?

Social Security and Medicare should be the last things to be cut in any crisis.

Foreign aid, building Afghanistan, invading oil-rich countries, none of those things help build American confidence in economy of the the United States.

If gas prices go way, way up, Americans will adjust.

But when you try to cut the COLAs on an elderly woman living now on $800 per month, you scare people.

Stop this nonsense.

[high density]

9. Thank you GOP for getting us involved in Afghanistan and Iraq

and cutting taxes for millionaires simultaneously.

[roxiejules]

11. +1

n/t

[defendandprotect]

13. Remember that Dems have been funding these wars since '06 ....

Why is anyone's guess --

But the morning after '06 election, Pelosi made clear that ...

"Dems were elected to end the war!" --


'07

'08

'09

'10

'11

and Obama has just INCREASED the MIC budget --

[No Elephants]

18. How many Democrats voted against those wars again?

And didn't GOP control over war end in 2006? Who involved us in all the places we have troops fighting or have bombed? Yemen, Pakistan, Libya? And soon to be Iran, maybe Syria, too?

As for the tax cuts, Congress never tried to end them between 2006 and 2010 and the Bush cuts expired under their own terms on December 31, 2010.

Obama and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress are responsible for the tax cuts under which we currently suffer.

[defendandprotect]

12. Seniors don't come to $1,000 a plate luncheons nor $10,000 a plate dinners ....

As long as elites/corporations are funding his campaign they will be controlling

his actions -- and seniors will be an incidental matter --


Seniors are collateral damage in the elite war on us all --

[sendero]

7. I love it....

.... that the "height of the global recession" is defined by phony GDP numbers. We haven't seen the height yet, but it is coming soon.

[BREMPRO]

14. anyone float the idea the debt ceiling "crisis" was manufactured by the R's

to undermine consumer confidence in the economy? say that we were "broke" an had to stop "spending", and make people nervous and sink the economy so they could say Obama failed? it seems to be working...

wouldn't put it past their reckless ambition.. strait from the psyops division.

[TexDevilDog]

15. Uncertainty causes people to play it safe. I know that the wife and I

have paid off all our debts and have amassed six months of expenses in savings. Just to be safe.

[Ragnarok]

16. On a personal note...

...I don't use credit anymore, with the exception of my home loan which we got when rates were below 4%. Using the credit card to charge my monthly cell phone bill, and then mailing a check to cover that charge the very next day is a little personal fuck you to the banks. Sorry banks, I'm not buying anything I can't afford with cash in hand, and I will always buy private used -vs- retail new when I can from now on.

[Downwinder]

17. They have been talking about cutting my Social Security

income for six months now and they expect me to go out a buy? Eat your heart out Chamber of Commerce and die.