The consumer is officially AWOL

[Po_d Mainiac]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers slashed their borrowing in July by the largest amount on record as job losses and uncertainty about the economic recovery prompted Americans to rein in their debt.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fed-consumers-cut-debt-by-apf-2523144008.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=

{b]Only $2.5 trillion till we're flush again

[Skittles]

1. these guys just don't fucking get it

wages aren't just STAGNANT - in many cases they are NON-EXISTENT or DROPPING. The economy is in a free-fall.

[DJ13]

2. You do realize your post is a "buy" signal to the Wall Street traitors?

If it damages our country, its good for the investor class.

[girl gone mad]

4. Eventually..

our government won't be able to keep printing money to bail them out. That's when we'll find out how far they are willing to push their fascist tendencies.

[notesdev]

8. True to form

the market is up again.

The question is, who is going to be able to live the 140 years that is necessary for a stock investor to get paid back on his investment (without even a profit) from company earnings?

[Warpy]

7. Nope, their quarterly profits are going to have to disappear

for several quarters before it finally dawns on them that no matter how many bailouts they get, they can't stay in business without customers.

That's when they're going to hit the panic button and wail to the big mean old government because they're still not going to make the connection between the shitty wages they pay their employees and the fact that those employees have been reduced to buying only subsistence items and not much of those.

The plutocracy will fight it all tooth and nail, of course, even though their own numbers are stagnant or going down. They don't make the connection between decent wages at the bottom and increased profits, either.

Things are already bad out there but they're going to have to get far worse before anything gets fixed.

[Deb]

3. Sale of plastic crap and other instantly depreciating items dip

"The Fed's measure of consumer borrowing does not include debt secured by real estate, such as mortgages or home equity loans." ugh

When will "consumers" borrowing less be considered wealthier than those borrowing more and when will that be good for the economy? This mess is not my fault just because I don't own a credit card.

[Po_d Mainiac]

6. Mr Denninger has added the mortgage numbers...very ugly indeed

[Crewleader]

5. The Market Ticker

FLASH: Consumer Credit RECORD Contraction

*U.S. JULY CONSUMER CREDIT WAS FORECAST TO DROP BY $4 BILLION
*U.S. JULY CREDIT CARD, OTHER REVOLVING DEBT FALLS $6.1 BLN
*U.S. JULY NON-REVOLVING BORROWING FALLS RECORD $15.4 BILLION
*U.S. JUNE CREDIT FALLS $15.5 BLN, REVISED FROM $10.3 BLN DROP
*U.S. JULY CONSUMER CREDIT FALLS RECORD $21.6 BILLION, FED SAYS

Forget the so-called "recovery" given these sorts of numbers.

Consumers are unable and unwilling to borrow.

The inevitable contraction that is necessary to put the financial system back into balance is happening - whether The Fed wants it to or not.

This is a roughly 0.8% contraction in one month.

This contraction has to happen - it is on-balance a good thing that it is, in that only by clearing the debt load can be stabilize our economy.

However for those who are looking for evidence of a significant rebound in economic activity you're going to be disappointed!

The Fed does not have the updated tables yet on their data program; when they do I will re-run my previous credit graphs and post them.

They're ugly.

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/