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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NOW who wrote (1964)	3/13/2004 9:10:05 PM
From: Mike McFarland	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

<the consumer is EVERYTHING to the economy> Then things will get pretty lousy because consumers are broke. Here is one of those posts where I type whatever pops into my head, let me know if you find anything that makes sense <g>. However...once you've spent your home equity loan, and been refused that third car loan, and the credit card offers start to dry up, then you finally have to live within your means. Hey, finally the trade deficit comes down. Maybe the consumer is the worst part of the economy, at least the consumer that sends his dollars straight overseas. The dollar you earn should really circulate a few times at home, paid to the mechanic who fixes your older car, who spends it on the guy who fixes his back etc. And those dollars get taxed a few times more than the money we send to Samsung and Sony, right? <wage losses> Yes, right, and that has already started and it will be a long term trend. In post 1931 I said the jobs of the future will be biotech, software, healthcare, education. And I should have added that will pay less. I think a lot of people are going to learn how to be frugal--the way my grandparents were frugal. Here is something that I found interesting... Buying a first home remains extremely difficult for those under 120 percent of median household income, making less than $78,500 in 2002. The median price for a single family home or condominium was $256,000 in 2002. metrokc.gov See, this is the sort of think I do not understand. A house is about three times your income? To me, that actually makes incomes sound pretty high. Maybe I am totally wrong about the real estate boom, the average house is only about three times the average household income. I wonder what that multiple was fifty years ago. I'll bet it was a bit higher, I think people now buy a lot of stuff that pretty much pisses their wealth away, what is that called, disposable income, on "non-durable" consumer electronics, gadgets, high speed internet, extra cars, pressure washers to wash your extra cars etc etc. Ah, I remember something that was thrown around for awhile--"affluenza".