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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Johnston who wrote (71908)	10/13/2006 2:13:28 PM
From: John Vosilla	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 110194

'foreign travel' Even those in the states who perceived themselves to be well off these days get sticker shock has to how expensive it is to travel in the large cities in Europe. But how can that be when their economy isn't that great, unemployment there is high and socialism is so rampant? I for now travel a bunch in the states while prices still are reasonable. In 5-10 years it will be just as bad here..

To: Mike Johnston who wrote (71908)	10/13/2006 2:20:47 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 110194

Food, energy, utilities, hotels, clothes, restaurants, pizza shops, airlines, foreign travel, haircuts, dentists, hospitals, medical insurance, cable tv, college tuition, local taxes, insurance, even computers are no longer declining in price and the rate of increases in computing power is going down. Food - debatable Energy down. Utilities - variable Gasoline down. Clothes down. Restaurants (in general) down. Pizza shops (specifically) unknown airlines - down (recent price cuts) foreign travel - varies country to country and depends on timeframe (since US$ has risen YOY expenses probably not chaned a lot and foreign travel is basically irrelevant to 99.9% of US citizens anyway) Haircuts - I see specials all the time but I suspect prices are up somewhat. Dentists - unknown Hospitals - unknown but I supect way up Cable TV - unknown College tuition - up Local taxes - flat (what cities have raised local taxes) Insurance - mine was flat but insurance is certainly up a monsterous amount in Florida and hurricane states Computers and eletronic gadgets - down assuming I give you the benefit of the doubt on all the unknowns you still do not have anything remotely close to "everything". The one thing we can clearly see is a lot of down in the category of consumer goods. Insurance, medical, taxes, dental, foreign travel are not consumer goods. Since stuff like appliances and big screen TVs, and gasoline, and clothes (at big discounters, not designer clothes at trendy places), as well as cars and trucks are down significantly, I suspect the average person is way better off on that stuff but still can not make ends meet because of necessities like property taxes, insurance (especially in hurricane zones), medical expenses, and in general having too huge a debt level vs incomes. But when you say everything it would be far more accurate to say "most everything you need" as much of the junk "most people simply want" which has been falling. Even gasoline prices are recently down 30% or so and that is an item people need. To say "everything" as you did especially in reference to consumer spending is simply wrong. Mish