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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (103359)	2/6/2009 1:31:22 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541931

because the collapse of consumer purchasing power due to job outsourcing and income stagnation Household income has pretty much stagnated but households are smaller. Per person income has not stagnated (very recently its gone down, but that isn't staganation either, and that's not a long run trend) Consumer's are purchasing less in large part because they switched from on the net increasing debt (for years on end) to recently increasing the savings rate. research.stlouisfed.org Not because their incomes have generally collapsed (yes there are many people who have had their incomes collapse, most obviously the newly unemployed, but on the whole there has only been a decrease not a collapse, and that decrease is only in the recent downturn, not a long run trend) I do agree that there are MANY specific cases of individuals and companies who took on debt that they can't repay.