Consumer activity gives a good indication of how the economy is holding up, and here are five trends indicating that consumers are having a particularly hard time lately.
Economics & Policy
Why NFL Tickets Are Getting Cheaper
Football fans should be happy that the lockout is over, and that, in most cases, ticket prices at stadiums around the country have remained flat. Four pro teams have even lowered ticket prices this season.
Evidence of ‘Robo-Signing’ In Disputed Fannie and Freddie Mortgage Deals
Long before the banks started evicting delinquent homeowners, Wall Street, it appears, used robo-signers to ink mortgage deals that would eventually cost investors tens of billions of dollars and in part led to the financial crisis.
The Sad, Sorry State of the Middle Class
One needs only to browse the headlines, or perhaps observe the bustling action at your neighborhood thrift store, to realize that America’s middle classes have been faring poorly lately.
The 3 Silliest Remarks From the Senate’s Cordray Hearing
Richard Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general picked by President Obama to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had a hearing with the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday. The elephant in the room — no pun intended …
Should the Eurozone Become a ‘United States of Europe’?
Europeans back from summer vacation this week may be wishing they’d stayed on the beach. Stock markets in Germany, Italy, and France all dropped about 5% Monday, after the so-called “troika” of European institutions (the …
Are Parents Changing Kids’ Diapers Less Often to Save Money?
Joining the ever-growing list of odd economic indicators that includes the hot waitress index and men’s underwear index, here’s one that might be called the diaper rash index. Over the past couple of years, sales of disposable …
Got the Post-Vacation Blues? Don’t Worry—You’ll Get Used to Them!
As vacation season ends for many of us — bringing, for some, a sense of dread about the return to workday (if not actual employment) routines — we thought we’d offer a bit of encouragement, which might also help you make the …
Lessons of the Crash: 4 Homeowner Trends We Hope Will Continue
While buyers take the bulk of the heat for ballooning up home prices at the peak of the market, homeowners were not entirely innocent, either. During the sub-prime era, the owner/seller-side bad behavior included fatal missteps …
Summer Blockbuster Bust: Fewest Movie Tickets Sold Since 1997
Americans just aren’t flocking to the movies like they used to. During the period from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day of 2011, theaters were projected to have sold 543 million movie tickets, the smallest figure since the …
Banks Still Not Easing Credit Card Standards
On a day when the U.S. Labor Department says that the economy created zero jobs in the month of August, fresh data from the Federal Reserve suggests that one key component of U.S. gross domestic product growth — the vaunted …
To Kick Off the Labor Day Festivities, Some Grim Employment Statistics
Labor Day weekend is celebrated in honor of workers everywhere. Now, if only there were more companies willing to do the honorable thing and put more workers to work …
