Including more participation in food stamp programs and more people drinking beer at home, along with fewer people investing in stocks, buying videogames, going to the movies, and working at jobs that match their skill sets.
recovery
Saving Just Ain’t What It Used To Be
What with the rates of interest-bearing accounts dropping to their lowest levels in more than half a century, it’s nearly as productive to shove your money under a mattress as it is to deposit it at a bank.
Stock Market Abandonment: Is the Shift to Conservative Investing Wise or Shortsighted?
A CNNMoney story says that there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of young investors willing to take on risk—meaning putting money into the stock market. In 2001, 30% of Americans younger than 35 said they were game for investments with substantial risks, with the idea that with great risk came great possibility of a bigger …
What We Know About Employment (and Unemployment) Right Now
In honor of Labor Day, here are a bunch of observations, stats, and survey revelations about the state of work (or lack thereof) in the U.S. and around the globe.
Two Sides to the ‘New Normal’: Spending (and Earning) Less
Consumers didn’t come to their senses out of the blue, realizing all of a sudden that they’ve been wasting enormous sums of money on “mindless accumulation,” as a new book puts it. Instead, the Great Recession, with its destruction of investment portfolios, home values, and many people’s careers, has forced folks to come to an undeniable …
If You’re Not Already Looking for a Job Now, You Probably Will Be Soon
A new survey says that 34% of employed Americans plan on looking for a new job once the economy improves. Add to that the huge numbers of unemployed who are already looking for jobs—and probably will still be looking for jobs by the time the economy gets better—and what we’re looking at is an unstable onslaught of job hunting, …
$145: What Upper-Income Consumers Spend on an Average Day
That was the average in May for people earning $90K or more, and the figure represents an increase of 33% from May 2009, when folks in that same income bracket spent an average of $109 per day.
Report: Penny Pinching Alive and Well
Even though there are signs that the economy is recovering, there are just as many indications that consumers remain in scale-back mode, buying cheaper or discounted goods, and buying less period. Will the days of spending $100 a month on cat food ever return?
Signs the Economy Isn’t a Total Basket Case
For quite some time, there was no shortage of indicators pointing to the fact that the economy wasn’t doing so hot—including some odd data about a falloff in men’s underwear sales, a rise in animals being abandoned at pet shelters, and the impressively overqualified status of this year’s census workers. Now, at long last, we’ve got …
Why ‘Buyer Beware’ Is Bad for Business
An ethicist argues that we must abolish caveat emptor and mandate truth in advertising. If that can be done, he says, it’ll be good not only for consumers, but businesses and the economy as a whole.
The Unemployment-Tightwad Connection
An adviser to President Obama explains that low consumer demand for goods and services is what’s responsible for the country’s high unemployment rates. In other words, because people aren’t spending money, other people don’t have jobs that would have been funded largely by that spending. And why aren’t people spending? One reason is that …
Why Are Workers Happy with Fewer Benefits and Longer Hours?
To begin with, they know that such a position is better than having a job without benefits—or not having a job at all.