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Houston ChronicleU.S. personal spending slowed in April after record fuel costs, a slump in home values and a deteriorating job market hammered consumer confidence. The 0.2 percent gain in spending followed a 0.4 percent increase in March, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. |
Incomes grew 0.2 percent, bolstered in part by the government’s tax rebates. Separate reports showed business activity dropped for a fourth month in May and consumer sentiment decreased to the lowest level since 1980. Retailing stocks slumped after the figures reinforced forecasts for spending growth to slow this quarter to the weakest pace since 1991. J.Crew Group Inc., the casual-clothing retailer, reduced its earnings forecast late yesterday, citing a nationwide drop in the number of shoppers visiting its stores. “Consumers are spending cautiously,” said Michael Moran, chief economist at Daiwa Securities America Inc. in New York, who correctly forecast the gain in spending. “The economy is in a grey area between recession and slow growth.”
Economists forecast consumer spending gains will slow to a 0.5 percent annual pace this quarter, the weakest since 1991, from a 1 percent pace in the first three months of the year. “Consumers are really very downbeat,” Richard Iley, senior economist at BNP Paribas SA in New York, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The government is counting on its economic stimulus initiative to revive growth. The Treasury last week said it sent $4.9 billion in tax rebates in the fourth week of the program, raising the total distributed so far to $45.7 billion.
Well, I still haven’t seen my rebate yet. Maybe Bush reads Dvorak Uncensored.
Shocker! An election year political ploy resoundingly approved by both parties is used against Bush. So, the Dems try to get it both ways: give people money AND claim it doesn’t work–and it’s Bush’s fault.
My wife and I actually plan to spend ours – have it figured out. But, no show, yet.
We don’t know anyone who has rec’d it either.
Hey – I just got a $600 stimulus check for my Mother-in-law – who died in February 2007. (I’m the administrator of her trust.) It was addressed to Hername, Deceased. I hope she doesn’t spend it all in one place!
My rebate was a whopping $58.60! Because I made “too much money”. What a effing joke. I just spent that putting gas in my truck.
I received mine. Spent half on my car insurance and the other half on landscaping (new patio floor) and lawn furniture at Home Depot and KMart. Whoever benefits from this is my guess but all I can say is thanks for giving me some of my hard earned tax money back!
We are not in a recession like we were in March 2001. (Just after Pres. Clinton stepped down)
I think the bumper sticker summed it up quite well:
Bad President!! No banana.
If you don’t spend your rebate on gas for your car then the terrorists have won.
On the other hand, the terrorists have won.
I can assure you George the Bush doesn’t read DU. He might, however, look at the pictures.
Man, talk about a SKEWED interpretation. Need we remind you in the fever swamp that democrats supported the bill and talked about a SECOND stimulus bill?
From CNN Politics:
“Senate Democrats have agreed to scale back their economic stimulus package in order to pick up Republican support for the measure which had stalled over GOP concerns the bill was too big and loaded with special interest provisions. Final congressional approval could come as early as Thursday officials said,clearing the way for rebate checks to be sent to millions of Americans this spring.
Democrats will drop demands for an extension of unemployment benefits, energy assistance for low-income households, and a series of tax breaks for energy providers. But they will include provisions supported by Republicans, including rebate checks for low-income Social Security recipients and disabled veterans and their widows as well as language designed to prevent illegal immigrants from getting rebates.
Those provisions will be added to the House-passed stimulus bill which, in addition to providing rebate checks, gives tax breaks to businesses designed to spur spending.
Precise details of the size of the rebate checks and the income caps were not immediately available.”
http://tinyurl.com/6s5ah2
[Please use TinyUrl.com for overly long URLs. - ed.]
I’m well aware of the Dems involvement, however the BUCK has to stop somewhere.
Too bad it’s not enough money to get one of those hookers like Spitzer got.
I spent my $600 on a set of new tires. It didn’t cover the whole bill. This is what I get for buying a car with a turbo. D’oh!
I think we’re missing an interactive banner which counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until Bush leaves.
Calling it a slowdown while you have growth. By this standard, the entire firstClinton term was a disaster.
That said, the tax rebates areas bad an idea as the first time the Pres. passed them. They should have made the tax cuts permanent.
I didn’t get my check — and it was supposed to be direct deposited (they knew which account to take money out of). Anyone else in the same circumstances?
#16 – They deposited your check in my account by accident.
was there anyone who really thought it was going to stimulate the economy?
#1 – Did you get that from a different article? Because I didn’t see any knee-jerk Democrat bashing in the article posted…
And no… Not everything is Bush’s fault, but he is the President of the United States Of America and as a famous Democrat who held that office a little over 50 years ago said, “the buck stops here.”
This article and the many like them show how stupid democrats are. They blame one man for everything because they just have to blame someone. Every time they write this crap they make me go further from my democratic roots. I can’t go any further into being republican now, all because of these wackos. I listen to the democrats speak, they can’t figure out the complexities of the markets that dictate everything they are complaining about. The republicans understand much better. One man and one government is not to blame. It is much, much, much, more complex than that. The roots of the world economies are so deeply rooted in everything now, having been growing down deep for decades, we now all have to live with what has flourished and harvest what we can carefully, slowly, without destroying what we planted, until we plant new trees that will take another 20 or 30 years to provide fruit.