Several news reports lately have reported sinking consumer confidence numbers. What’s less widely reported is why. Here are some refreshingly frank reasons for low consumer confidence, even if they are a bit depressing: http://dissentmag.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/why-the-economy-is-gloomier-than-we-are/.
Disclaimer: the author doesn’t provide much direct footnotes, and I haven’t verified all the stats listed, but I think on the whole he isn’t that far off the mark in reporting that things are getting worse economically for most people, and people are noticing that. So the lower consumer confidence numbers really just show that people can tell things are getting worse for them, overall. Watch out for real declines in spending, when people realize they *can’t* borrow enough to continue their overspending, even if they wanted to.
