GDP still positive - no recession. GDP still positive - no recession. GDP still positive - no recession.
Unemployment rate low - Americans thriving. Unemployment rate low - Americans thriving. Unemployment rate low - Americans thriving.
Inflation nearly non existent per government reports. Inflation nearly non-existent per government reports. Inflation nearly non-existent per government reports.
Short, shallow recession soon to be over. Short, shallow recession soon to be over. Short, shallow recession soon to be over.
It's all priced in; buy stocks. It's all priced in; buy stocks. It's all priced in; buy stocks.
2nd half 2008 boom. 2nd half 2008 boom. 2nd half 2008 boom.
Stories of woe are a media creation. Stories of woe are a media creation. Stories of woe are a media creation.
70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck - but don't worry. 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck - but don't worry. 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck - but don't worry.
Social acrimony will not be a major issue in the US. Social acrimony will not be a major issue in the US. Social acrimony will not be a major issue in the US.
There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.
Americans Tapping Attic for Spare Cash
- The for-sale listings on the online hub Craigslist come with plaintive notices, like the one from the teenager in Georgia who said her mother lost her job and pleaded, "Please buy anything you can to help out."
- Or the seller in Milwaukee who wrote in one post of needing to pay bills — and put a diamond engagement ring up for bids to do it.
- Struggling with mounting debt and rising prices, faced with the toughest economic times since the early 1990s, Americans are selling prized possessions online and at flea markets at alarming rates.
- To meet higher gas, food and prescription drug bills, they are selling off grandmother's dishes and their own belongings. Some of the household purging has been extremely painful — families forced to part with heirlooms.
- "This is not about downsizing. It's about needing gas money," said Nancy Baughman, founder of eBizAuctions, an online auction service she runs out of her garage in Raleigh, N.C. One former affluent customer is now unemployed and had to unload Hermes leather jackets and Versace jeans and silk shirts.
- At Craigslist, which has become a kind of online flea market for the world, the number of for-sale listings has soared 70 percent since last July. In March, the number of listings more than doubled to almost 15 million from the year-ago period.
- Craigslist CEO Jeff Buckmaster acknowledged the increasing popularity of selling all sort of items on the Web, but said the rate of growth is "moving above the usual trend line." He said he was amazed at the desperate tone in some ads.
- In Daleville, Ala., Ellona Bateman-Lee has turned to eBay and flea markets to empty her three-bedroom mobile home of DVDs, VCRs, stereos and televisions. She said she needs the cash to help pay for soaring food and utility bills and mounting health care expenses since her husband, Bob, suffered an electric shock on the job as a dump truck driver in 2006 and is now disabled.
- But clearly, cash-strapped people are selling their belongings at bargain prices, with a flood of listings for secondhand cars, clothing and furniture hitting the market in recent months, particularly since January.
- Earlier this decade, people tapped their inflated home equity and credit cards to fuel a buying binge. Now, slumping home values and a credit crisis have sapped sources of cash.
- Meanwhile, soaring gas and food prices haven't kept pace with meager wage growth. Gas prices have already hit $4 per gallon in some places, and that could become more widespread this summer. The weakening job market is another big worry.
- "I need the money for essentials — to pay my bills and to eat," Hadley said.
- At AuctionPal.com, which helps novices sell things online, for-sale listings rose 66 percent from February to March, much faster than the 25 percent to 30 percent average monthly pace since the company was formed in September, CEO Maureen Ellenberger said. She said she was surprised to see that most of her clients desperately needed to sell items to raise cash.
- On Craigslist, Buckmaster said, three of the four fastest-growing for-sale categories are tied to gas — recreational vehicles like campers and trailers, cars and trucks, and boats.
- Baughman, who runs eBizAuctions, said that over the past four months she's been working with mostly desperate sellers instead of mainly casual ones. Most are middle-class customers who can't pay their bills and now want to be paid up front for the items instead of waiting until they are sold, she said.
- The trend may be hurting secondhand stores too. Donations to the Salvation Army were down 20 percent in the January-to-March period. George Hood, the charity's national community relations and development secretary, said that was probably partly because people were selling their belongings instead.
Do the Bottom 80% of Americans Stand a Chance? Do the Bottom 80% of Americans Stand a Chance? Do the Bottom 80% of Americans Stand a Chance?
