tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2335748440449035592.post2475469597538188080..comments2007-08-30T18:29:51.805-04:00TraderMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241756200482130281noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2335748440449035592.post-72060291949846257372007-08-30T18:29:00.000-04:002007-08-30T18:29:00.000-04:00Regarding your comments on the U.S. consumer, this is an interesting report:<BR/>The recent <A HREF="http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/30/news/economy/retail_pressures/index.htm?postversion=2007083017" REL="nofollow">Consumer Shopping Pattern survey</A> indicates more consumers are now becoming "circumspect" because of the housing and credit issues, affecting mid-level department store and larger-ticket home items (See SHLD reporting a 40% drop in profits).msbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2335748440449035592.post-90244052285477544772007-08-30T11:58:00.000-04:002007-08-30T11:58:00.000-04:00This (risk, credit and mortgage issues) is definitely a longer term issue that will be played out over time as the effects ripple through the markets, domestic and international.msbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2335748440449035592.post-12461449279852499842007-08-30T11:37:00.000-04:002007-08-30T11:37:00.000-04:00My degree is economics so I like to read these big picture things and see where the 'big ship' is turning. Although not quite as interesting as the individual stock names. But the macro is telling us, get the hell away from anything tied to the consumer (finally) - the death of the American consumer has been called for years, and I won't call this the death - just a return to normalcy (pre 2002?) but compared to where we have been thats going to feel like death. Also with wages not keeping up with cost of living, people are just running in place the past 6-7 years. So they went to credit in increasingly large waves to spur spending. Now without as much access to credit, we see what happens.TraderMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241756200482130281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2335748440449035592.post-92040314977947997112007-08-30T11:15:00.000-04:002007-08-30T11:15:00.000-04:00I wanted to comment here that I appreciate these posts on the obvious inflation in daily items, most especially food. The increases in meat products was an easily forseeable event from the tremendous increase in corn demand. I'm just suprised by how much these price increases are - not minor by any means. The problem with looking only at CPI is that large increases in these ex- items like fuel and food <I>will</I> eventually affect prices of non-exluded items, and the larger the increases the sooner that will happen.msbnoreply@blogger.com