Guest Post by Martin Armstrong
America’s robust consumer economy helped it emerge as a global powerhouse. Nations once stood in line, eager to sell to America as our consumer economy composed over two-thirds of GDP. Grappling with the cost of living crisis and amid a private wave where confidence has been lost, Americans are spending significantly less but are more likely to fall into debt.
Retail sales in May rose only 0.1%, according to new data provided by the Commerce Department, falling short of expectations of a 0.3% rise. April’s figure was revised to show a -0.2% decline in retail sales. These figures are not adjusted for inflation as numbers like words can be used as rhetoric.
American consumers spend more on less. Yet as with every private wave, confidence declines and people begin to hoard. Hoarding is not an option for the average American who lives paycheck to paycheck. I reported that credit card debt is on the rise, increasing by $85.8 billion in Q4 of 2022 alone. The average American household has about $10,000 in credit card debt, marking an 8.9% YoY increase. Now, Americans are facing $1 trillion in credit card debt due to rising APR and inflation. As reported by the Federal Reserve, credit card debt rose $250 billion in the past two years but consumer spending is declining. Separate studies have found that nearly half (46%) of Americans cannot make their monthly credit card payments.
Inflation is hitting everyone. I also reported how the “rich” are experiencing higher rates of credit card delinquencies than ever before. Delinquencies across all tax brackets are exceeding pre-pandemic levels, and the central bank has called this a “trend” that is now “accelerating.” These delinquencies will eventually fall on the banks who are already experiencing a liquidity crisis. Every survey shows that Americans are relying on credit more so now than ever before.
Inflation and socialistic policies have damaged America’s strong capitalistic consumer economy. We have created an enemy out of our top trading partner, China, and the recent round of tariffs are merely the beginning. They say consumer spending is “cooling,” but this is indeed an “accelerating trend.” People are spending money on the basics like food and energy, and the demand for goods is simply not there.
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It’s a problem but Biden and lamestream media say inflation is slowing down and/or is a figment of our imagination, the economy is great. Translated the Big Mac value meal will be 20 dollars in six months instead of 3.
If prices go from $1.00 to $1.20 in a year, that’s 20% “inflation”.
If they go up another 20 cents the next year, that’s 16.7% “inflation”.
Prices can rise by the same amount time period after time period and “inflation” will keep dropping.
Yes, but if it goes up 20% again it would be $1.44. Comparing apples and oranges is what intellectually lazy people do because it is easier than thinking.
Intelligently ambitious people don’t post as “Cornholio” either. Maybe the previously offered mathematical model was not all it could be, but not near as bad as when mainstream media tells us something is 300 times less than it was before.
A nation built on ever increasing consumption of unnecessary shit is no nation at all, but a society of slaves bred for the sole benefit of Mammon. Consume , obey, get them shekels faster….reeeee
The transition from a culture built on want to a culture built on plenty was interrupted, as has happened innumerable times before, by the forces we currently call ‘leftist’. The inverts, the trannies and sodomites, the unadventurous criminals, the lazy and ignorant, useless and entitled, who flourish, like choking weeds in a beautiful garden, represented and empowered by what we call the left, have done as they will always do, and strangled the very plantings that allow their existence.
Today, the consumer economy; tomorrow, the consumer.
Reducing two-legged carbon, one ruse at a time.
That’s a razor comment.
This guy really knows when to ring the bell
Who will feed all the welfare bums, gangbangers and foreign nation military pouring across Biden’s Southern border?
When the West folds Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, and China will implode. Central banking has ridden the backs of the West to prop up insolvent shit holes.
One of the problems with inflation is sooner or later you overcome the resiliency of what you’re inflating. Then pop! They know this and they do it anyways.
Central Banking is pulling the plug on the Western world.
One pastor said that Americans go into debt that they can’t repay, to buy things that they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like.
One conservative financial expert said that the average person who goes into debt to buy a house takes 30 years to pay it off and may spend 2 to 3 times the value of the house just in interest payments. On that same income, they could have rented for 8 years and had enough money to buy the same house with cash.