Well, I was bowing out of this thread, but Cam deleted my "bowing out post", so I guess he still wants me to post in this thread. Thanks Cam
The nice thing about facts is that you can't change them
U.S. Economy: Consumer Sentiment Drops to 26-Year Low (Update2)
By Courtney Schlisserman
April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers
fell to a 26-year low after employers fired workers and gasoline prices surged, threatening the spending that accounts for more than two thirds of the economy.
The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer
sentiment decreased to 63.2 this month, the weakest level since 1982, when the jobless rate approached 11 percent, the worst since the Great Depression. In other figures released today, the Labor Department reported that the
cost of imported goods climbed 14.8 percent in March from a year ago, led by oil.
The reports validate concern among Federal Reserve officials that the economy will shrink in the first half of the year, (
sic.... shrink? and what's that called?... anyone?) ...and traders now anticipate the central bank will lower its benchmark interest rate by another half point on April 30.
General Electric Co., the world's third-largest company by market value, also said today that its profit fell for the first time since 2003.
``The pocketbook issues are striking home,''
Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City Corp., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Washington. ``People seemed here to be more focused on things like the rising unemployment rate, persistently high gas prices.''
Americans are confronting the loss of 232,000 jobs so far this year, along with higher food and energy costs and overall weakening in the economy.
Consumer spending in the first half will advance at the weakest rate in 17 years, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The economy will not expand at all the first six months of this year, according to the Bloomberg survey taken from April 2 to April 8.
A majority of those polled also projected the world's largest economy is, or will soon be, in a recession.
There's much more in the article but I figured you guys already stopped reading..
Bloomberg.com: Worldwide