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Originally posted by Astrocloud
It's possible that they're doing that because interest rates are low. See this article; personal debt is on the rise; according to the article
If you've read the Bloomberg article on the same subject, you'd know that they're blaming the growth in the economy on an increase in consumer credit, among other things. It has to be paid back sometime... perhaps we the vast unwashed can now get jobs as loan managers -since that's where the economy is picking up.
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You brought up all the points I responded to.
Interesting that your argument has now shifted to consumers borrowing too much when you down played the consumer impact in every other economic discussion we've had.
If you want to look at consumer debt you need to look at the other side of the balance sheet and look at their assets. While debt has risen (as I've discussed in our other posts) the values of their homes and stock portfolios have risen faster.
Go ahead and try to spin the 7.2% growth into a bad thing, no one will buy it. The consumers are buying because they're confident. If they weren't confident they wouldn't spend, even if interest rates were low. Check out Japan's interest rates and their level of consumer spending while money was virtually free over there. Without the consumer the economy is nothing.