Thursday, May 20, 2010
How worried?
Cnn: Why Wal-Mart's sales should have everyone worried
Real wages have continued to decline. Inflation-adjusted personal disposable income has remained relatively flat. And, even if current economic growth were sustained, it would take more than three years to bring the unemployment rate below 6.3%, where it was at the peak of the 2001 recession. Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported yesterday that the number of mortgages in foreclosure has climbed to a new record, with foreclosures and delinquencies now accounting for one out of every seven US mortgages out there.
Posted by mark @ 11:07 AM (726 views) Add Comment
5 Comments
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1. miken said...
The statement "customers can't afford the gas to get to the stores and that they're increasingly using food stamps when they get there" says it all really. Big stores built in the wrong places. Not much relevance to the UK. However my prediction for the UK is for LIDL/ALDI to improve their sales, at the expense of more expensive stores like Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Tesco's. Not sure what this has got to do with crashing house prices though...
2. seanb303 said...
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
2. Rising corporate profits mask falling sales. Consider Walmart's last report, which caused the financial media to quiver in ecstasy because the retailer logged a 10% increase in profits. But behind the hype, (profits rose $0.3 billion on $99 billion in sales, whoopie), Walmart same-store sales drop; gross margins decline.
You have to read to the very last line to get to the sobering reality: same-store sales dropped in the U.S. and gross margins declined. Both are bad news, yet you'd never know it from the lead paragraphs and talking heads.
3. Crunchy said...
AGAIN..... Hyper inflation food shortages.
I'm getting warmer.
4. str 2007 said...
Well whether or not this is the news that's having the effect or not I don't know. But the markets are quite a way down today. All approaching significant levels.
Overall if the markets did get very depressed over the summer (ie gloomy news every night at six) then it won't particularly help house prices.
5. Mrb said...
Stopped at Lidl the other day to get milk, while waiting watched a well dressed middle aged couple come out with a trolley full bags and opened the boot of a new BMW. They then swapped the groceries into Mark n Spencers bags before putting the shopping in the boot.
Pathetic.