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Outside Goodwill's As-Is Store in San Francisco, a family of Salvadoran immigrants leaves with a bag of clothes they will sell to supplement the money they make sweeping floors and washing cars. Inside, shoppers sift through tall blue bins. A man in a pin-striped suit drapes the blazers he's found over his arm. Business is up at the Goodwill As-Is warehouse on the corner of 11th and Mission streets, where struggling vendors and frugal shoppers buy goods, including in bulk at auction, at discounted prices. "Because of the economy I can't afford a lot," said Chelsea Cooley, 23, who can't...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans' confidence in the economy darkened further in July as worries about job security offset any enthusiasm about the resumed stock market rally that has helped bolster retirement accounts. The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index, which retreated last month, fell to 46.6, down from 49.3 in June. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting a reading of 49. It would take a reading above 90 to signal that the economy is on solid footing. The second straight month of decline follows an upswing in confidence this past spring fueled by...

We all want President Obama to succeed in reviving the economy, but that shouldn't obscure the long odds he faces. We need to recognize that we're grappling with three crises that, though interwoven, are also quite distinct. The solution to any one of them won't automatically resuscitate the larger economy if the others remain untreated and unchanged. Here are the three. First: the collapse of consumer spending. American consumers represent 70 percent of the economy. Traumatized by plunging home values and stock prices -- which have shaved at least $7 trillion from personal wealth -- they've curbed spending and increased...

Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies By MICHAEL BARBARO The consumer spending slump and tightening credit markets are unleashing a widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing, prompting thousands of store closings that are expected to remake suburban malls and downtown shopping districts across the country. Since last fall, eight mostly midsize chains — as diverse as the furniture store Levitz and the electronics seller Sharper Image — have filed for bankruptcy protection as they staggered under mounting debt and declining sales. But the troubles are quickly spreading to bigger national companies, like Linens ‘n Things, the bedding...

Don't count on a 'normal' recession Wall Street expects financial innovations and global growth to keep any U.S. slowdown in 2008 short and shallow. But the stock market is likely to be seriously disappointed. By Jim Jubak January 02, 2008 The stock market doesn't much care whether a 2008 slowdown in the U.S. economy is an official recession or not. As far as Wall Street is concerned, there's just not much difference between economic growth falling to 1% or to minus-0.5%. As long as the slowdown, recession, whatever, is short. No more than two quarters. Over and done with by...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls in November, pushing spending up by the largest amount in 3 1/2 years. The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending surged by 1.1 percent last month, nearly triple the October gain. The gain reflected various promotional efforts by retailers such as heavy discounting and longer store hours at the start of the holiday shopping season....

...The slowdown was a hot topic at the meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in Baltimore this fall. One breast-implant maker sees hints of a slowdown in demand. The number of vision-correction surgeries appears to be falling as well. "This whole mortgage credit crisis is making people think twice," said J. Peter Rubin, a Pittsburgh plastic surgeon. "It's something I've noticed and some colleagues have noticed as well." ...The broadest measure of consumer spending, one which includes food, energy and all other goods services, grew at a 2.7% annual pace in the robust third-quarter. Still, forecasters expect a...

Will anything stop Americans from shopping? A University of Michigan professor believes even a slowdown in the housing market and other potential economic woes will not keep Americans out of the stores in early 2007, citing data that shows that people are growing more satisfied with the goods and services they purchase. “It turns out — and I’m not saying this is necessarily good — for better or worse, the consumer seems to find the means to spend,” said Claes Fornell, a professor of business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and head of the American Customer Satisfaction...

Manufacturing cranked up, builders boosted construction spending to an all-time high and consumers opened their wallets wider _ fresh signs the economy has snapped out of its end-of-year funk. That was the message coming from the latest batch of economic reports released Monday. A report from the Institute for Supply Management showed that factory activity expanded with gusto in April. The group's manufacturing index rose to 57.3 in April, from 55.2 in March. The showing was much better than the reading of 55 that economists were expecting. In a second report, the Commerce Department said total construction spending in March...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose 0.2 percent in October, as expected, driving the personal saving rate into negative territory for the fifth straight month, a government report showed on Thursday. Personal income also rose in October, by 0.4 percent - slightly less than the 0.5 percent increase forecast by Wall Street, the Commerce Department said. That followed an outsized 1.7 percent rise in income in September, which was driven by insurance payments in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The department's inflation measure - closely watched by policy-makers at the Federal Reserve - rose just 0.1 percent...

Wall Street is worried about you. Yes, you. The one they call "The Consumer." From the trophy-arrayed corner office of the richest CEO to the windowless cubicle of the most junior analyst, your immediate future is a pressing concern. What will you get for Christmas? How much will it cost to heat your house this winter? Will you get a raise next year? This isn't personal. What they really care about is the 70 percent of gross domestic product that depends on consumer spending. Put another way, the 70 percent of the total economy that depends on you. Retailers, car...

Memo to consumer: Why have you curbed spending? Wall Street says it needs you to keep the economy afloat NEW YORK - Wall Street is worried about you. Yes, you. The one they call "The Consumer." Yes, you. The one they call "The Consumer." From the trophy-arrayed corner office of the richest CEO to the windowless cubicle of the most junior analyst, your immediate future is a pressing concern. What will you get for Christmas? How much will it cost to heat your house this winter? Will you get a raise next year? This isn't personal. What they really care...

Snip… Last year, America's after-tax profits rose to their highest as a proportion of GDP for 75 years…snip… in the G7 economies as a whole, the share of profits in national income has never been higher. The flip side is that labour's share of the cake has never been lower. …snip. Snip… the impressive efforts of American firms to boost productivity and cut costs are genuine …snip… Over the past three years American corporate profits have risen by 60%, wage income by only 10%. If the share of wages in GDP continues to slide, there could be a backlash from...

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 — Consumers lured by clearance sales of winter merchandise gave many of the nation's merchants solid sales in January despite severe snowstorms in the Midwest and Northeast that chilled business at the end of the month.

Upbeat spending data boost Wall Street Investors also buoyed by sharp drop in crude oil prices By Roland Jones Wall Street reporter NEW YORK - Stocks soared Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average posting a triple-digit gain, as a large buildup in the nation’s energy inventories and increased consumer spending drew buyers back to the stock market.

Strong consumer spending and business investment and a slightly lower than previously reported trade deficit meant the US economy grew at a 3.9 per cent rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said. The upward revision from the 3.7 per cent advance estimate was above consensus expectations and represented a rebound from 3.3 per cent growth in the second quarter. Core personal consumption expenditures inflation, excluding food and energy, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, was unchanged at a 0.7 per cent rate in the quarter - the lowest reading since the 1960s. The report provided further support...

WASHINGTON — Consumers, who substantially slowed down their spending in late summer, roared back to life in September, boosting their purchases by 0.6 percent. The gain in spending reported Monday by the government far outpaced the increase in incomes. The Commerce Department (search) attributed the spending surge to a big jump in purchases of big-ticket products (search) such as cars, reflecting the fact that auto dealers brought back popular sales incentives. The 0.6 percent rise in consumer spending followed an outright decline of 0.1 percent in August, which had followed a 1.2 percent July increase. Consumer spending is closely watched...

US consumers slashed their spending in June by the largest amount in three years as rising fuel prices took their toll on sentiment. The 0.7% decline in consumer spending, following a 1.0% rise in May, was led by weak car sales while luxury durable goods sales also suffered. Wages were flat in June after a 0.6% rise in May, reflecting a sluggish jobs market in the US. Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of all US economic activity. Spending slowdown The Federal Reserve admitted that the economy had hit a soft spot in June, but predicted that the softness in...

More people are rejecting traditional sales messages, presenting the ad industry with big challenges. It may have been Lord Leverhulme, the British soap pioneer, Frank Woolworth, America's first discount-retailer, or John Wanamaker, the father of the department store; all are said to have complained that they knew half of their advertising budget was wasted, but didn't know which half. As advertising starts to climb out of its recent slump, the answer to their problem is easier to find as the real effects of advertising become more measurable. But that is exposing another, potentially more horrible truth, for the $1 trillion...

<p>CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Saturday that sales at its U.S. stores reached a record $1.52 billion on the day after Thanksgiving, up from $1.43 billion on the same day a year earlier.</p> <p>Top-selling categories were home electronics, small appliances and toys, Wal-Mart said in a statement.</p>