A skittless summer
Posted on 06/27/2011 10:15:29 AM PDT by tobyhill
Consumer spending was flat in May, breaking a string of 10 straight months of gains, as households struggled with rising prices and automakers failed to deliver the models Americans wanted.
When adjusted for inflation, spending slipped 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said on Monday, falling for a second straight month.
The report, which showed underlying inflation quickening, suggested that consumer spending would offer little support to the economy in the second quarter. In the first three months of the year, it advanced at a modest 2.2 percent annual rate.
Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, rose 0.3 percent in April and economists had expected a gain of 0.1 percent last month.
"We will be trimming the consumption number for the second quarter and GDP for the second quarter. That's worth a couple of tenths of a point," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut.
While the report fits in with other data illustrating the loss of momentum in the economy, falling gasoline prices should lift spending and therefore growth in the third quarter.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I am getting sick of these government and media lies and evil propaganda about the depression that we are in.
LLS
Could it be that people are quietly digging out of debt instead of buying stupid crap they don’t need with their credit cards? That, and simply surviving the dip before the double-dip?
And how exactly are you supposed to spend when you don’t have a job?
you’ve just given away Bam’s next move...blame the credit card companies
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