Earn What You Spend

[via Alex Tabarrok] The Curious Capitalist Justin Fox was on CNBC recently, with a simple message:
We can’t continue to spend more than we earn. 
One of the anchors was shocked at this proclamation, and produced what I think is the greatest quote I’ve heard in a long time: “we can’t have the sort of booming economy we’ve had [...]

We should be roundly surprised at the number of individuals who spend more than they earn, but living within your means has gone distinctly out of fashion in the past decades.  So when we hear of the massive credit card, auto, and mortgage debt accrued by friends and family alike, we aren’t surprised in the [...]

The United States Fed promised another $800 billion to fight the credit crisis yesterday.  First, the bad news about the economy: 
The government reported on Tuesday that the economy contracted by 0.5 percent in the third quarter, slightly worse than previously estimated. But private forecasters predict that economic activity will fall by 4 to 5 percent [...]

Nouriel Roubini joins the ranks of those concerned about the drop in consumer spending [via Clusterstock].  It has certainly occupied my mind of late (see here and here most recently).  Roubini gives us twenty reasons why we are seeing the American consumer drastically pull back in their spending.  The first reason of course catches my eye as the [...]

In yesterday’s NYTimes, David Leonhardt has one of the best articles about the slowdown in consumer spending I have read.  It is pretty widely agreed that this slowdown is one of the more serious challenges currently facing our economy - with consumer spending making up two-thirds of our economy, every drop in total consumer spending [...]

It’s been a rough day in the markets: 
U.S. stocks slid, sending the market to its biggest two-day loss since 1987, after jobless claims jumped and the shrinking economy crushed earnings at companies from Blackstone Group Inc. to News Corp.
Why?  A number of reports from a number of retailers about their same-day sales in October were [...]