U.S. consumer confidence pulls back in December amid job anxiety

NEW YORK (AP) - A key measure of U.S. consumer sentiment slipped in December amid persistent anxiety about the job market, an industry group reported Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 91.3, following a surge in November to a revised 92.5, its highest level in more than a year.

The pullback had been expected, although the numbers released Tuesday were below expectations; analysts had forecast the index would come in at 92.2.

in it's always prefaced with "it was expected". but on the economy shows it's full speed ahead, I haven't heard anyone say anything about pull backs or slow downs on crap like kudlow and cramer, what's the deal.

Read Kruugman's New York Times column today.

"If these shadows remain, the (economy) will die." --- Ghost of Xmas Present from Dickens "A Christmas Carol."

SO this isn't that unexpected. I can tell you that there weren't whole lot of people out for the time I was in the malls around Christmas. I was expecting to hear this as a result of that experience.

the day after Christmas sales, usually one of the biggest $$ days of the year for retail.Hmmmm.

Oh, wait! That's why we're at Orange Alert!

Might give them something to blame poor Christmas sales on. Nah, I think it was just pumping up Bush for the holidays.

BTW, I wonder when the Christmas sales are reported. Supposed to be the best season in 4 years, so it would be quite a disappointment if it wasn't.

rise in consumer confidence when consumers (aka workers) don't have secure or permanent jobs. Workers are worried about affordable health care and proper education for their children. They increasingly have no pension plan and don't trust the stock market (and as a result have stopped contributing to their 401k plans.) Workers everywhere are tightening their belts and holding off on making purchases because they are unsure where their next paycheck is coming from. When workers (aka consumers) make up 2/3rds of our economy why isn't the current administration working to provide more secure jobs for the working class? Giving tax breaks to corporations bent on shipping US jobs overseas will never help the situation. I read that the only reason that there has been any positive news on the economy is because the dollar is slipping in value. All this talk of improvement is just BS until there are more steady jobs for US citizen's to go around.

After three years of incredibly cheap debts, the U.S. consumers are becoming maxed out on credit. They probably have little or no room to borrow any more. Thus, they've begun to pull back on their purchases.

Also, this is where the impact of losing 3 million jobs really comes into play. Not only do you have more unemployed and underemployed workers, you have downward pressures on wages for the people that are working.

They couldn't figure out that the bump was seasonal, that the optimism was actually nostalgia for winter holidays past? But I have to admit that I, too, am taken by surprise: I knew the economic boom would wear off after the holidays, but it isn't even New Years' yet!


rocknation

I thought the rethug economy was "soaring".

<<there can be no rise in consumer confidence when consumers (aka workers) don't have secure or permanent jobs.>>

The only place to find a secure or permanent job is under a communist banner or inside your own small business. Hard to fire you when you're the boss, or living in a glorious worker's paradise.

Why is it that we Democrats seem to rejoice or act so satisfied over bad news lately? Are we so filled with rage and anger that we're ready to cheer on bad things for our own people just because bad news makes the Big Bad Bush a failure?

If all we have to offer the American people is anger and gloating in '04, then we don't deserve to win.

Wanna know why Dems are so "satisfied"? Because we have known for years now that Bush* is a moron who could not run a Dairy Queen much less a superpower.

Any more questions?

pushes it's way through the gobblygood that passes for news these days. You may not have noticed but many of the American people ARE angry at job losses, the huge deficits, the trashing of the environment, the loss of civil liberties... I could go on but you know. What makes us Democrats happy is for the news media to cover the truth.

Many of us here are some of the very people who are unemployed or underemployed. I would wager that the vast majority of people who post here have also felt the pinch of this horrible economy either personally or have seen friends, family and coworkers brought down by it. I myself am still working at the restaurant I worked at throughout college. We aren't "cheering on bad things" but pointing out that WE PREDICTED THESE VERY THINGS!!! It's a bittersweet victory, knowing you were right but wishing you were wrong.

"The only place to find a secure or permanent job is under a communist banner or inside your own small business."

That is not true. You can also have security by having a strong, growing economy like we had through the mid-late 90's, when there was a worker shortage. Get laid off or fired, no problem because there are plenty of other companies in need of more workers. But now, you get laid off or fired and you have to compete against hundreds if not thousands of other people in your field for the few jobs left. We now have job shortage.

Suprise suprise suprise.

"If all we have to offer the American people is anger and gloating in '04, then we don't deserve to win."

Straight out of the RNC phrase book.

Welcome to DU.