2 ms·

I don't understand how this is a response to anything I've said. Yes, consumer spending needs to plummet. Many thousands of retail businesses need to shut dow

I don't understand how this is a response to anything I've said. Yes, consumer spending needs to plummet. Many thousands of retail businesses need to shut down. They are not viable. The profits in recent years were from phantom earnings: totally unsustainable and artificially credit growth, mounting consumer credit card debt and MEWs. The quicker we get the liquidation and write-downs over with the better.

Retric 18y ago
Yes, consumer spending needs to plummet. Why? We had a positive personal savings rate last month. Once you have a positive saving rate there is no long term problem with spending. (http://www.bea.gov/briefrm/saving.htm http://www.bea.gov/briefrm/saving.htm) Now government spending is honorably out of whack, but that's not really related to what you're talking about. (http://www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/answerxml.cfm?selectedurl=/2005/0508.html http://www.frbsf.org/education/activities/drecon/answerxml.c...)