This morning’s Wall Street Journal brings us our graph of the day, possibly the month. Apparently the U.S. has already fallen off the consumer spending cliff. From that article:
But even after taking Sandy into account, October data were disappointing. Retail sales and consumer spending both fell. Personal income would have risen without Sandy, but barely, the Commerce Department said.
Take a look at this graph (from the article linked above):
Consumer Confidence
Consumer confidence fell by ten full percentage points between November and December. Gee, I wonder what event happened that triggered such a decrease? Oh, yeah, the election. Voters may have elected President Obama, but markets are not happy. Apparently consumers are not very happy either. Real consumer spending (adjusted for inflation) fell slightly in October. The November results will be reported on December 21. Here are the most recent four months for the U.S.
| JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT |
| 109.099 | 109.063 | 109.523 | 109.188 |
Not much either way there. I predict a plunge in the December numbers — which won’t be available until January.
