The Consumer Is Dead But Nothing Can Be Done About It

link here to article

This is another perspective on the slump in consumer spending which is behind the slow recovery. Spending on consumer durables has fallen steeply, new home sales are down, along with spending on the appliances and other things that go into them. Spending on services like insurance is also down. The reason is simple. A large swath of the population doesn't have the income to spend and their borrowing has been limited by the decline in home equity. When consumers don't spend, business is reluctant to spend as well. The economy is the sum of consumer spending, business spending, government spending and net exports. We have a Congress that also wants to cut government spending and net exports are negative so they don't help either. What is so hard to understand about this?

After explaining the decline in our consumer economy, the article turns to the problem of finding a replacement for it. It is pointless, however, to talk about what what might replace consumer spending because we have a broken government. It is unlikely that we can repair the broken government, in my view, as long we have a population is that is fed a diet of nonsense from criminal enterprises such as the Fox Corporation, talk radio, and even our more progressive media which refrains from calling the virus infected GOP an obstacle to progress. The US House of Representatives is being led by a political party infected with the Tea Party virus. The virus was created and planted by a radical segment of our society that has the power to shape public opinion and elect public officials who view government as a public enemy.