Asian Markets Drop Amid Worries About U.S. Consumer By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 17, 2009 Filed at 12:48 a.m. ET HONG KONG (AP) -- Asian stocks fell sharply Monday as signs of weak U.S. consumer confidence aggravated doubts in the recovery's strength... Gee, ya' think? No shit. The U.S. Consumer is weak now, and will be in hospice within a year. Idiots in the financial press and sheeple investors...It's really f**king unbelievable...you'd think this is some surrealistic Federico Fellini world... China's about to get their shit pushed in, too. Green shoots!
Its very confusing to see where the consumer stands, I have stepped foot into local places and see some places pretty busy and others where there are more employees than customers. Few weeks ago went to a local mall to check out the foot traffic, was a week day, place was very quiet and there were sales in every single store. Aside from all this there are people going out to the malls, local stores near me where they have the big chain stores and little clothing stores, the lots are packed on weekends, I mean traffic in every direction from 11am to around late noon. I have no clue what makes them spend, it could be the sales of 30% ,40% and even 70% in some stores. There are also many stores that have gone out of business, in a given stretch of a few miles where I mentioned lots being full you can also see a dozen or more places for rent.
The thing is that retail sales don't even help US economy much. I think it contributes to its demise as most consumer retail is Chinese imports.
I have been to many malls and foot traffic doesnot translate to sales.. many times u see groups of teenagers roaming around. buying nothing. it seems to be a hangout place.. typically the Galleria chain. I read somewhere hedge funds pay folks to count foot traffic outside stores and one indicator also to count is the number of folks coming out with bags. rather than empty handed.. ..
For those of us who have lived below our means for a long time, this is the opportunity to take advantage of great deals -- and the deals will only get better !!! PS. I don't want to see a deflationary spiral into the abyss but I am enjoying the savings.