consumers

The persistence of the decline in discretionary spending online for consumer durable goods suggests that consumers have come to terms with the need for a longer term frugality -- perhaps not wishing to repeat the premature "green shoots"…

People who are staring at a tsunami of demand for commodities from the developing world and predicting a doomsday of $400 oil and $4000 gold are missing the longer-term retreating tide of demand as citizens of the developed world actually…

Michael Pettis argues that Reserve currency status is a global public good that comes with a cost, and people often forget that cost.

I was on BNN Headline with Howard Green this afternoon talking to Howard and Rob Cox about the housing data, earnings and tomorrow's Fed press conference. Let me add a bit of colour on housing here and link o the videos below.

. If China’s current account surplus declines, there are, very broadly, two ways this can affect the US. On the one hand the surplus can simply be transferred to another country. For example if China’s current account surplus declines…

By Marc Chandler A disproportionate amount of mind share has been devoted to the financial aspects of the crisis. Investors and policy makers alike may be distracted by this over-emphasis and thus leaving them vulnerable to other aspects…

This chart was put together by David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff. It shows that wage growth in the U.S. is not keeping pace with inflation. For the statistical recovery to continue sustainably, we will need to either see this trend reversed.…

Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., tells Bloomberg's Pimm Fox that the companies doing the best in the retail space are the luxury retailers like Saks(SKS), Tiffany (TIF), Coach (COH). The implication is that…

by Annaly Capital Management Seasonally adjusted greetings to Annaly Salvos readers around the world! In the commercial spirit of the season (and a day early for our blog post this week), we thought we’d go down a level from the headline…

The results from this past Thanksgiving weekend retail shopping blitz are in and consumer spending at real brick-and-mortar stores is barely up from a year ago. Henry Blodget and Aaron Task discuss what these numbers tell us.