What more could a US consumer want?

Wednesday 12 November 2008 - What more could a US consumer want?

Presented by Paul Donovan




+ Confidence is taking something of a nosedive around the world. Japan's consumers reported a record low reading in their confidence - suggesting they think things are worse than in the 1990s. This seems a little extreme, though a Japanese recession is likely.


+ The weekly ABC consumer comfort index for last week had the full force of the Obama effect, and falling oil prices as well. What more could a US consumer want? A lot more it would appear. The index fell back to -50. Small business confidence also fell for October.


+ The UK's Bank of England inflation report is due. With the economic pressures as they are deflation is now a possibility for the UK, and indeed almost a probability on the headline RPI measure. We expect a signal of more rate cuts to come.


+ Spain's economics minister, Solbes, has been wistfully saying that he believes the ECB has more room for rate cuts. Of course they do, and they should cut rates, but it will not be fast enough or aggressive enough for Spain (because the Euro is an economically sub optimal union).

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ubs
• economics
• paul
• donovan
• financial
• credit
• crisis
• markets
• sarcasm
• japan
• obama
• australia
• uk
• rate
• cuts
• deflation
• ecb

[aw3212]

Here is my consumer confidence rating 0

: )

[fishingthewatershed]

I wish you had a segment on the evening news.