Evening network broadcasts on the day after Christmas whined that a 6.5-percent increase in holiday spending for 2006 simply wasn’t enough. Ironically, only a month earlier CBS complained that Americans weren’t saving enough money. My colleague Julia Seymour wrote about the “humbug” attitudes of ABC, NBC and CBS here.
“Stores need more than returnees to turn this so-so Christmas shopping season into one to celebrate,” said Bill Whitaker during the CBS “Evening News.” Later Whitaker added that “in December the sizzle fizzled.”
But on Black Friday, CBS was singing a different Christmas tune:
In 2006, the personal savings rate average was negative 0.6 percent. “The personal savings rate hasn’t dipped so low since the Great Depression,” said reporter Sandra Hughes.
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Yeah, it was a bad season f
December 27, 2006 - 14:42 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsYeah, it was a bad season for Amazon too, not. Maybe it was bad for realtors, not.
“The personal savings rate hasn’t dipped so low since the Great Depression,”
They love bringing up the depression while Bush is still in office.
DSG
Newflash...Dow broke records
December 27, 2006 - 18:27 ET by bigtimerNewflash...Dow broke records again today, went past 12,500...I think this is still during the Bush administration, during a major war going on, world-wide for that matter, let alone all the obstacles that have been thrown at him since before he took his oath of office....dontcha' just love it!
"If we ever forget that we are a Nation Under God....then we will be a Nation Gone Under." Ronald Reagan
BT, even more bad NEWS for ou
December 27, 2006 - 18:44 ET by JABBT, even more bad NEWS for our depressed economy. Will the lib's (AKA, MSM) ever grow a brain (no need to answer)?!
"Too bad Ignorance isn't painful to the Ignorant"
Excellent link JAB....much to
December 27, 2006 - 18:53 ET by bigtimerExcellent link JAB....much to the chagrin of the leftists, that is what I meant in another post the gloominess on CNBC today with this Housing/Real Estate Market report, the Dow breaking records again today, oil prices in the downward trend today staying around sixty bucks a barrel for the most part for the last what six months or so....(who wouldn't like it back around twenty or thirty but hey....we have a great economic futures outlook and all the leftists can do is twist and turn, spin, lie whatever it takes to change the subject, one way or another...because this is not suppose to happen during the most detested President I have ever seen to the left, other than Nixon.
"If we ever forget that we are a Nation Under God....then we will be a Nation Gone Under." Ronald Reagan
BT, sorry to dupicate your ea
December 27, 2006 - 19:02 ET by JABBT, sorry to dupicate your earlier posts, have not been online much lately. However, I see you are keeping up with current events as well as working in a little time for the NB's team. Keep up the good work.
In case I do not get the chance; I wish ALL the NB's and their loved one's a HEALTHY New Year (everything else is secondary in my oppinion).
"Too bad Ignorance isn't painful to the Ignorant"
Those tax cuts keep going
December 27, 2006 - 20:52 ET by Free StinkerThose tax cuts keep going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going, and going . . .
you get the idea. The Demoncrats? Still no clue.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"One thing that seperates liberals from conservatives is that liberals are craftier and work without the hinderance of a conscience." --Lynn Wooley
Our debts keep growing, and g
December 27, 2006 - 21:23 ET by chronicOur debts keep growing, and growing, and growing, and growing, and growing....
What was the surplus when Clinton left? And what is our national debt now?
Keywords: DEBT and SURPLUS.
You make a good point that Bush is still to stupid to realize that cutting taxes isn't going to get us out of debt. Maybe we can keep seeling our debt to China? It's what we've been doing. So now the democrats will have to repeal the tax cuts and raise taxes to get us out of this hole that Bush has drove us into. Also a couple hundred BILLION being spent on the war. Yet he didn't want to give 1 billion to healthcare but asked for over another hundred billion for the war.
That's just money, not including the costs that can be measured by casualties both for us and the Iraqis. By casualties, that includes the injuries like one of my high school friend received in Iraq. Thanks to the war he has 3 fingers on his one hand and can't use his other.
chronic - really, get bette
December 27, 2006 - 21:42 ET by Unsanechronic - really, get better educated before coming on here to cry about things you know very little about.
You think the debt is bad now? In 1943, the government took in $24 billion in revenues, while spending $79 billion. The deficits we have now are NOWHERE near what we had even in the postwar 1940s. This past year, the deficit was at 2% of GDP. Not even European countries can manage that, and many of them, belonging to the euro, are bound by treaty not to have deficits greater than 3% of GDP. France and Germany ROUTINELY shatter that level.
I'm no fan of deficit spending, but those are the facts.
It is funny how much credit Clinton gets for a surplus. If he had his way, we would be TRILLIONS in debt because of his "free health care" scheme that involved nationalizing 15% of the U.S. economy. What kept the brakes on him? A Republican Congress which at the time was still full of fiscal conservatives like myself. Incidentally, that 1 billion to health care would have been a total waste. Care to explain to me why the basic principles of economics do not apply to health care? (They apply everywhere else and work every time they are tried...)
The last defense budget amounted to $460 billion out of an economy worth at least $12 TRILLION. I know that you hate the fact that we have a military, but freedom isn't free, and without a military, you couldn't log on to the Net to cry about the government without getting a bullet in your head. And before you whine about all these rights you allegedly lost, bear in mind I have seen tyranny on three separate occasions, up close, and personal. You have NO CLUE what tyranny is, but then, hardly any Americans do.
Cutting taxes indeed does lower deficits. Look up a little something called the "Laffer Curve". And if we were serious about increasing tax revenues, we would trash the whole damn tax code and tax every single person at 17% regardless of income (with no exemptions for anyone whatsoever). Don't hold your breath: Leftists now run Congress, and Leftists think it is GREAT that only 40% of the population - the top 40% - are footing the bill for everybody.
Finally, you would be STUNNED at how little U.S. debt China hold. Roughly 1/3 of our debt indeed belongs to foreign holders, and I would be willing to bet VERY LITTLE of that is in China's hands. I'd wager Japanese banks, which have more money, hold more. Why? Because they are safe.
"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy." -Sir Winston Churchill, British statesman (1874-1965)
Unsane, nice slap down on c
December 28, 2006 - 10:29 ET by MightyMouthUnsane, nice slap down on chronic. He is probably googleing the hell out of "GDP" and "Laffer Curve" with few results to refute you. Funny thing about DUmmie talking points, there aren't any real facts to back them up, so the DUmmies go silent when they are refutted.
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Enjoy paying. And paying.
December 27, 2006 - 21:59 ET by BlondeEnjoy paying. And paying. And paying.
"Give"?
Get a grip. Better yet, go to school, take an economics class.