Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Ohh...that economy
There’s more good news on the economic front. BBC NEWS reports, "Ford has issued its second profit warning of the year and announced 1,700 job cuts among white-collar staff in North America." This on the heels of GM's massive lay off announcement. Yep, the economy is just spinning along. And it's just not the heavy industries that are suffering.
Grocery chain Winn-Dixie announced it is cutting 22,000 jobs via store, distribution center, and production center closings. That means a lot of good paying trucking and factory jobs are going to disappear in a lot of southern towns. While part of Winn-Dixie's woes can be blamed on Wal-Mart's expansion, it is telling that the pie isn't big enough to support Winn-Dixie and Wal-Mart. As incomes shrink or remain stagnate consumers are looking for cheaper and cheaper prices. Unfortunately, the cheap prices available at Wal-Mart are the result of low wages so the spiral just gets deeper.
And, "The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index fell to -10 in the week ending June 19 from -9 the previous week." That means the claims from the Bush Admin. that things are looking up aren't all that true--at least that's what people are thinking. According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, "The number of consumers who had positive views of the national economy fell to 38 percent from 39 percent." .
It's just not consumers who are feeling glum about the economy. The New York-based Conference Board said its index of leading indicators fell to 114.1 in May. The Conference Board reported that only one of the ten indicators included in the index showed an increase in May. That one was stock prices. Since January the index of leading indicators has been falling. Think about that, for the first five months of the year, the leading indicators have been falling yet George Bush and his merry band keep telling us that things are just fine and dandy. Unfortunately the numbers don't support such a view.
There’s more good news on the economic front. BBC NEWS reports, "Ford has issued its second profit warning of the year and announced 1,700 job cuts among white-collar staff in North America." This on the heels of GM's massive lay off announcement. Yep, the economy is just spinning along. And it's just not the heavy industries that are suffering.
Grocery chain Winn-Dixie announced it is cutting 22,000 jobs via store, distribution center, and production center closings. That means a lot of good paying trucking and factory jobs are going to disappear in a lot of southern towns. While part of Winn-Dixie's woes can be blamed on Wal-Mart's expansion, it is telling that the pie isn't big enough to support Winn-Dixie and Wal-Mart. As incomes shrink or remain stagnate consumers are looking for cheaper and cheaper prices. Unfortunately, the cheap prices available at Wal-Mart are the result of low wages so the spiral just gets deeper.
And, "The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index fell to -10 in the week ending June 19 from -9 the previous week." That means the claims from the Bush Admin. that things are looking up aren't all that true--at least that's what people are thinking. According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, "The number of consumers who had positive views of the national economy fell to 38 percent from 39 percent." .
It's just not consumers who are feeling glum about the economy. The New York-based Conference Board said its index of leading indicators fell to 114.1 in May. The Conference Board reported that only one of the ten indicators included in the index showed an increase in May. That one was stock prices. Since January the index of leading indicators has been falling. Think about that, for the first five months of the year, the leading indicators have been falling yet George Bush and his merry band keep telling us that things are just fine and dandy. Unfortunately the numbers don't support such a view.