NYTIMES: COMSUMERS CUTTING SPENDING IS BAD

NYTIMES: Conspicuous Consumption, a Casualty of Recession

... In just the seven months since the stock market crash, the recession has aimed its death ray not just at the credit market, the Dow and Detroit, but at the very ethos of conspicuous consumption. Even those who still have a regular income are reassessing their spending habits, perhaps for the long term. They are shopping their closets, downscaling their vacations and holding off on trading in their cars. If the race to have the latest fashions and gadgets was like an endless, ever-faster video game, then someone has pushed the reset button.

... To many, the adjustment feels less like a temporary, emergency response than a permanent recalibration, one they view in terms of ethics rather than expediency.

... Still, economists point out that the Great Depression created a generation of cautious savers. The longer the downturn this time, they say, the more likely it is to permanently change financial habits.

As many economists have noted, cutting spending is the worst thing people with means can do for the economy right now. But that argument seems to have little traction, especially because even those with steady paychecks and no fear of losing their job have seen their net worth decline and their retirement savings evaporate.

REPEAT:

As many economists have noted, cutting spending is the worst thing people with means can do for the economy right now.

REPEAT:

... cutting spending is the worst thing people with means can do for the economy right now.

SO-CALLED "CONSPICUOUS SPENDING" - LONG ATTACKED BY LEFTISTS - IS EXACTLY WHAT MAKES THE WORLD, GO 'ROUND:

• WITHOUT AMERICA'S "CONSPICUOUS" CONSUMPTION, THE WORLD GOES INTO A RECESSION.

• IF OBAMA HADN'T GONE NEGATIVE - TO PASS HIS PORKURIFFIC AND SOCIALISTIC DEMOCRAT-FACTION "STIMULUS PLAN", THEN WE MIGHT BE RECOVERING ALREADY.

• INSTEAD, CATASTROPHE WAS EVERY THIRD WORD HE READ FROM HIS TELEPROMPTER.

• AND PEOPLE RETRENCHED AND THINGS GOT WORSE.

• AND NOW - INSTEAD OF CUTTING TAXES, HE'S RAISING THEM AND TRYING TO REORGANIZE HEALTHCARE AND THE ENERGY SECTORS --- TWO SECTORS NOT IN NEED OF ANY REFORM BECAUSE THEY'RE OUT-PERFORMING THE REST OF THE ECONOMY!

OBAMA: A MISERABLE FAILURE.