CONSUMERS ALWAYS REDUCE THEIR SPENDING WHEN THEY ARE CONFIDENT. RIGHT?

It sure is getting tougher for the MSM mouthpieces of the status quo to spin horrible economic data into gold. They keep trying and the facts keep getting in the way. I’ve perused the personal income report and have a few pithy observations and questions:

If consumer confidence is at a 5 year high, why are consumers reducing their spending? Are they just conducting their surveys in Manhattan and the Hamptons?

If we are having a jobs recovery ( the unemployment rate keeps going down) why is national wage income at the same level as last November?

If consumer spending makes up 71% of GDP and is declining, how can GDP be a positive 2.5%?

Five years ago in 2008, national personal income was $12.6 trillion.

Today it is $13.7 trillion, an 8.7% increase in five freaking years. Even the BLS manipulated CPI is up 9.5% over this time frame. On top of that, $600 billion of the $1.1 trillion increase is totally due to increases in government transfers from the productive members of society to the non-productive members of society. You have to love the Orwellian definition of personal income.

Prior to the Wall Street created financial collapse, government transfers accounted for 14.2% of personal income. Today they account for a record 17.7% of personal income. But don’t you worry. Ben Bernanke took $450 billion from senior citizen savers annually andcontinues to give it to the Wall Street bankers.

How have we had a four year recovery without personal spending recovering? We didn’t. If you fake the inflation rate, you can miraculously report a positive GDP.

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