The Bonddad Blog

- by New Deal democrat As I've noted a number of times, exhausted consumers are the best case for economic pessimism. Real wages have d...

- by New Deal democrat This week I want to revisit and update my forecast from the beginning of the year . That forecast boiled down to s...

- by New Deal democrat Early last week January savings and spending were reported. I haven't updated those graphs in awhile, so this ...

Click for a larger image Above is a chart of the US savings rate. Notice its been declining for the last 20 years or so until it eventually...

From the WSJ: As consumers max out their credit lines and banks clamp down on lending, many older and middle-class Americans are resorting t...

From the WSJ: Retail sales decreased by 0.6%, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Sales went up a revised 0.4% in January. Sales that mon...

Here is a chart of gas prices from This Week In Petroleum. Notice that gas prices peaked in late May. Since then they have dropped a bit,...

This is a chart from Martin Capital. Notice the following. 1.) The YOY change in retail sales has dropped since the beginning of 2006. Ho...

From CBS Marketwatch: Consider this news from Tuesday: * Sales at retail chain stores continued to weaken in the last week of June. The...

From the WSJ: Higher fuel costs, however, have caused consumers to expect a pickup in inflation in the next 12 months -- to 5.5%, compared w...

From Bloomberg: A pickup in U.S. economic growth is becoming more elusive as climbing gasoline prices, falling home values and fewer jobs re...