I just moved into a new apartment. I have a lot of old furniture. I got rid of a few pieces and the others need to be replaced — quickly. And yet, I hesitate about reaching into my pocket to pay for it.
Maybe I'm just cheap. But I don't think so. I'm guessing it's the concern that rises up inside of me — when I listen to the news, from listening to people on the subway. That for every story I hear about job creation, I hear another one about Russian war drums.
Do these affect purchases at the consumer level? Do they get to me? Maybe (probably) they do. Earlier this week we published a story that the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index hovered at below 80 percent in February, compared to 144.7 at the height of the 2000 dot-com boom. There's either a deep-down distrust (of what: the country's ability to sustain growth? the government numbers men? ourselves?), despite booming stock prices.
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America has become so economically bifurcated that a bull run is great for the guys in the corner office but means squat to the average worker (me included) who still worries about the ongoing, creeping costs of the stuff we buy. Add that to the national anxiety doubting the depth of the recovery, and you end up with a crisis of confidence.
And if I, as a man with an income, am worried about the financial implications of sprucing up my place, I can only imagine the thoughts (the fears) that pervade the thoughts of retirees as they plan out their monthly budget. With a fixed amount of money coming in and interest rates at historical lows, they don't have nearly the wiggle room that workers do to invest aggressively and grow their nest eggs.
I'm an editor at a news site that covers these issues and they appear to be very much in the foreground whenever I make a decision. What's interesting (maybe only to me) is how I regard the implications of a purchase. It's now something that will affect me in the long term. To wit: if I buy something now, will my grandchildren have to do without 35 years from now? Or will I have to do without 15 years from now?
And I weigh the purchase in that light. So I'll likely go ahead and spring for a new chest of drawers and a leather chair. But it now comes with an added element of concern. I can only imagine what retirees must feel.
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