Obama tells you the Economy is better, but is it really.
June 13, 2012, 7:36 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Consumers have been almost single-handedly propping up the economic recovery, but new signs are emerging that they're no longer up to the task.
Retail sales were down 0.2% in May, the second straight monthly decline, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. The government had originally reported that retail sales were up slightly -- 0.1% -- from March to April, but that figure was revised to a 0.2% decline as well.
The figures for retail sales, which include food services, come as consumer confidence has dropped according to some gauges amid Europe's economic problems.
There was some good news for consumers Wednesday. The Labor Department reported that producer prices fell 1% in May after a 0.2% decrease in April. The drop was driven by a 4.3% decline in energy prices, the biggest falloff since March 2009.
But falling prices for gasoline and other types of energy were a double-edged sword -- demand was down because of slowing economic growth in the U.S. and abroad.
Motor vehicle sales were among the only bright spots on the retail landscape. Sales of cars and parts were up 0.8% in May. Excluding those transactions, all other retail sales were down 0.4%, the Census Bureau said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-retail-sales-m...
The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.
The data represent one of the most detailed looks at how the economic downturn altered the landscape of family finance. Over a span of three years, Americans watched progress that took almost a generation to accumulate evaporate. The promise of retirement built on the inevitable rise of the stock market proved illusory for most. Homeownership, once heralded as a pathway to wealth, became an albatross.
The findings underscore the depth of the wounds of the financial crisis and how far many families remain from healing. If the recession set Americans back 20 years, economists say, the road forward is sure to be a long one. And so far, the country has seen only a halting recovery.
"It's hard to overstate how serious the collapse in the economy was," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "We were in free fall."
The recession caused the greatest upheaval among the middle cl...
The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.
The data represent one of the most detailed looks at how the economic downturn altered the landscape of family finance. Over a span of three years, Americans watched progress that took almost a generation to accumulate evaporate. The promise of retirement built on the inevitable rise of the stock market proved illusory for most. Homeownership, once heralded as a pathway to wealth, became an albatross.
The findings underscore the depth of the wounds of the financial crisis and how far many families remain from healing. If the recession set Americans back 20 years, economists say, the road forward is sure to be a long one. And so far, the country has seen only a halting recovery.
"It's hard to overstate how serious the collapse in the economy was," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. "We were in free fall."
The recession caused the greatest upheaval among the middle class. Only roughly half of middle-class Americans remained on the same economic rung during the downturn, the Fed found. Their median net worth -- the value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt -- suffered the biggest drops.
http://www.drudge.com/news/15...