Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events

a good economics blog

Not easy to read, but worth going through the whole page.

The key imbalance developing is between business profits, which have improved tremendously, and consumer saving, which has deteriorated badly. This is the part of money supply that is most worrying. While savings in the GDP definition has increased, thanks to the tax cut, demand deposits at commercial banks have dropped $16 billion, or about 5%, while consumer credit has increased $36 billion. True savings should equal the net inflow into net worth. Even if we have more of our income left after expenses, if we draw down our checking accounts and run up our credit card bills, we can hardly call that savings. The tax cut has masked a crunch on consumer finances, caused by cuts in state and local government spending, job losses, increases in insurance and energy costs, and above all the reduction in the amount of home equity we can extract to maintain spending above what our incomes can provide. Like most imbalances, the one between household savings and profits will rectify itself over time. Either savings will rise relative to profits (a big hiring spurt occurring without any increase in spending or profits), or profits will fall relative to savings. You can choose yourself which one you think is more likely. I've already done so. If the result of that adjustment means another increase in yield spreads, a number of riskier companies could quickly find themselves financial trouble, and the economy will quickly find itself in peril with little juice left in the policy gas tank. Extreme nervousness dead ahead.

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