Fed VP in NYTimes

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http://forums.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/02cox.html

W.Michael Cox, the Vice President of the Fed Reserve Bank of Dallas wrote a piece for today's NYTimes OP-ED page titled "The Consumer Will Prevail."

"...what should be seen as a sign of economic strength now spawns the latest nightmare scenario: With stock markets diving and overseas economies reeling, United States households may stop spending, tipping the world into a recession.

Well, I'm going to buck the current doom and gloom and say it's not going to happen. American consumers aren't going to shrug in any significant way, even if the weight of the world economy rests on their shoulders.

Pessimists are always with us. Their rallying cry in recent days has been the falling stock market and a downturn in consumer confidence. But with this week's losses, the stock market is still up 18 percent from Dec. 31, 1996, and up 155 percent from mid-1991 when the current expansion began."

Boil it down to:

"America's 50-year buying spree is unlikely to stop..."

This article feels to me like a little confidence booster (there are lots of these out there) before the Holiday Shopping orgy. We know that the Federal Reserve is concerned about Y2K, but they keep putting out this kind stuff. Should be interesting to see what that buying spree looks like in '99 and 2000...

-- pshannon (info@nickandpaul.com), October 02, 1998

Answers

... Especially if the buying spree is using the barter system...

-- Joe (shar@pei.com), October 02, 1998.

A world economy based on debt needs to go down...I'm not looking forward to the hardships to come, but am hopeful that the disorder will lead to a saner way to live. The 50 year spending spree must come to an end in order for sanity to return to the world, in my never to be humble opinion. Does anyone know the author of the book who talks about the coming end of the "Long Boom". All the debt costs each and every one of us daily even if we do not live on credit, inflated demand, higher prices. For fun do a web search on anti-consumerism movements around the globe.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), October 02, 1998.

I guess as long as we're all stay good little consumers and don't try to think for our selves that means everything is goin to be alright? I guess I just don't like being referred to as a "consumer".

-- Consumer#9685743 (ciattis@earthlink.net), October 05, 1998.

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