Greetings Economists, On Feb 6, 2007, at 11:18 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
Mortgage debt has been where the action has been; credit card debt growth has been pretty modest. Low-income households don't have enough income to affect the macro numbers all that much; the bottom 20% have only 3-4% of total income.
Doyle; That seems to jibe with my sense of things in the U.S. In that lower percentile that is a great deal of dissatisfaction but the means of connecting are missing. One might have said in the old days the party framework for organizing people is missing. Anyway, the squeeze is on higher up the ladder around the value of the house, but it's not too heavy, and most people are used to the idea of fluctuations in value, but the 'long term view' is increase in value. In effect there has to be enough pressure on that belief to shake up the idea of long term stability. I am not sure things are stabilized yet, but so far this does look like a soft landing. No abrupt changes have appeared so far into the new year. Nor any clear reason why to expect that other than the profoundly precarious large scale appearance of the global economy. I take a look out there and see things like how 70% of African American women are single, and think those groupings respond to connections that promise some relief from a threatened economy. A practical approach to connection that anyone can cling to. Given right now things are pretty sweet feeling to a lot of people so the time is not propitious for a left movement based upon class to erupt. I can't help but feel that things are precarious. It's hard to see how the slow down can provide for an alternative to housing prices rising for people to have savings. All of that hinges on more bubbles and the current fed appears ready to deflate the bubbles and not blow more for awhile. Doyle
