So how bad really is the economy?
I hear sales are all way down from TV manufactures, smartphones, computers, tablets and entertainment systems are all down.
How bad is the economy that sales are way down?
The economy is doing well only by the most shallow, surface metrics: Unemployment is low and the stock market is high.
The economy is brutal by any metric that relates to how poor and middle-class Americans are actually faring. Housing, rent, groceries and many other items shot up steeply. The minimum wage remains $7.25 - unchanged in the last sixteen years - despite the fact that even $20/hour doesn’t cut it for many folks these days.
When people keep touting the economy as “strong” because unemployment is low, they’re not looking into whether people are employed in a good way. You can work full-time or even overtime on minimum wage and hence not be counted in the unemployment metrics, yet be absolutely buried in bills and expenses.
You specifically asked about retail sales. If you’re thinking about the “Biden” economy, retail sales are up 19% since January 2021.
This is totally false inflation adjusted wages are up and up more for working class.
All of those enjoyed a boom during the pandemic due to people being stuck in their homes, working from home and spending COVID assistance checks. While there’s legitimate points to be made about the economy and inflation, I don’t think a drop in these sectors reflects an overall problem with the economy.
What’s the most dangerous thing you can encounter in the woods?
- A bear
- A man
- An envelope from Citibank containing a credit card.
Household debt is high, and distribution of capital is narrow. If that’s bad, then the economy is bad.
It would be good if some people in this thread were posting cites. It’s not terribly useful to just have two people both asserting opposites.
My bad; I clicked this off the side bar and didn’t really look at where we were.
It appears the pandemic-led surge in the home entertainment market has leveled off for integrators as they assess the state of their cinema installation business in 2023. Indeed, integrators are predicting a miniscule 0.8% increase in their home theater work for the rest of this year, down from a 7.25% predicted growth rate heading into 2022. If you want to do the math, that represents a drop in demand of more than 1,100% in just one year.
The holiday shopping season wasn’t enough to lift the PC market out of its current slump. Instead, global product shipments fell 28.1% year over year during the fourth quarter, according to research firm IDC.
That marks four consecutive quarters of falling shipments for the sector. “It is clear the pandemic boom is over for the PC market,” IDC says.
However, the decline in Q4 was even worse than the research firm projected with shipments reaching only 67.2 million, down from 92.7 million a year ago. IDC attributes the weak demand to many consumers having already upgraded to new PCs during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the ongoing economic downturn.
Again, this doesn’t meant that everything’s a rose garden but the sectors chosen to represent the retail economy weren’t great ones due to their recovery from sales booms a few years ago. People only need to buy so many TVs and PCs and they did so during COVID
Moderating:
I agree. There’s no debate to be had on the basis of “I hear…”. Accordingly, this is closed. OP, you can try again when you’re prepared to put a little more effort into the discussion.