Consumers

American households are navigating a complex credit landscape in early 2025 according to releases from the New York Federal Reserve.  Total household debt hit a record $18.04 trillion at the end of 2024, driven largely by credit card balances, which surged to $1.21 trillion.

Welcome to Black Friday.  The day when otherwise normal people morph into bargain-hunting warriors.  Their safari starts at the crack of dawn if they didn’t begin after their Thanksgiving dinner.  Malls become jungles where competitiveness worthy of the Serengeti is unleashed.  For merchants, it can be an exercise in survival of the fittest, each competing for the next

Retail sales gained back all the prior period’s losses and then some in October 2019 according to the latest data from the Census Bureau.  This indicator rose $526.5 billion to start the final quarter after declining $525.2 billion in September.  Year-over-year, retail sales are up 3.1 percent.

Consumers are paying more for goods and services according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI).  In May 2018, this measure of inflation rose 0.2 percent for a second consecutive period .  Compared to a year earlier, CPI gained 2.8 percent, increasing at the fastest pace in six years.

Retail sales were strong in March according to the Census Bureau.  This is good for an economy like ours which thrives on consumption.  Sales for retail and food services increased 0.6 percent to end the first quarter of 2018.  This uptick follows a disappointing February which experienced a declined of 0.1 percent.

Did you notice prices rising in February?  You’re not the only one.   According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2 percent in February 2018.  This uptick followed January’s jump of 0.5 percent. Its year-over-year trend accelerated too, reaching 2.2 percent versus 2.1 percent to start this year.

Retail sales suffered a setback to start 2018 per the latest data from the Census Bureau.  The headline tally declined 0.3 percent, but it gets worse.  December’s figures were downwardly revised to unchanged after an initial reading of 0.4 percent which should push the nation’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) count lower when its revision is released later this

Personal income and spending each improved to end 2017, but their rates of change were different.  Americans’ pay managed to grow just 0.3 percent while outlays increased 0.5 percent.  Additionally, there was a key revision to the prior period’s tally as outlays actually increased 0.8 percent (originally 0.6 percent), but November’s income tally remained as initially