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The charts, graphs and comments in my Trading Blog represent my technical analysis and observations of a variety of world markets...
* Major World Market Indices * Futures Markets * U.S. Sectors and ETFs * Commodities * U.S. Bonds * Forex

N.B.
* The content in my articles is time-sensitive. Each one shows the date and time (New York ET) that I publish them. By the time you read them, market conditions may be quite different than that which is described in my posts, and upon which my analyses are based at that time.
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* From time to time, I will add updated market information and charts to some of my articles, so it's worth checking back here occasionally for the latest analyses.

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Dots

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Decorating the tree

Decorating the tree

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Thursday, March 01, 2012

Prices Up...Personal Income Down...Personal Spending Up

Data released this morning shows that:

  1. the price of goods and services (excluding food and energy) has increased
  2. personal income has declined
  3. personal spending has increased
as shown on the three graphs below.




This latest data confirms that the debt load of consumers is increasing, while their income decreases...resulting in a two-fold increase in debt-to-earnings ratio (and this does not even take into account the price of food and energy)...not a healthy and sustainable environment or prospect for consumers. It leads me to conclude that the reason consumer spending is up is because prices are up, not because consumers have more disposable income to spend. This does not support a sustainable economic growth scenario for the country, in my opinion.