Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Baby Doomers

This morning's release of Consumer Confidence for January was the lowest on record (going back to 1967). In order to get a better read on the true state of the consumer, however, it often helps to look at the sub-categories within the report. For example, the age of the person being questioned can play a large role in how he or she feels about things. The charts below show the historical levels of Consumer Confidence broken out by age group. While confidence levels are at historical lows for each age group, people under the age of 35 (43.6) are considerably less downbeat than those over the age of 55 (34.7). While from time to time we have all put on the rose-colored glasses and reminisced about the "good old days," at the rate things are going, "Baby Boomers" run the risk of being labeled "Baby Doomers."

Consumer Confidence 012709

No comments:

Lunch is for wimps

Lunch is for wimps
It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.