plinc business blog

When money went digital, a funny thing happened. Suddenly, you needed to have Institutions and “parties” of various types sitting between buyer and seller. In our excitement to “buy online”, we all said “Yeah, yeah… sure, sure“, we signed on the no-longer-dotted line, and we were good to go.

But, when we put, essentially, our “bankers” between ourselves and our transactors, we seem to have imported the expectation that they are somehow still “responsible” for our money. Banks have always been beholden to depositors. But, before the advent of credit, it was always the customer who had cause to worry about the bank. Now, that’s mostly all reversed. I’m going to assume the banks prefer it that way. We spend our lives in debt, chasing superficial dreams, paying exorbitant interest rates and fees just for the pleasure of being scolded like a child by the Walgreen’s cashier because you are over your limit… more

Well, looks like President Bush’s leadership is paying off. This estimate of 5.6% is larger than predicted by the experts?

Mmmm … about the only positve stuff out of that lot is a slight slowdown which may encourage the FR to not raise it’s rates next month. A big hit is on “real money” in manufacturing growth - tho doubtless that is related to oil prices and may not be real underneath. The car industry is in one hell of a mess, but, flip side is they really don’t export much - so prob not to the detriment of trade balances. Japanese manufacturers like Toyota actually increased their sales by around 14% last month while GM Chrysler and Ford dropped by…. 26%, 15% and 7% respectively. “Any” real increase on manufacturing has got to be a plus, else if it continues to stagnate it’s really going to end up as a major, major problem. The other aspect is development/construction spending hitting a September 2004 low - Hell.. not sure what that means, but must affect employment if nothing else and may suggest a cooling on real estate. The nation’s manufacturing sector expanded at a slower rate than expected in June and construction spending plunged in May, reinforcing the belief of some analysts that increasing sluggishness in the economy will prompt the Federal Reserve to pause at last in its credit-tightening regime… more