Consumer
How Much Is My Private Data Worth? (Google Just Offered Me Money)
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on How Much Is My Private Data Worth? (Google Just Offered Me Money)
Coming Soon: Corporate Tools To Hollow Out National Sovereignty
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Coming Soon: Corporate Tools To Hollow Out National Sovereignty
Now “trade agreements” are negotiated behind sealed doors, without public oversight, beyond the reach of Congress. The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is secret, but some sections were leaked. It deals with trade only on the margins. Corporate interests dominate. It mocks democracy, establishes kangaroo courts, and taxpayers are on the hook.
Politicians Are All Jabbering About Creating Jobs (Doing What?)
by James Murray • • Comments Off on Politicians Are All Jabbering About Creating Jobs (Doing What?)
Last Hope For Holiday Shopping Frenzy: The Few Who Can Splurge
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Last Hope For Holiday Shopping Frenzy: The Few Who Can Splurge
Consumer spending hasn’t exactly been hot. With one big exception: auto sales. At 20% of total retail sales, they’ve been phenomenal and propped up overall retail sales. But in September, there was a downdraft. The calendar got blamed. And in October, there was the government shutdown and debt-ceiling debacle. And now all bets are off.
Hiding Inflation: People Get Bigger, Airline Seats Get Narrower
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Hiding Inflation: People Get Bigger, Airline Seats Get Narrower
Selling airline tickets to our increasingly pauperized consumers is an art. And hiding price increases is an even greater art. While there are people who don’t worry about the price as they luxuriate in first class, others aren’t so lucky. For them, the industry has a special treat: squeezing their hips.
Corporate Disease: Workers Are A Cost Not A Productive Resource
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Corporate Disease: Workers Are A Cost Not A Productive Resource
The amount in Federal assistance received by families of workers in the fast-food industry, who’re dogged by low wages, part-time work, and scarce employer-provided health benefits, amounted to $7 billion per year. A way for the $200 billion industry to shuffle off part of the costs of doing business to the hapless taxpayer.
Americans Despise Congress, Their Economic Confidence Plunges, And Now They Slash Spending
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Americans Despise Congress, Their Economic Confidence Plunges, And Now They Slash Spending
It is starting to show up in the numbers: the debt-ceiling and government-shutdown debacles are worming their way into the economy. Americans blame the already single most disparaged institution, Congress, for it and have started to react economically. Clicks of seatbelts being fastened can be heard around the world.
Wal-Mart Shoppers Clobbered By Fed Policies, Warren Buffett And His Ilk Thank The Fed
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Wal-Mart Shoppers Clobbered By Fed Policies, Warren Buffett And His Ilk Thank The Fed
How much have Americans received of the nearly $3 trillion the Fed printed since the financial crisis? The recipients included JPMorgan, now negotiating to settle its various mortgage scams for $11 billion; it made $53.2 billion in profits over the last three years. American consumers weren’t so lucky. And Wal-Mart shoppers have been hit the hardest.
“A difficult second half”: Fabulous Excuses By Clothing Retailers As Sales Fall Apart
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on “A difficult second half”: Fabulous Excuses By Clothing Retailers As Sales Fall Apart
Men’s Warehouse joined the crowd of revenue-challenged retailers when it reported results and cut guidance. Revenue fell, profit plunged. As with its peers that had already reported, it’s not so much that sales were crummy – gosh, they were – but that the excuses they came up with to keep their stocks from crashing were even crummier.