Consumer cut in spending the most since 1980

WASHINGTON – Scared and out of money, Americans stopped buying everything from cars to corn flakes in the July-September quarter, ratcheting back spending by the largest amount in 28 years and jolting the national economy into what could be the most painful recession in decades.

With retailers bracing for a grim holiday buying season, the economy isn't just slowing; it's actually shrinking, the government confirmed Thursday. It reported that the nation's gross domestic product declined at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the year's third quarter and consumers' disposable income took its biggest drop on record.

In simpler words, "The train went off the tracks," said Brian Bethune, economist at IHS global Insight.

Wall Street took comfort in the fact that it wasn't even worse. The Dow Jones industrials rose 190 points.

But economists say tougher times are still ahead. Believing consumers are cutting back even more right now, they predict a much larger economic decline — anywhere from a 1 to 2 percent rate — during the current October-December period. That would meet a classic definition of a recession — two straight quarters of shrinking GDP.

read more here. sources from yahoo news.

to think that u have to stop to buy even cereals that u've been eating everyday for breakfast as a result of economic recession is downright scary. n yet mastercard and visa reported that they saw higher use of them credit cards during the previous malaysia megasale as compared to last year's!

hmm... malaysia market yg x tergugat dgn ekonomi org lain ke org malaysia yg xpenah sedar dan tetap berbelanja seperti biasa?

i think i vouch for the latter, on my behalf.