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Here’s some more data from the folks at GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media who, earlier this month, asked about a thousand people which direction the country was headed in.
It looks like the trend was trying to reverse last fall and again over the winter, but we’re now back to the levels seen at the peak of the financial crises in late-2008 and early-2009.
A few gems from this AP report about a recent survey they conducted along with GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media in which little or no improvement was seen in debt-related stress from a year ago – just after the worst of the financial market crisis.
The average amount owed on credit cards is $3,900, the poll said. That’s down from $5,600 in the fall and $4,900 last spring.
Families with incomes over $50,000 have sliced their credit card debt by more than half, yet their stress from debt hasn’t changed much — it’s moderately low. Families with incomes under $50,000, however, have added only slightly to their debt, while their stress level rose sharply.
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Paul J. Lavrakas, a research psychologist and AP consultant who analyzed the AP-GfK survey, finds that among those with the most stress from debt are women, married couples, people age 30-44, and the poor — households with incomes less than $20,000.Those with the least debt stress include men, retired people, single people, those 60 and older, and the wealthy — households with incomes greater than $100,000, he says.
Last year, Democrats felt better about their finances than Republicans, despite generally being in worse shape. That sense seems to have worn off: Democrats now report higher debt stress levels on average than Republicans.
Remarkably, those with little or no debt have little or no stress when it comes to that debt, living within ones means having a clear advantage for some people. Of course, these modest spenders may not have as many big screen TVs, jets skis, and RVs either, consumer purchases that, while clear “debt enhancers”, have proven to be great “stress relievers”.
Apparently, the nuclear solution for stopping the Deepwater Horizon well has been in the news for a little while – here’s a clip from Russia Today that is nearly a month old.
There’s more on this subject (and another video) in this item over at Business Insider.
TOP STORIES
Israel Boards Gaza-Bound Aid Ships, 10 Dead – CNBC
Oil Complicates Forecasts On Hurricane Season Eve – CBS4
China’s Wen: global economy double-dip possible – Reuters
Spain races to avert banking crisis as euro faces slide – TimesOnline
China Real Estate Bubble Bursts in Bond Market: Credit Markets – Bloomberg
The Transatlantic Crisis: Europe’s Endangered Banks – NY Times
Job growth seen a little less robust in May – MarketWatch
Debt-induced stress continues for many Americans – AP
‘Pieces of Eight’: The Constitution and the Dollar – WSJ
Have these these links delivered to your inbox every weekday.
OTHER
Three BP fuel oil traders in U.S. quit – Reuters
European Stocks, Oil Climb after Spanish Downgrade – Bloomberg
Bernanke, Trichet see key emerging economies role – Reuters
Evans says Fed could delay ending low rates – MarketWatch
FBI Found Kenneth Starr Hiding In His Closet – HuffPo
The Pain Caucus – Krugman, NY Times
Matthew Simmons talks to Bloomberg’s Mark Crumpton and Lori Rothman about an even bigger leak gushing oil at about 120,000 barrels a day located five to seven miles from the Deepwater Horizon disaster that, for some reason, everyone still calls just a “spill”.
He also thinks that it’s time for BP to leave and let the military come in, a move that would be welcomed by the contractors. There seems to be a growing consensus that inserting a nuclear bomb down the well, as the Russians have done on a number of occasions over the years, is about the only real way of stopping the flow.
It’s been a while (one hundred days, to be to be exact), but the Wall Street Journal published another in a long running series of sound money commentaries by Money Meltdown author Judy Shelton the other day. Titled The Recovery Starts with Sound Money, just like all the others, this one is sure to be ignored by anyone in the general vicinity of Washington D.C. or any of the regional Federal Reserve offices.
What government policy makers in the U.S. and Europe fail to realize is that far from being seen as capable of delivering economic salvation, they are increasingly perceived as primary contributors to global financial ruin. Whether it’s the fiscal recklessness of spendthrift politicians or the refusal of government officials to acknowledge failings—distorting mortgage markets through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, skewing assessments of credit risk through loose monetary policy—the influence of government over the real economy is proving disastrous.
No wonder people are flocking to gold as they flee government-supplied money.
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It’s hard to see how economic recovery can proceed when citizens suspect that the monetary foundation beneath them is crumbling away. The willingness to work and sacrifice for the sake of future prosperity is a universal human quality—the hallmark of entrepreneurial faith—but people must believe there is a link between effort and reward. Money forges that link by providing a dependable store of value; in doing so, it performs a vital social function.
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The transition to a firmer monetary footing to support entrepreneurial capitalism could be initiated by linking major global reserve currencies to gold and silver—commodities long associated with monetary functions. It would logically begin with the dollar. U.S. citizens could ask Congress to authorize the limited issuance of gold-backed Treasury bonds that would provide for payment of principal at maturity in either ounces of gold or the face value of the security, at the option of the holder.
If my memory of reading history serves, many decades ago it was commonplace for business contracts to written as “payable in x dollars or y ounces of gold” at the payee’s discretion. Of course, that’s a lot easier to do when you’re on a gold standard than when you’re on a paper standard where the gold price in dollar terms rises 20 percent every year.
By Tim Iacono, Since 2005
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