A Different Economy

I was reading an artcle in the Dallas Morning News about the state of our econmy and debt ceiling arguments that are in Congress.  We are feeling the deferred pain from 25 years of excess spending during which people are trying to rebuild their depleted savings.  In the past, we would just charge to tie us over if we lost our job and we went into debt deeper and deeper.  This allowed spending to grow faster than incomes and helped cushion every recession before.

Trouble is consumer spending is not going to return to the growth rates of the 80's and 90's.  Even Walmart has noticed that "customers are running out of money by end of the month."  Spending has not fallen below 3% per capita in a recession but we are seeing it down almost 7% and still has not begun to recover.  It is a complimented problem we are facing.