Personal Income and Consumption

[Neubarth]

Personal Income and Consumption

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/rels.htm

Personal income measures income from all sources. The largest component of total income is wages and salaries, a figure which can be estimated using payrolls and earnings data from the employment report. Beyond that, there are many other categories of income, including rental income, government subsidy payments, interest income, and dividend income. Personal income is a decent indicator of future consumer demand, but it is not perfect. Recessions usually occur when consumers stop spending, which then drives down income growth. Looking solely at income growth, one may therefore miss the turning point when consumers stop spending.

The income report also includes a section covering personal consumption expenditures, also known as PCE. PCE is comprised of three categories: durables, nondurables, and services. The retail sales report will provide a good read on durable and nondurable consumption, while service purchases tend to grow at a fairly steady pace, making this a relatively predictable report, and ranking it well below retail sales in terms of market importance.

 

[Neubarth]

This report comes out today. It will be more fish flopping all over the place, but no substantive indication of improvement in the economy.

 

[andy753]

Charts, graphs, and reports are nice, but as we all know, especially you Neubarth, they can be manipulated, or even made up. Improvement in the economy? All you need to do is look around. I own 2 motorcycle parts/accessories shops, I can see a huge difference in my customers in the last 3 years. I used to have a lot of young 18 to 30 year old guys, framers, electricians, plumbers, ect., but they are gone. I know, these guys are a small percentage of the whole. But I used to have some realtors, car salesmen, tire-shop guys, stereo guys, and even airplane salesmen. Another small group. I still have a lot of steady government/utility/military guys who still keep me busy, but until I get those other guys back, I will be sucking wind. I know it's not the right way to see if the economy is improving, but for me, that's who I'm waiting for to return. Once they come back, my wheels will be running.

And I'm not blaming it on Obama.

 

[uscitizen]

The stock market seemed to like something today.