Consumer Confidence Falls in March-Survey

[Career Prole]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers became less upbeat in early March as their view of both present and future economic conditions deteriorated, a report said on Friday.

The University of Michigan said its measure of confidence had slipped to 92.9 so far this month from 94.1 in February, according to market sources who saw the subscription-only report. Analysts had forecast a slight gain to 95.0.

The survey's expectations component eased to 83.6 from 84.4, while sentiment on current conditions dipped to 107.3 from 109.2.

More at
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050318/bs_nm/economy_consumers_dc



The American consumer begins to take note of the various elephants scattered about the drawing room in March?

[madhat]

1. I could have told Wall street that.

The economy is in the toilet. The war is costing my children. Nice story on NPR this morning about our soldier-amputees getting expensive prosthetic legs. Not that I mind of course but I just kept wondering: is this part of the military budget? Did they factor all of these $100,000 legs as part of the cost of war?

[Warpy]

3. No, but they should

The truly grisly part is that they're giving the guys those state of the art prosthetic leg so they can go back to war!

This is an astounding cruelty that no other administration has ever considered.

Quality of life doesn't matter. If they weren't trying to send them back to battle, they'd just give them a broomstick peg leg and be done with them, thanks for the memories.

[trogdor]

5. That shit's voluntary.

What's vomit-inducing is the way they're photo-opping the VERY VERY FEW people who actually want to stay in despite their previous injuries. Prime example of this is the guy who went jogging with the Chimp last year. Although it was nice to see that we can indeed fix these people up better than ever before, if it were me, I'd tell 'em to piss off. What are they gonna do, cut off my other leg?

My point is, if that's the reason they're going to all this trouble, don't you think it's a little expensive just to retain ONE troop?

[madhat]

7. It is indeed astounding.

This woman this morning on NPR wanted to get right back to her unit. Her choice, of course, but I'm still astounded.

My health plan won't cover basic stuff but we're paying for a) sending young men and women to war; b) flying them back to the U.S. to fix them when they're wounded, c) giving them state of the art treatment; and then d) sending them back over.

And for what?

[cthrumatrix]

2. let's see...oil prices, interest rates & shrubby's soc sec scare effort

[CountAllVotes]

6. yep those 3 did it for me!

I haven't bought anything! I had bought some coins from the U.S. Mint and sent them back.

I've been cutting corners AGAIN.

These rats are cutting their own throats as those on social security are now AFRAID to spend any money out of FEAR they be losing what is keeping them alive.

Gasoline yesterday's price = $2.43 gallon ... :(

:kick:

[NNN0LHI]

4. Anyone been in a grocery store lately?

The packages of everything have gotten much smaller and the prices have gotten much higher. I don't know how people are feeding their families these days. I don't have much confidence either.

Din