Don’t forget the economy!

As the elections get close and the race craze wears off, we will all wake up to some nasty hang-over according to Paul Krugman of The New York Times:

The long-feared capitulation of American consumers has arrived. According to Thursday’s G.D.P. report, real consumer spending fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the third quarter; real spending on durable goods (stuff like cars and TVs) fell at an annual rate of 14 percent.

To appreciate the significance of these numbers, you need to know that American consumers almost never cut spending. [...] Also, these numbers are from the third quarter — the months of July, August, and September. [...] before confidence collapsed after the fall of Lehman Brothers in mid-September, not to mention before the Dow plunged below 10,000.

Source: The New York Times

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