Tax Rebate Checks Do Little For Consumer Confidence

The Los Angeles Times:

ATLANTA -- It is better than nothing.

That has been the subdued mantra repeated by working Americans in recent weeks as they spend the Bush administration's final tax rebate in an economy racked by soaring gasoline costs, housing foreclosures, toppling banks and Wall Street jitters.

Read the whole story: The Los Angeles Times

Comments

[UncleJimbo]

"Six Huuuuuuundred Dollars"....(In DR. Evil Voice)! "Ahem! Dr Evil,Six Hundred Dollars isn't exactly a lot of Money any more!"....(Number Two Voice)! We need better Info!

[PublicAdvocate]

According to ABC News Comsumer Comfort Index (measured weekly and released on Tuesday afternoon at 5Pm) is at -47. How low is this according to historical fluctuations?
Visit: http://Polling Report.com to see. While consumer confidence had an all time low of -51 just a few weeks ago and was slowly recovering, this latest dip is indicative of a growing public concern that our economy is in exceptionally poor shape and is not being fixed.
The $600 "surge" astonded a right wing supply-side economist on NPR the other day. He was amazed that it didn't fix the economy. Perhaps he didn't realize how little that is to working families and that it is effectively a backdoor tax on the future(as the money was borrowed from China and must be repaid WITH interest creating an odious tax burden on future generations.
What to do? Don't spend your money if you have any. Buy canned food, drive less, walk more, tend your garden and vote all Corporate Democrats and Republicans out of office forever. The same people who created our economic hard time (or have not fixed them yet) will have even less incentive to do so if re-elected.

[wordvarc]

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Another ineffective and wasteful bad idea from w's desultory presidency.

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[ChristianEcon.com]

It's unbelievable they just borrowed more to do this. The ultrarich need to pay off their national debt.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

The so called stimulus package was really the biggest money laundering operation in history.

[gcallaghan]

Bush hands us a bandaid when the nation needs a tourniquet.

[YunekFlava]

The government is actuall playing a CONfidence game on this country. My son never got a Stimulas check or his income tax theat he applied for because he owed for his student loans, that he WAS paying off until he lost his job. So, am I and my son Confident Consumers? Yes. We are confident that the government consumed my son's entire $5,000, without giving him an opportunity to make minimal payments before they consumed his confidence.

Oh that's right, "it's better than nothing, and he now owes $5,000. less than he did before. Thanks so much for that condidence.

[dadw5boys]

THE WHOLE COUNTRY WENT ON WELFARE!!!!!!!!!

DID ANY CONSERVATIVES SEND THE MONEY BACK?????

[vippy]

Congress would have done much better had they corrected the oil prices and put limits on the
Hede Funds and those shady traders much earlier, when they were briefed about the fallout of
their Commodities Future's Modernization Act where Phil Gramm and Richard Lugar put in the
Enron Loophole that caused this mess.
But they thought we won't look too hard how they make their money, while giving us peanuts!