Consumer Sentiment and Consumer Spending FRB San Francisco - Economic Letter - June 27, 2008 – 4 pages http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2008/el2008-19.pdf
“This Economic Letter describes how the Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS) is constructed and reviews some past research on whether measures of consumer attitudes improve forecasts of consumer spending. It also reports on some new research, which found that using the answers to the individual component questions of the ICS, rather than the ICS itself, further improved forecasts of PCE and its components. Finally, it shows how much and when measures of consumer attitudes might have helped forecasts in recent years.”
Deborah Thorne et al. Generations of Struggle AARP Public Policy Institute - June 2008 – 16 pages http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/consume/2008_11_debt.pdf With more than a million people filling for bankruptcy in 2007, the study shows that the rate of bankruptcy filings among those 65 and older has more than doubled since 1991. While the bulk of bankruptcy filers are in their 30s and 40s, the financial landscape for the oldest and youngest generations has changed considerably. Americans age 55 or older have experienced the sharpest increase in bankruptcy filings, jumping from 8.2% of debtors in 1991 to 22.3% in 2007. Those ages 34 or younger experienced the greatest decrease in bankruptcy filings, comprising nearly half (45.5%) in 1991 to just over a quarter (26.1%) in 2007 of all bankrupt debtors. |
