BusinessWeek Bites My Premise re: The Consumer

BusinessWeek is usually a pretty good read and the content has improved greatly since its re-energization under Bloomberg‘s stewardship.

And I guess I’d be happier to see Devin Leonard‘s cover story about cash-strapped consumers buying expensive stuff if I hadn’t already written it myself.  Leonard writes about the dichotomy of consumers cutting back on shampoo purchases but buying Starbucks and Apple products.  His version is a good one, a bit more fleshed out than mine.

On June 13th I talked about “An iPad in Every Pot” both on TRB and at Forbes:

When I hear Steve Jobs come out and say that Apple has sold 2 million iPads since the launch less than 2 months ago, I am shocked.  When I then hear that these $400 non-necessities are selling at the rate of 1 every 3 seconds, I am blown away at how peculiar this recession feels.  How this could be occurring against the backdrop of near limitless unemployment – in which trillions of dollars have been spent to create less than half a million non-census jobs – is beyond comprehension to me.

17% underemployment…and the longest lines are outside the Apple Store.

And here’s “The New Abnormal” in today’s BusinessWeek:

Finally, Ronzio enlisted the help of a firm called You Walk Away and did exactly that from the remaining $319,000 on his condo mortgage. When the bank foreclosed, he says he felt an enormous sense of relief. He also had more cash. He and his fiancée took the kids to Disneyland. Ronzio, 31, gave himself a treat as well. “I bought myself an iPad,” he says.

Worth checking out the article, even if you did hear it here first.

Source:

The New Abnormal (BusinessWeek)