Ignore the Street: Frugality is Setting In

A recent Gallup survey provides more evidence that frugality is setting in depsite an optimistic outlook from the Street on consumer discretionary spending. Spending in Upper Income households, those making more than $90,000 a year has fallen 13% from January and 19% from a year ago.  The data suggests a continuing trend in Upper income households, one of frugality.  For a sustained recovery in consumer spending, this particular subset of the consumer is very imporatnt.  They have disposable income and credit availibilty.  It seems very unlikely that a sustained recovery in consumer spending, and by extention, a truely sustainable economic recovery, without this group spending more.  This should be a monthly survey to keep an eye on.

Looking at this data, one might start to question the enourmous rally that has taken place in consumer discretionary ETFs like XRT