It may be irritating, like ads during the telecast of a the football game, but those forecasters won't be censored. Confident, they are now foretelling a great millennium, and will do so until the next century. Economic times have become so positively charged with confidence and acquisitiveness that America's households raised their spending 4.9 percent last year while their gains in disposable income rose just 3.1 percent. This is a very visible change of personality, because in years past consumers seemed instinctively to cut their spending during the late stages of an economic advance, not wishing to become cash poor. Banks will lend you money if you can prove you don't need it,'' said Mark Twain, and his truth marches on.
Consumers borrow with plastic, of course, and with nerve.
If you ever think people aren't different today you are overlooking how recently the opposite behavior was the norm. People today are borrowing on the house. Their parents thought it was a sacrilege to do so. The uses of that money also represent a great change. The idea seems strange, even shocking, to folks who were young in an earlier time, when paying off the house, not borrowing on it, was one of the great goals and accomplishments of life.