It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
www.foxnews.com...
But this year the Christmas forecast is looking a bit bleak. Orders for American retail stores are down 50 percent. The Wong's Christmas tree factory is churning at two-thirds instead of full speed.
"During this economic downturn, I think you can describe it as our customers having a christmas cold. And the cold, we hope, will recover," the Wongs tell FOX News.
The entire Chinese town of Yi Wu is feeling the Christmas pinch. The mile-long town is home to the biggest small commodities trade market in the world, but the whole area is feeling a hampered Christmas spirit.
"We're not thinking about making profits this year just try ing to keep our business going," Wong said.
The largest factories report sales slumping sales down 30 percent. And in a town known by many as the Wall Street of counterfeiting, even knock-off watches are on sale.
If you walk one mile in Yi Wu, you suddenly realize just how much is made in China, and it becomes hard to imagine which products are not. But the fact is -- many of the factories are empty. It's no wonder that year on year exports from China are down 23 percent.
It will be a long time before people go back to their thoughtless spending-crazes maxing out a half-dozen credit cards just to keep up with the Smiths next-door.
This news goes directly to a point I've been trying to make here on ATS. With retail orders down by around 50% and the jobless rate at such an extremely high percentage,why is the stock market riding so high?
Originally posted by severdsoul
Sadly i say GOOD!.
get back to what hollidays are about, not all the new and fancy crap, but time with family, enjoying the little things.
Although i have to say i dont think its as bad as everyone thinks, i think its partly that stores are not filling up their back rooms with stuff they will be stuck with, they know times are going to be hard, so only order what they know will sell, saving them a load of losses in july.
Originally posted by David9176
I've known quite a few people that have racked up well over 20,000 dollars in credit card debt...which to me is insane. That's living a lie....but if your racking up ten's of thousands of dollars in credit card debt...you've got problems. QUIT BUYING CRAP!
Originally posted by David9176
There should have been a hard recession after 9/11....but there wasn't because that is when we started falsely propping up our economy to keep funding the war in Iraq.
Originally posted by fraterormus
. I am willing to bet that there will be far more money given to Charity Groups this Christmas Season than spent at Retailers.