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Americans are bracing for inflation and a market crash: survey:
Inflation and a potential stock market crash. These are the two biggest threats to the US economy and to the financial wellbeing of Americans, so says a survey by personal finance software firm Quicken.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based Quicken/SurveyMonkey online poll was taken earlier this month, which consisted of a sample of 1,200 US adults ages 18 to 74 from the Cint Consumer Network, according to Quicken's press release.
The survey revealed that nearly three-fourths who responded to the survey (71%) ranked inflation (currently at 7% and the highest since the early 1980s), as the top concern, followed by new COVID-19 variants, supply chain disruptions and a stock market crash. On that last point, the survey noted that 52% surveyed agree that there will be a stock market crash in the next five years. Of that group, 58% expect a looming stock market crash will impact their finances negatively, according to the press release.
Yet not everyone views a potential crash as such a bad prospect. Some Americans saw the financial gains that more aggressive investors had made from the day of the 2008 stock market crash, and are now looking to capitalize for the next one. According to the press release, 52% of self-described "aggressive" investors are likely to say the 2008 crash benefited them financially, compared to 18% of so-called "conservative" investors. What's more, 71% of aggressive investors, compared to 20% of conservative investors, believe a stock market crash in the future would benefit them financially. A notable percentage of respondents who believe there's going to be a crash in the next five years – 35% – agree that they're waiting for a crash in order to invest some extra cash.
A sizable percentage of younger adult generations surveyed – Millennial and Gen Z – also see the benefits to a future stock market crash. According to the survey, 41% of Gen Z and 36% of Millennials agree that they are waiting for a stock crash in order to invest their extra cash. Another 30% of Gen Z and 28% of Millennials say they're waiting for a crash so that they can start investing, according to the press release.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23 2022, @02:22PM (6 children)
The economy was already in the shittier before covid. Jobs were disappearing, costs on everything were going up, corners were being cut everywhere, and only the rich could afford health insurance.
Then covid comes along and shuts everything down. Despite what the TV says, things have just gotten worse. There are no jobs out there except for lifting boxes or answering phones. Between Trumps corporate tax cuts and Bidens emergency spending, this country is now over 9000% owned by china. I'd wonder why we don't see people jumping off the tops of buildings, but covid is taking care of that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23 2022, @05:55PM (1 child)
This isn't flamebait. Due to the way in which inflation and unemployment are calculated, things were far worse than they seemed. Unemployment figures exclude those that have permanently given up without accounting for those that are choosing not to work because they don't need to, and those that have given up because they can't find anything at all and desperately need the money. Having more people out of work because they can afford to be stay at home parents isn't an inherent problem, they're still being fed. Being unemployed because there are no jobs and you can't afford to move to a place where there are jobs is a massive problem.
Likewise, wages haven't kept up with inflation, but since we don't count things like fuel or rent when inflation is being calculated, it's far, far worse than it might seem.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday January 24 2022, @02:37AM
There is some data that exposes this, but I don't know how well it tells this story. The data series is the Civilian labor force participation rate. Looking at 2001 to February 2020, the curves for women above 20 was effectively flat, ending at about 59%. For men above 20 there was a decrease of about 5% ending at about 71%. There was a much larger drop in teen employment, about from 48% to 36%.
This brings up two thoughts.
First, I'd really like to see how much of the drop in Men's employment was due to retirees leaving the workforce. I don't know of anything that exposes this data and would appreciate any pointers.
Second, thinking through it, Teens are very poorly reflected in unemployment data. In this regard you are likely correct.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Sunday January 23 2022, @10:06PM (1 child)
And those "no jobs" pay pretty well. I'm seeing $17+ per hour offered in Montana for entry level jobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24 2022, @01:23PM
Yeah, Amazon is now so desperate, 5k sign-on bonus, 20+/hr in the warehouse. People are just not interested in being tested like shit, no matter how much you pay them.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Sunday January 23 2022, @10:15PM (1 child)
The economy was already in the shittier before covid.
Like Wikipedia says, citation needed. Yes, the economy grew at a slightly slower rate under Trump than under Obama, but I'm retired and saw nothing going up until after the lockdown was lifted here and the beer distributers raised the price of a case of beer to bars by two bucks.
I saw nothing about unemployment until lately, when there's actually a labor shortage. What planet are you from?
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 24 2022, @02:38AM
Yeah, citation needed.
Along the same lines, the transaction price for new cars is up a huge amount and that must be part of the current inflation numbers(?) This can't last, it's the way the car companies have figured out how to make money on less volume of cars sold. The chip shortage is a major problem (along with other supply chain issues)--and the workaround is to put the available chips (and other components from Asia) in high end models only. One of these days there will again be availability of lower "content", lower priced cars.