The numbers: After a binge fueled by government stimulus checks, the reality of the Pandemic hit home. While most were off to a holiday weekend and few were paying attention, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis quietly released some of the worst economic data the country has seen since the Depression. We have been saying it for a year - you can't shut down most of the economy for a year, something that has never been done, and not have Biblical consequences. The fact that many Americans, particularly those with corporate jobs, don't feel the pain of the shutdown is merely another brainwashed manipulation by the Fake News Mockingbird Media.
Consumer spending rose 0.5% last month, the government said Friday. That was the end of the positive figures in the report - from there:
US Incomes sank 13.1% in the absence of any further federal support.
Thats the largest decrease on record. One that the mainstream media simply chose to not cover last week.
Personal Income and Outlays, April 2021
Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis
Personal income decreased $3.21 trillion (13.1 percent) in April according to estimates released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (tables 3 and 5). Disposable personal income (DPI) decreased $3.22 trillion (14.6 percent) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $80.3 billion (0.5 percent).
Real DPI decreased 15.1 percent in April and Real PCE decreased 0.1 percent; goods decreased 1.3 percent and services increased 0.6 percent (tables 5 and 7). The PCE price index increased 0.6 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.7 percent (table 9).
The slowdown in spending was widely expected, but not nearly to this level. Economists polled by Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal has forecast a mild 0.6% increase. Spending had skyrocketed 4.7% in March — the third biggest increase on record — after the government sent $1,400 checks to most individuals. That spawned a one-time 21% spike in personal income.
That "spike" was expectedly short-lived.
Welcome to reality. It’s only getting worse.