WARC (August 1)
“Whether it’s $18 for a two-ounce ginseng drink or $75,000 for a luxury mattress, the story is the same: Chinese consumers are becoming more frugal and the days of carefree spending have gone.” For over a decade, upmarket western brands have relied on China’s “expanding middle class” to drive growth, “but now, with a slowing economy, growing unemployment and a disruptive zero-COVID policy, those same middle classes are as likely to be saving as spending.”
Tags: Carefree, China, Consumers, Frugal, Growth, Luxury, Middle class, Saving, Slowing Economy, Spending, Unemployment, Upmarket, Western brands, Zero COVID
New York Times (February 27)
“Freaked out by the stock market? Take a deep breath.” This is not a time for drastic portfolio moves unless “there have been drastic changes in your life, like a big new job or consequential medical news.” Otherwise, remember that if you “hold on long enough to a diverse collection of stocks…the system has tended to generously repay patient people over six or seven decades of working, saving and drawing down a portfolio.”
Tags: Deep breath, Drastic, Freaked out, Market, Patient, Portfolio, Saving, Stocks, Working
New York Times (November 8)
“Is there reason to fear that Americans will save too assiduously, as the Japanese did…to the point where the economy never goes back to what we consider normal?” The experts are divided. University of Tokyo professor Takatoshi Ito states, “Japan cannot be held up as a positive role model.” M.I.T. Sloan professor Simon Johnson points out, “Japan never experienced high unemployment. Perhaps we should envy and attempt to learn from their experience, rather than disparaging it.” And Morgan Stanley’s Stephen S. Roach asserts “it’s far too late to argue that the U.S. economy hasn’t fallen into a Japanese-like quagmire. Like Japan, we allowed asset bubbles to distort our real economy….”
