from Silver Report Uncut:

Consumer Confidence Worst Collapse Ever, Fitch Warns Record Defaults, True Cost Of Unemployment

VIDEO:

Consumer confidence has been the main talking point of the Federal reserve for the past year or so. Everything could be falling apart but the strong consumer was going to save us. The UMich consumer confidence survey just experienced the worst collapse in history and that even includes the wealthy. Buying conditions have collapsed along with it for homes, cars, and other big-ticket purchases and the consequences will be great. The true difficulty for restarting the economy will be competition. Small businesses will be struggling to compete with unemployment checks which for many has actually turned out to be a raise. Many of the low wage workers are enjoying staying at home for $600 a week and many small businesses are reporting finding their employees have been mad for taking the paycheck protection loans instead of firing them since they actually are missing out. The true cost on the states maybe some of the motivation to rush to open up certain businesses despite the clear risks. We are already getting close to record defaults and Fitch ratings has just warned we will probably cross the threshold for April as 14 companies have already fallen int default in April. JC Penny and Neiman Marcus look set to file for Chapter 11 and waves of energy companies are on the edge of failure as we speak. This is turning out to be the worst economic collapse in history at least in many regards.

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