Forums: Consumer Facts

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. consumers increased their debt in November by a seasonally adjusted $20.4 billion, the largest increase since November 2001, the Federal Reserve reported Monday. Monthly debt rose at a 10% annual rate in November, a much faster pace than had been expected by Wall Street economists.

Do you have information about a company that you think has violated federal consumer financial laws? Are you a current or former employee of such a company, an industry insider who knows about such a company, or even a competitor being unfairly undercut by such a company? If so, the CFPB wants to hear from you. Tipsters and whistleblowers are encouraged to send information about what they know to whistleblower@cfpb.gov. Current employees providing information about their own employers – known as “whistleblowers” – may be protected from being fired or from other employer retaliation for providing us information. To learn...

Today the NY Fed released its quarterly report on consumer credit, and in it is a wealth of charts on the nature of consumer debt. The charts did contain a red flag: For the first time since the recovery began, there were clear signs that in Q3, consumers started falling behind on paying their debts following several quarter of improvement. It's not across all categories, and it's not necessarily even dramatic in some cases, but it is notable for the reversal in the pattern.

The Personal Income and Outlays report for September covers individual income, consumption and savings. Overall the report shows bad news as once again, America's income is rising less than spending. Spending is up 2.2% while disposable income has only increased 0.2% from this time last year. Adjusted for inflation it's even worse, real disposable income dropped -0.1% while real spending increased +0.5% from August to September. Personal consumption expenditures, often called consumer spending, increased 0.6% and in real dollars, is up 0.5% for September. Real Personal Consumption Expenditures, or PCE, are about 70% of GDP. Real means chained to...

Asian brands continue to dominate Consumer Reports' 2011 Annual Auto Survey, sweeping the top nine spots. Toyota's American brand Scion leads the pack, followed by Lexus, Acura, Mazda, Honda, and Toyota. The brands scored strong on predicted reliability tests. Of the 91 Japanese models for which Consumer Reports has sufficient data, 87 (96 percent) were rated average or better. 24 Japanese models earned the highest rating.

The nonprofit organization said its consumer-confidence index declined to 39.8 in October from a September level of 46.4, which was upwardly revised from a prior estimate of 45.4. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a reading of 46 for October; when the economy is growing at a good clip, confidence readings are at 90 and above... ...The Conference Board’s expectations barometer fell to 48.7 in October from 55.1 in September. The percentage of those who expected business conditions to be “better” in six months declined, while most expected the same conditions...

...The Labor Department said the consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% last month, pushing the increase over the past 12 months up to 3.9% from 3.8% in August... The core rate of inflation, meanwhile, rose a smaller 0.1% in September, keeping its 12-month increase at 2.0%. It was the smallest increase since March. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast consumer price index, which tracks inflation at the retail level, to rise by 0.3% in September. The core rate was expected to increase by 0.2%