Our consumer-driven economy

I hear a lot of theories about what's wrong with our economy: Regulation. Taxes. Offshoring jobs. States cutting jobs to balance their own budgets as the federal government tries to stimulate, which offset into zero stimulus. Housing bubbles. Credit and financial crises that take a really long time to get over.

But it's none of that. Not really. The problem is that the consumer has been lied to by politicians for the past 30 years and they are now waking up to economic reality. And they DO NOT LIKE what they see.

This is what consumers are now facing, lit up in full view with stadium lights:

- Entitlements that they were planning on relying on are going to be cut back.
- Their nest eggs and net worth have been hurt and are going nowhere anytime soon. Stocks are down. Housing is down. And it looks like a long steady slow climb from here.
- Jobs are vanishing. Especially those good paying jobs with decent benefits.
- Their skills are increasingly out of date.
- Education is too expensive for what you get out of it.
- A career path that seems good today might blow up in your face tomorrow.

And this is the good result - if you haven't lost your job and still have savings in the bank.

So consumers have throttled back. This "retrenching" as some financial types call it may be permanent.

That's the problem. It's plain old reality kicking us all in the ass.

And now let's watch our politicians to see who has the wherewithal to deal with it. Because we're tired about being lied to. And I think they are all starting to realize it.