What we need is legislation. Any American who does not spend at least $200 on consumer electronics within a three-day period beginning on Black Friday must spend three times that amount in the period leading up to Christmas, or else face tax liability and possible criminal charges for being a terrorist sympathizer who does not support the American way of life.

My big concern is that there were a lot of people who, in the name of cutting spending, did most, if not all, of their shopping on Friday to take advantage of sales. I'd like to see a comparison of shopping for the rest of this weekend.

It sounds like Subby wants the media to be cheerleaders for the economy. They shouldn't be going out of their way to try to make things look like worse than they are, but to deny there are real concerns and everything is just so great is equally stupid.

The American people have no obligations to spend indiscriminately in an attempt to support the service industries that arose thanks to the American people spending indiscriminately. Americans will start saving again; many companies will fail; wal-mart will be all that remains. I for one welcome our new wal-mart overlords.

Mainstream MSM media, upset that their dire predictions of retail doom and gloom proved false on Black Friday, are now spinning it that we aren't buying enough gadgets

Fixed.

And then come January, the media will spin every way possible to prove things are getting better. Change we can believe in.

Right-wingers who for eight years proved they couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground at least still have the gimme of blaming the "Main Stream Media" for everything they don't understand.

Nemo's Brother: And then come January, the media will spin every way possible to prove things are getting better. Change we can believe in.

Much like they were shouting "Housing will go up forever" for the 6 years prior.

See "Flip This House" and it's ilk.

Drop the persecution complex. Republicans shouldn't be pussies.

But on death toll we're rating pretty well.

Blaming the media is so weak minded. As if there's a room where they all get together and decide how to ruin your day.

The economy is in trouble, the notion that spending will be down is legitimate. They ran the story. They were wrong. Move on.

jake_lex: My big concern is that there were a lot of people who, in the name of cutting spending, did most, if not all, of their shopping on Friday to take advantage of sales. I'd like to see a comparison of shopping for the rest of this weekend.

It sounds like Subby wants the media to be cheerleaders for the economy. They shouldn't be going out of their way to try to make things look like worse than they are, but to deny there are real concerns and everything is just so great is equally stupid.

I did some, which I never do, but I don't see how you could do all of it. It just took too much time to get help or through the checkouts.

AmazingRuss: Nemo's Brother: And then come January, the media will spin every way possible to prove things are getting better. Change we can believe in.

Much like they were shouting "Housing will go up forever" for the 6 years prior.

See "Flip This House" and it's ilk.

Drop the persecution complex. Republicans shouldn't be pussies.

I lol'd

If there were deals to be had on Friday, I didn't see them. Most stores were selling items for the same prices they were selling them on Wednesday, or even in October or September.

First time in a long time there was absolutely nothing I wanted on Black Friday, let alone needed to wait in the cold for. 1080p prices were actually worse in many cases. Fark retail shopping. I look forward to reading their bankruptcy notices.

honest harry: Blaming the media is so weak minded. .

Exactly. That's why I blame the Dutch. Those no-good dirty Dutch.

Never bet against Black Friday...

I did my bit. New 1080 TV, new blu ray.

schattenteufel: Exactly. That's why I blame the Dutch. Those no-good dirty Dutch.

I typically blame Clinton.

They are clearly using reverse psychology to get us to buy stuff, and that fine with me

What gadgets might look like

how come the mainstream media hates america?

As a retail manager who is in the thick of all this shiat, I still see people spending money. I knew the media was full of shiat when we actually beat last years Black Friday in sales. One thing I do notice that's a little different than last year is that people are using cash instead of credit cards.

Is the economy supposed to be supported by people buying televisions, or are they supposed to save for retirement and buy affordable homes? The message seems to change every day.

Approves

AmazingRuss: Nemo's Brother: And then come January, the media will spin every way possible to prove things are getting better. Change we can believe in.

Much like they were shouting "Housing will go up forever" for the 6 years prior.

See "Flip This House" and it's ilk.

Drop the persecution complex. Republicans shouldn't be pussies.

The new Republican hotness is to be an oppressed pussy. I don't get it. I thought the advantage of being a Republican is that you got to be a death penalty lovin', gun carryin', hard workin', glass parking lot makin' badass. This new whiny thing they're doesn't jive with their old school image.

It's not so much that the predictions of doom and gloom didn't come true, it's that they weren't SPECTACULAR enough to generate ratings.

Doesn't matter if it's a baby getting raped until it bursts into flames, or paint drying on a wall, the media will cover it as long as it will draw advertisers.

Considering that the stats regarding Black Friday are coming from Shoppertrack and not actual sales receipts, I would regard any optimistic stories with some skepticism.

Fark this entire consumerism-driven 'special season'. I get so sick of being told when and how to spend my money.

for those who read german: (new window)


Link (new window)

Apparently not so in Germany.

From what I've seen of local media, it's been nothing but buy, buy, buy something. It seemed like every other year on Black Friday, you'd get one token piece about the "buy nothing day" refuseniks. Usually some sense of "aw isn't that sweet" head-patting. This year? Not that I've seen.

/ has more than enough stuff, thanks

Listen to me very closely. Turn off the TV. Listen only to music on the radio. Laugh in the face of news here on Fark.

If I listened to the news, I could not be #1 in the nation for sales, my installers would be broke, the owner would see the business and the office manager would be out of a job. We would not be expanding and hiring additional people. We would not be expanding reaching 200% of our best month ever in business.

America, turn off the news, do what you love to do, do it better than your competition and be a student of your business, everyday. Work harder and longer and do something about your situation, reject the news and you will feel better and actually make more money. Reject their view of reality and the state of the economy and make your own.

Unplug. Fark 'em. All of them. That is all.

Nemo's Brother: And then come January, the media will spin every way possible to prove things are getting better. Change we can believe in.

Obviously. Reminds me of the last quarter of Bush I in 1992. We had 4% growth in GDP, were a good 6 months into recovery and the media just couldn't see any of it happening until just after the tax increases were rammed through.

Mainstream media? Perhaps you missed the banner ad at the top of FARK for Samsung televisions?

How do YOU watch the NFL?

/lol at you

I've been to the local mall a few times in the last month and each time I saw nothing that would indicate a severe recession. Plenty of people walking around with bags. Granted, an untrained observer such as me would probably not notice a 5% or even 10% decrease but the bottom line is lots of consumers are still spending money. This notion that consumer spending is grinding to a halt is bunk so far as I can tell.

Rapmaster2000: The new Republican hotness is to be an oppressed pussy. I don't get it. I thought the advantage of being a Republican is that you got to be a death penalty lovin', gun carryin', hard workin', glass parking lot makin' badass. This new whiny thing they're doesn't jive with their old school image.

Not much does. They've morphed into the scared shiatless, spend yourself into oblivion, then whine about it when somebody points out your idiocy and hypocrisy party.

It's so staggering a transformation that I have to wonder if it was orchestrated by democrat secret agents infiltrating the party.

I guess I'm helping to ruin things for the media, I participated in Black Friday for the first time in 4 years...only because a friend didn't want to go alone. Ended up with a new TV, a couple of game consoles and a camera. Didn't make any kind of real dent in my christmas shopping. Still have my job, didn't get suckered into an ARM so I'm paying the same on my house and I don't spend frivolously if I do not have cash. Friends used to laugh but half of them are talking about what possessions to sell, when to declare bankruptcy and where to find work.

This still doesn't change the fact that all the malls here in town are in severe danger of declaring bankruptcy.

Just because people ran up their credit cards on one day does not mean we're out of the woods yet.

AmazingRuss: Rapmaster2000: The new Republican hotness is to be an oppressed pussy. I don't get it. I thought the advantage of being a Republican is that you got to be a death penalty lovin', gun carryin', hard workin', glass parking lot makin' badass. This new whiny thing they're doesn't jive with their old school image.

Not much does. They've morphed into the scared shiatless, spend yourself into oblivion, then whine about it when somebody points out your idiocy and hypocrisy party.

It's so staggering a transformation that I have to wonder if it was orchestrated by democrat secret agents infiltrating the party.

There is no transformation. The old school image was a lie to conceal the truth which is now apparent.

The right wing embraces the philosophy of cowardice so tightly that it cannot at first be seen.

yagottabefarkinkiddinme: Work harder and longer and do something about your situation, reject the news and you will feel better and actually make more money.

Or, conversely, say "No, I don't need to work any harder than necessary to keep fed, there's plenty of life to be lived not at work, and death awaits soon enough". But, either way, you're right about turning off the news and ad-stream.

Wait, did this year's Back Friday exceed expectations, or is this just some sort of blame-the-media, circle-jerk fantasy?

honest harry: Blaming the media is so weak minded. As if there's a room where they all get together and decide how to ruin your day.

Studio 'B'?
The Situation Room?

Pocket Ninja: What we need is legislation. Any American who does not spend at least $200 on consumer electronics within a three-day period beginning on Black Friday must spend three times that amount in the period leading up to Christmas, or else face tax liability and possible criminal charges for being a terrorist sympathizer who does not support the American CHINESE way of life.

FTFY

And while the topic is out, can we please just stop the meme where we say the media is upset when something happens?

This was started by Rush, and most people that buy into it label themselves ditto heads.

The media doesn't care what happens. They will report, and yes even hype, whatever it is to get ratings.

The irony is that repeating this meme is as good as advertising for them. I'm sure Rush is aware that every time he criticizes the drive by media, some of the morons that make up his followers turn it on to see if they can see it.

Of course, that's OK by Rush. He doesn't care about anything other than fleecing said morons, and he's very good at it.

Yakk: Right-wingers who for eight years proved they couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground at least still have the gimme of blaming the "Main Stream Media" for everything they don't understand.

No crap, the ignorance I see exhibited by the whackadoodles on Fark regarding our economy and why and how it is in the shape it is in just boggles the mind. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

What this means is that once this mess is fixed people like that will just do the same exact shiat again when the opportunity presents itself.

Bush was going to tank our economy and treasury no matter what, either through privatizing SSN (for which the Dems were labeled as obstructionist, when they were right to balk at that) or through lax SEC regulation and blocking the states AGs from stopping predatory lending (he used the federal courts to do that).

I find it funny how some Republicans were all against the bailout, which I don't support in its current configuration, but were willing to shovel tax payer money to Iraqi war contractors for five years.

This is such a clusterfark created by the most inept leadership this country has seen, quite possibly, in its entire history. Now we get to watch the whackadoodles, like Grover Norquist (has he ever been right about anything?), try to rewrite history to salvage their asses on the reich wing media machine.

It sickens me to no end.

Of course, knowing that Rush's stock portfolio is probably in the toilet is a small consolation, because I am sure he bought the BS hook line and sinker, is a small consolation.

In Orlando, Black Friday morning was fairly busy as crowds looked for huge discounts, but the traffic started to die off by 3 p.m. Of course, Orlando crowds are nothing like Manhattan crowds. I would like to know how the shopper turnout was in NYC or Chicago.

AmazingRuss: Nemo's Brother: And then come January, the media will spin every way possible to prove things are getting better. Change we can believe in.

Much like they were shouting "Housing will go up forever" for the 6 years prior.

See "Flip This House" and it's ilk.

Drop the persecution complex. Republicans shouldn't be pussies.

But most of them are. When you really challenge them, get in their face and make them eat the shiat they spew, they back down and get all weepy. Most of them have never had to think on their feet. If they can't lie or bluff their way through a situation, then they are floundering.

Right-wingers who for eight years proved they couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground at least still have the gimme of blaming the "Main Stream Media" for everything they don't understand.
---

Yes, it's those "right-wingers."

The Real Scandal

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

"Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits."

The Real Culprits In This Meltdown

"But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions."

How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis

Builders On-Line Forum - 1999

"The mortgage industry intends to pursue minorities with greater intensity as federal regulators turn up the heat to increase home ownership in underserved groups. 'We need to push into these underserved markets as much as we can,' said David Glenn, president and chief operating officer of Freddie Mac."

Babbs: As a retail manager who is in the thick of all this shiat, I still see people spending money. I knew the media was full of shiat when we actually beat last years Black Friday in sales. One thing I do notice that's a little different than last year is that people are using cash instead of credit cards.

Consumer confidence and spending has been down. The prediction that Black Friday (a trumped up phenomenon by the media to begin with) would be less was a reasonable prediction.

The same media was hyping sales left and right at the same time, so this accusation rings so false. Also, the entire weekend numbers are not in, so we will see what we see.

Consumerism is partially what broke our economy, by the way.

You know, it wasn't until Bush talked about a bailout package that everyone panicked, talked about depressions, sold all their stock, and gas prices dropped to their lowest levels in 8 years.

So yeah, I blame Bush.

/probably wanted to leave one more mess for Obama to clean up

fark80

"The mortgage industry intends to pursue minorities with greater intensity as federal regulators turn up the heat to increase home ownership in underserved groups. 'We need to push into these underserved markets as much as we can,' said David Glenn, president and chief operating officer of Freddie Mac."

At first I read that as un-deserved. More appropriate in my opinion.

fark80: Right-wingers who for eight years proved they couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground at least still have the gimme of blaming the "Main Stream Media" for everything they don't understand.
---

Yes, it's those "right-wingers."

The Real Scandal

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

"Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits."

The Real Culprits In This Meltdown

"But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street's most revered institutions."

How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis

Builders On-Line Forum - 1999

"The mortgage industry intends to pursue minorities with greater intensity as federal regulators turn up the heat to increase home ownership in underserved groups. 'We need to push into these underserved markets as much as we can,' said David Glenn, president and chief operating officer of Freddie Mac."

Ah yes, the it was Clinton's fault revisionists, arrive on the scene. I suggest you investigate CDO and CDS markets to see what really tanked our economy. Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac had very little to do with sub-prime mortgages. It was private brokers that drove that, and it started around the tail of 2002.

Also, Fannie and Freddie were pressured by the Bush administration to absorb a lot of those bad mortgages so they could hang that albatross on the two companies as need be, and you fell for it. Congratulations, you are uninformed and possibly stupid.

Your links are the spin. If you can actually show the links between CVR and sub-prime mortgages, then I would like to see it. Of course, you won't find anything, because there is nothing to find.

You desperately want this to be Clinton's fault, but the reality is that large PRIVATE banks, bought and sold overrated securities the form of CDOs and CDSs and inflated their worth via vapo-cash. The lack of regulation by Bush's SEC allowed this to happen.

Greenspan warned against this. I suggest you listen to Planet Money from NPR for a very nice series that breaks down how all this happened.

Your people sold you out and took you to slaughter, and you still defend them and carry their water.