Last week James Joyner had the president's job approval rating up noting, "what goes down must come up." It's gone back down: President George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has reached the lowest ever measured in this poll, and...

One summary of events:

"The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending rose 1 percent in July, matching a strong June gain, as Americans streamed into auto showrooms to take advantage of sales enticements.

That meant Americans did not have enough left after paying their taxes to cover their spending in July. As a result, they dipped into savings stored up in previous months."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/12538860.htm

I think it is one thing to say some people dipped into savings, but another to contemplate that the whole nation did, and that's what it takes to tip the national average into negative territory.

Combine this with high rates of credit card default (how often did spending really "dip into savings" and how often did it just add debt?), and things don't look real good.

Consumer spending is down by 1% due to high gas prices. The high gasoline prices are already starting to affect the economy. And down we gooooooo

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/rtecs/contents.html

Doing the math for a few MPG values, household fuel costs at $3/gal:

10 mpg = $6600/yr
20 mpg = $3300/yr
30 mpg = $2200/yr
40 mpg = $1650/yr
50 mpg = $1320/yr

diminishing returns, obviously ... but a reason to get away from the

I'm sure there are people out there who haven't figured out they are paying that. I mean, how can a median income person possibly allocate that much each year for gas?

Actually, given the news of 1) higher rates of credit card use at gas stations, and 2) higher rates of default on credit cards, it's possible they are learning the hard way.

I'd love to see Ford and GM bring over some of their European models. That might help them with their short-term crunch. I wouldn't even oppose an emissions/saftey waiver, if they satisfy German rules. The German standards are probably better than a lot of existing cars on the road.

Talk about things getting bad ... a GM near-or-full bankrupcy isn't going to do the economy any good.

Well, Bush may have little control over gas prices, but let the economy of the US take a dive and then watch what Bush and Congress do.

You have to face the fact that the politician has a lot of tricks up their sleeves to control things. However, they will do nothing until the roof falls down. That's reality.

You would think there are stories of dead bodies, dead bodies being raped, people eating dead bodies, and people shooting dead bodies for the media to cover. No?

If we wanted lower prices, there are certainly things, as a nation, we could have done to prepare for this day.

CAFE was supposed to do it, but CAFE with the light-truck exemption was as good as no CAFE at all - worse to the extent it gave people a false sense of progress.

Gus Hall was right!