Consumer Sentiment Drops Further as Black Friday Looms

US consumer sentiment worsened in November, with job losses, falling incomes and the evaporation of household wealth making Americans gloomy about the economy, according to a survey by the University of Michigan and Reuters.

The UMich/Reuters consumer sentiment index fell to 55.3 in November, down from a prior reading of 57.9 earlier this month.

Richard Curtin, the survey's director, said there have been only two surveys in the last 50 years that found consumers more pessimistic than now: in April and May of 1980.

"Few consumers expect the recession to end anytime soon," Curtin said in a statement. (Marketwatch)

A raft of other data today was all negative, with durable goods orders down and average unemployment rate jumped to its highest in 25 years.

All of this as a background to advertisers pumping up consumers for a Black Friday spending spree. Why is it called Black Friday?

Sitting outside a department store a few days ago here in London I saw the usual mass of bodies going in and out, but very few came out carrying mountains of goodies. Perhaps people feel the need to go through the motions of Christmas shopping even though they don't have any money to buy anything. Why don't they just stay at home and enjoy the company of their family?