Confidence game

You can only ignore rising materials cost for so long. Eventually it will take its toll, somewhere, somehow, and then the rot sets in. "For those of you who still doubt that consumers are being pinched at the pump -- assuming yesterday's Existing Home Sales and today's Durable Goods numbers didnt convince you -- consider the following...." (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2005/08/pinched_at_the_.html, paying particular attention to the brilliant comment posted by your chef.)

"I don't know if this was intentional or not. On page C5 of today's Wall Street Journal, in a section of about 15 or so brief earnings reports, the editors stacked three items on top of one another, each of which may testify to the growing exhaustion of the American consumer...." (http://www.danielgross.net/archives/2005/08/21-week/index.html#a000156)