{"id":19463,"date":"2023-06-07T12:19:14","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T16:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/the-new-normal-thats-spooking-consumers\/"},"modified":"2023-06-07T12:19:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T16:19:15","slug":"the-new-normal-thats-spooking-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=19463","title":{"rendered":"The New Normal That\u2019s Spooking Consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>If you believe the headlines, the world narrowly avoided a disaster when Congress agreed to raise the limit on the nation\u2019s indebtedness at the eleventh hour. In his victory-lap speech, President Biden assured us that \u201cThe stakes couldn\u2019t have been higher.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As someone who studies consumer behaviors and preferences for the retail industry, when the deal was struck, and a near miss with apocalypse declared, I couldn\u2019t help thinking, <em>Really?<\/em> Among the 431 House members who cast a vote, it was a landslide \u2014 73% voted yes. The same thing happened in the Senate \u2014 63 in favor versus 36 against.<\/p>\n<p>\n <span>ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><fbs-ad position=\"topx\" batched=\"\" ad-id=\"article-0-topx-1\" data-double-progressive=\"\"><\/fbs-ad>\n<\/p>\n<p>As an armchair economist, there was nothing narrow about the vote and nothing particularly surprising about the outcome. Default was never a possibility because allowing such a thing to happen would have benefitted none of us, regardless of politics. According to Betsey Stevenson, an economics professor, and former Council of Economic Advisers member, it was an act of puffery, a \u201cmanufactured\u201d crisis.<\/p>\n<p>More than three years since the onset of the pandemic, it\u2019s starting to feel like an atmosphere of fear, with an unending cavalcade of real and ginned-up crises, is the new normal. Inflation is out of control\u2026 until it isn\u2019t. Consumers are holding on to their wallets, hurting retail sales\u2026 except consumer spending is up. Wages aren\u2019t keeping pace with inflation\u2026 but they are catching up, and jobs are plentiful. All this against a backdrop of doom and gloom about climate change and the future of the planet.<\/p>\n<p>So, is it any wonder that most of us are anxious, especially about money? That\u2019s the finding of a recent CNBC Financial Confidence Survey: 70% of us feel financially stressed. And no wonder a Gallup poll conducted in February found a record percentage of US adults diagnosed with depression, up ten percentage points from 2015. As all of these crises seem to portend a dismal future, small wonder that Gallup found those age 18 to 44 have \u201csignificantly greater depression diagnosis rates in their lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n <span>ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><fbs-ad position=\"topx\" progressive=\"\" ad-id=\"article-0-topx-2\" data-double-progressive=\"\"><\/fbs-ad>\n<\/p>\n<p>What comes next?<\/p>\n<p>Consulting giant McKinsey offers some hint of generational change in a survey conducted in Brazil, where Generation Z (loosely, those born from 1995 to 2010) makes up 20 percent of the population. Gen Z, says McKinsey, \u201care true digital natives\u201d growing up with the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>The McKinsey study dubbed Gen Z the \u201cTrue Gen,\u201d in contrast with Millennials \u2014 the \u201cMe Generation\u201d that grew up during a period of economic prosperity and is \u201cmore idealistic, more confrontational.\u201d According to McKinsey, \u201cGen Zers value individual expression and avoid labels. They mobilize themselves for a variety of causes. \u2026 They make decisions and relate to institutions in a highly analytical and pragmatic way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The implications for consumer-facing companies could be profound in the years to come. Most intriguingly, \u201cFor Gen Z, consumption means having access to products or services, not necessarily owning them. As access becomes the new form of consumption, unlimited access to goods and services (such as car-riding services, video streaming, and subscriptions) creates value. Products become services, and services connect consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n <span>ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><fbs-ad position=\"topx\" progressive=\"\" ad-id=\"article-0-topx-3\" data-double-progressive=\"\"><\/fbs-ad>\n<\/p>\n<p>While the rest of us are mesmerized by apocalyptic headlines and manufactured crises, it seems the next generation in line to dominate the consumer landscape is learning to adapt. Perhaps there\u2019s a lesson for all of us here\u2026.that is: beginning with not obsessing about the crises we can\u2019t control and focusing on solving the problems we can. Focus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/gregpetro\/2023\/06\/07\/the-debt-crisis-that-wasnt-the-new-normal-thats-spooking-consumers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you believe the headlines, the world narrowly avoided a disaster when Congress agreed to raise the limit on the nation\u2019s indebtedness at the eleventh hour. In his victory-lap speech, President Biden assured us that \u201cThe stakes couldn\u2019t have been higher.\u201d As someone who studies consumer behaviors and preferences for the retail industry, when the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-19463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The New Normal That\u2019s Spooking Consumers | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you believe the headlines, the world narrowly avoided a disaster when Congress agreed to raise the limit on the nation\u2019s indebtedness at the eleventh\" \/>\n<meta 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