Two Seasons: Spending, and Success and Prosperity

The news from the The Street is that Holiday Shoppers are doing as expected: Spending Money

• Parties!  December 7 through Super Bowl Sunday: a boon Food and Beverage Businesses!
  
• And New babies!  We all want to buy them cute outfits and toys.
  
• We may lavish for our "significant other" with gifts of adornment , bows, and a gift receipt.
• Year End Clearance Time: We deserve that new car, mattress, or liposuction procedure.
  
• And come January, "Time for another Fitness club membership and books on healthy eating."

But are we spending enough?  Let's go back to "The Street" and learn what they think.  Since September:

1. Walmart, America's Most Popular Retailer (AMPR) is up 10%.
   
2. Ford is down 13%.
   
3. And for the sake of our meds .... Pfizer is down, but only 5%, but Merck is up 20%. (Whew!)
   
4. Our mortgage companies, CitiBank, CountryWide, and WaMU are off by 33%, 50%, and 57%
   
5. The Chinese utility we bought in July,  Yingli Green Energy Holding, is up 105%!
   
6. Fuelers (Chevron-Texaco, British Petro and Exxon) are still 401k favorites.
   
7. And for our National Nutrition Sources, Sara Lee and Anheuser-Busch, are up modestly, but Tyson Chicken is down: Go Figure that one out!
   

"So are we spending enough to keep our retirement accounts healthy?"  Well that depends on who you talk to.  

... According to the banking industry, business is both good, and not so good: credit card profits are way up, but we are defaulting on too many mortgages.  

... While tract home sales are off, luxury home sales in the Sun Belt are making us money.  

... But the Social Security Department (makes you feel safe and protected, doesn't it?)  says 93% of all Boomer (and Gen Xers) are broke or working toward becoming broke by the time we retire.  

So let us turn to a few recent cultural Icons for their take on the situation. 

*** Fleetwood Mac gave us these words:  "Everythings waiting for you ...   You can go your own way ....  You an call it Another lonely day.

*** And Huey Lewis tells us "this ain't no circus and I don't need a clown   Your cash ain't nothin' but trash".

*** and GOD says this in Joshua, Chapter 1  :5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”