Recovery.org Tracks Stimulus Spending: Should Americans Spend or Save?

As Recovery.org tracks stimulus spending, the question is whether the average American should spend or save.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans' use of credit cards fell last May as more and more people lost jobs and were forced to tighten budgets.

By June, unemployment reached 9.5%, the highest in the last 25 years.

Not only credit card borrowing decreased. Bank loans fell, too, since banks became much stricter in all their consumer loan approval requirements. This is because loan delinquency has also been continuously rising.

Non-revolving credit has dropped, as well. This includes automobile and mobile-home loans.

In the first quarter of 2009, the total net worth of households was reported to have fallen by 2.6%. Even if the Obama administration's stimulus package has propped up Americans' income in May, people are still feeling the crunch and, as a result, are spending less and saving more than they have in the last 15 years.

There is concern that reduced borrowing and spending will further cripple the US economy since 70% of gross domestic product is made up of consumer spending.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. It's a very difficult place to be in.

Earn Online More Efficiently through Facebook

Changes being planned on Facebook will allow more efficiency in making money online. According to reports, Facebook will enable users to select who can see each new post. That means you can divide your friends into segments or niches and target each post to a specific segment or niche. You can therefore use your Facebook account to promote various products and services and promote all of them without alienating anyone.

Do you ever experience being annoyed by a barrage of promotional posts about things in which you have no interest at all? With too many of those from you, your Facebook friends just might block you altogether. The new Facebook tool will avoid this scenario. You can customize your promotions according to each specific group.

This is something that cannot be done on Twitter now. Once Facebook implements these changes, Twitter will hopefully follow suit.

Being Offline Decreases Earning Capacity

Due to heavy rains and lightning, we had a four hour brownout last night. Then when the power came back on we found out that the lightning had zapped our modem, as well. It was a 15 hour wait before someone finally came to replace our modem and bring us back online.

I realized that being offline drastically cuts one's earning capacity online. I couldn't do research for my writing, couldn't update my blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Well, I don't monetize Facebook but blogs and Twitter are among my marketing ventures online. Add to that my freelance writing assignments which I submit by email.

I can't live without an internet connection.