JULY 22, 2008 --

An AP business story, via Yahoo, July 20, by Anne D'Innocenzio carried this headline:  "Consumers change buying habits, but will it last?"   

LPR thinks it would be more accurate to report:  "Predatory free enterprise forces consumers to cut back on discretionary spending."  It doesn't take a Ph.D in economics to realize that people can't spend on other items when their money goes for necessities.  

(The article did not say that people are using credit cards for non-essentials. Apparently, they aren't.)

Predatory free enterprise is, in fact, counter-productive.  How can the economy flourish when the purchasing power of people is limited to food, gas and utilities?

On economic matters, it seems the people are leading the officials--but then, perhaps the pay scales of officials can absorb predatory free enterprise better than the rest of us.