Word: bleak
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Anecdotal evidence of a bleak Christmas shopping season are starting to be confirmed by hard numbers. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that consumer spending in November declined 0.6% from an already weak October. Disposable personal income, a gauge of how much money consumers have after the bills are paid, also declined in November, albeit a slight 0.1%. What's more, a hoped-for uptick in sales on the final weekend before Christmas does not appear to be materializing. Along with the sputtering economy, heavy winter weather across much of the nation played a big role in keeping people home...
...their hopes on the week after Christmas, when shoppers typically return gifts, redeem gift cards and look for post-holiday discounts. Lots of leftover product in stores and even deeper discounts, analysts say, could provide a year-end boost. Still, it will not be enough to save a bleak 2008 for most retailers. "For many stores, there is no first, second, or third quarter - 25 to 30% of their volume comes from the back-end of the year," says NPD's Cohen. "There is no second chance. You wait the whole year for the holiday. If the holiday doesn...
...October was bleak: the dealership sold only 30 cars for the month compared with a normal 15-18 a week. But December's numbers are solid, he said, thanks in part to his deep roots in the community and solid ties to bankers. Compared to many dealers, Overland Park Jeep Dodge hasn't been troubled by lack of consumer credit. All of his 70 employees have safe jobs, Thompson declared...
...that activity reflects the grim prospects facing the industry next year. IATA expects the world's airlines to lose an additional $2.5 billion in 2009. Passenger traffic, it forecasts, will slide 3%, the first fall since 2001. Next year looks particularly bleak for European carriers. Having hedged more than U.S. rivals against the spiraling fuel costs earlier this year, European airlines - now locked in to fuel contracts - are less able to benefit from the steep slide in the price of oil in recent weeks. American carriers have also reacted quicker than European rivals when it comes to cutting back...
...military officers, speaking privately, concede that the bleak outlook in Afghanistan will probably prompt a scaling back of U.S. goals for the country. The desire to build a strong central government with a large army is likely to be de-emphasized in favor of a provincial structure that relies more on local militias to provide security. "There's a widespread belief in national-security circles that the Bush Administration's goals for Afghanistan were too ambitious," says Stephen Biddle, a military expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "If George W. Bush had served a third term, my guess...