Consumer Spending

The Ford and Honda hybrids due out this month are among dozens planned for the coming years as automakers try to meet new fuel-efficiency standards and please politicians overseeing the industry's multibillion-dollar bailout. Unfortunately for the automakers, hybrids are a tough sell these days. Americans have cut back on buying vehicles of all types as the economy continues its slide. But the slowdown has been particularly brutal for hybrids, which use electricity and gasoline as power sources.

For years, retailers could afford to be sloppy about running their businesses because customers kept buying. No more. Stung by the worry that shoppers -- who cut spending by the most dramatic amount in at least 39 years this holiday season -- may not start spending again for a long time, stores are making drastic changes.

After half a year of declines, consumer spending edged up for a second consecutive month in February even though incomes sagged under the weight of further job losses. The spending increases were seen as a hopeful sign that this key sector of the economy is staging a modest rebound that could help pull the country out of the recession. Consumer spending rose by 0.

Consumer spending fell for a record sixth straight month in December as recession-battered households, worried about surging layoffs, boosted their savings rates to the highest level since May. Economists expect consumer spending, which accounts for the largest portion of total economic activity, to remain weak this year, prolonging an already painful recession. The Commerce Department reported Monday that personal consumption spending dropped 1% in December. That was slightly worse than the 0.

Ed Palladini has run a limousine company in Tampa for 27 years, accumulating a fleet of more than a dozen luxury cars, ranging from a basic Cadillac sedan to a plush Mercedes minibus that seats 14. Even now, during Super Bowl week, when Palladini's business should be booked solid, some of those beauties will not leave the lot. "I've got a car that hasn't moved in six months, but I've had to keep the insurance on it for the Super Bowl," he said.

The number of Americans with fast Internet connections continues to swell even as the nation's economy lumbers along at dial-up speed. The U.S. broadband adoption rate rose to 63% of adults as of April, a nearly 15% increase from a year before, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. The adoption rate grew even though the price of home broadband increased, the study found.

Painter Wei Haibin is carefully weighing every purchase as he heads home to Hebei province for China's biggest family holiday -- a time when the economy typically enjoys a bounce. "The total that I spend buying things for the Lunar New Year will be about half of what I spent last year," he said. "Though I will probably spend the same amount buying gifts for family and friends in my hometown because it's a matter of face, I will be really tight on the things I buy for myself."

After decades as the computer of choice for homes and businesses, the desktop PC is being pushed to the scrap heap by its smaller, nimbler sibling: the laptop. They've been around since the early 1980s, but portable computers are finally taking over. Last year, for the first time, American consumers bought more of them than desktops. Sixteen of the 20 bestselling PCs on Amazon.com this holiday season were laptops. U.S.

When you're not inclined to give away your product for free, make your customers believe that they're getting something for nothing. That's the thinking behind some of the offerings music fans may see this year as the recording industry scrambles to offset losses from plunging CD sales and find new sources of revenue when many people simply download music for free.

Internet holiday spending climbed 19% during the recent season, the slowest pace on record as consumers pressured by higher prices and rising mortgage defaults cut back on purchases. Online spending in November and December reached $29.2 billion, according to research firm ComScore in Reston, Va. The results trailed its forecast of a 20% gain from a year earlier. Slower Internet sales growth during the first 10 days of November pushed spending below the forecast, ComScore said.