This post is a guest contribution by Rebecca Wilder*, author of the of the News N Economics blog.

There is some evidence out there that consumer spending has dropped so low, that with confidence anew (see national Consumer Confidence and Sentiment surveys), consumers are taking baby steps back into the spending picture. According to Gallup, consumers spent and average $66/day on 9/13/09, up from $59/day at the end of August.

The chart illustrates the 14-day moving average of daily expenditures on everything except housing, bills, and car purchase, as surveyed by Gallup. I guess that they view this to be discretionary spending, although autos could be viewed as such. There are a couple of things to note

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America's Car-Mart Inc. (CRMT) saw revenues leap 10.7% in the first quarter as same store sales also jumped 8.4%. The company has surprised on estimates the last 4 quarters by an average of 17.82%. CRMT has attractive value characteristics, with a forward P/E of 12.27.

Company Description

America's Car-Mart is an automotive retailer that focuses on the used car market through its "Buy Here/Pay Here" program. It operates 96 dealerships in 8 states located primarily in small cities throughout the South-Central United States.

America's Car-Mart Beat Big in the Fiscal First Quarter

While many in the auto industry are struggling in this recession, America's Car-Mart continues to see growth.

On Sep 1, the company reported first quarter results that saw revenues jump 10.7% to $83.8 million from $75.7 million in the year ago period. Same store sales rose 8.5% and sales at four new locations added to

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German exports slumped 23.1% year on year in February, indicating that the sharp decline in global demand is having a very significant effect on German industry. Total goods imports declined 16.4% over the same period,. February's collapse in exports is almost identical to the January's one, when exports dropped 23.2% on a year-to-year basis, the sharpest decline since records began in 1950. Total goods exports, adjusted for workday and seasonal factors, fell 0.7% from January, while imports decreased 4.2% over the same period.br /br /br /pa href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/Sdxvv9GcNLI/AAAAAAAANdY/drP1mXDFYO8/s1600-h/german+exports+1.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322251729291195570" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/Sdxvv9GcNLI/AAAAAAAANdY/drP1mXDFYO8/s400/german+exports+1.png" border="0" //a The weakness in demand for German goods was general and widespread. Exports to other European Union countries fell 24.4% year-to-year, while imports from those countries dropped 14.8%. German exports to other euro-zone nations declined 22.5% from a year earlier, while imports from the region ...

Thirty Billion Dollars is a huge amount of money, but it translates into less than $100 per US person— a small price that we should all be willing to pay to give the Automobile Industry time to restructure itself and to save a few million jobs.

Give them the green, but have them pay it back in a more economy and environment friendly manner. Here’s the deal:

Every new American-made car buyer would receive a debit card along with his ownership papers. The card could be used for anything other than the car purchase itself. Card amounts would vary from $6,000 for “smart” cars, through $3,000 for fuel-efficient sub-compacts, $1,000 for other borderline greenies.

The debit cards would lose 20% of their value per month if not negotiated. All debit cards would function as free passes for all highway tolls so long as they are used with the proper automobiles.

The 60’s gas-guzzler tax …

Economy and the Bailout Plan: Down, but Not Out!

Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down 777 points! Needless to say that’s going to get your attention when you flip on your local news and the anchors are attributing it to a House funding bill, vital in avoiding a financial meltdown, that failed.

Especially when you had no inclination there was a financial crisis to begin with.

Case in point: last night I met up with a college roommate who was back in the States from work he does in Italy, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine. We had dinner with his parents and some of his other friends. I didn’t get to talk about the economy with my old roommate, but his dad (knowing I follow the markets on a daily basis) asked me, “What the heck is going on?”

I kind of laughed at first because it seems

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As my wife and I have started to research for our next car purchase, I was introduced to the Rule of 19 by the local car salesman… I asked “Rule of 19?” I am only aware of the Rule of 72.  The car salesman provided the a quick definition being a general rule of thumb of how much your monthly car payment would be for the total amount financed.  The car salesman quickly calculated that for every $1,000 that I financed, I would pay $19 per month. Aware of the car buying process and following the advice of many experts, I wanted to negotiate one thing at a time: #1. Total Car purchase price, #2. Financing (lease vs buy, interest rate), and #3. Trade-in value. Intrigued on what assumptions this rule of 19 depends on, I decided to re-create the math.  Basically, the Rule of 19 is ...

When you finally payoff that loan it is a huge accomplishment, don’t change your budget and continue to make the payments to yourself.

We purchased our first car back in October 2003 with a 5 year (60 month) loan at 0% APR. This was a great deal and looking forward to paying the loan off in the next few months. We also decided to enter into a 2-year lease for our second car due to our work commutes. Just recently, we made our final lease payment and decided to turn the car in, going from a 2-car to a single car household.

Since we no longer need a second car, we have decided to continue to save our monthly payments into a new account to be used as a down payment for the next car …