<i>Analysis:</i> How Healthy Is The Economy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - For Americans, the economy is still a puzzle. Business is getting better but the jobless rate is still high.
So what do consumers do? National Retail expert Lori Wachs of Cross Ledge Investments says there are many bargains out there but the price of cotton has doubled. So check carefully when you're buying clothing like jeans:
"If you have to look at things like denim or a lot of children's wear companies use a lot of cotton for their products, they're going to see an increase in their cost of goods of 30 percent. They're now saying that they're going to try to pass that along to that now fragile consumer so I think that they're really going to have their margins get squeezed over the course of the back half of next year."
Financial advisers like Patti Brennan of Key Financial see that the time is coming for politicians to really deal with the deficit:
"It's either we're going to stagnate, we're going to inflate, or we're going to grow our way out of this. And I think that until our politicians get serious about attacking spending in a meaningful way not the earmarks that's $16 billion when you total it all up. On a one and a half trillion dollar issue it's not going to help. What they really have to do is go after the entitlements."
Listen to extended interview:
Reported By Special Contributor Larry Kane, KYW Newsradio.
