As jobloss in the US threatens to undermine consumers as the biggest part of the economy, the confidence of consumers made an unexpected sudden drop in November. Consumer spending, which accounts for two-third of the economy, decreased to a three-month already to 66 back in October 2009.

The rising percentage of unemployment is putting the economy at risk of slipping into a vicious decline in consumer spending which eventually will hurt the (supposedly) “emerging” recovery. The economy can no longer rely on consumer spending as the unemployment has become the number 1 worry for consumers.

David Sloan, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc in New York forecasts that the economic recovery will be by increases in manufacturing rather than by consumers. Hence, markets in Asia are rebounding quite nicely now.

During APEC, US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, told reporters at a press briefing with his APEC colleagues that Asia will be leading the world back to recovery. Currently world leaders work toward a rebalancing that will make global growth more reliant on spending by Asian consumers and businesses and less dependent on their American counterparts.

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