What explains this slowdown in health care spending? How much of it is attributable to the weak economy, and how much is the result of changes in provider and consumer behavior?

John Gerzema says there's an upside to the recent financial crisis the opportunity for positive change. Speaking at TEDxKC, he identifies four major cultural shifts driving new consumer behavior and shows how businesses are evolving to connect with thoughtful spending.

It's hard to change consumer behavior because consumers don't know how much this stuff costs. Do you know?

Past experience suggests that each 100 increase in household wealth leads to a gradual rise in consumer spending until the spending level has increased by about 4. That implies that the 10 trillion wealth gain will raise the annual level of consumer spending by some 400 billion, or roughly 2.5 of GDP.

If we really want to see the kind of wide consumer behavior change that we're all talking about as environmentalists and food people, maybe we just need to ditch the term consumer and get behind the people who are doing stuff.

a Consumer spending on population activities covers only out of pocket expenditures and is based on the average amount per region, as measured by the World Health Organization (WHO) (2004), for health care spending in general.

This development is critically important for consumer companies. Urban household spending in Africa is increasing twice as fast as rural spending, with urban per capita incomes, on average, 80 higher than those of countries as a whole.

Introductory economics used to emphasize the Keynesian multiplier effect recipients of government spending (or of consumer spending stimulated by tax cuts or transfers) respond to the increase in their incomes by spending more, as do the recipients of that spending, and so on. Again, the multiplier is much more relevant under current conditions, because it does not fuel higher inflation and interest rates (and thus crowd out private spending).

The US consumer, whose gluttony helped fuel growth throughout the world for more than a decade, seems finally set to go on a diet. In addition to tighter credit, falling home prices and high unemployment will continue to put a crimp on US consumer spending.

The economy is also set for a boost from surging demand for British goods thanks to the weak pound, which will offset some of the lower consumer spending.

In 2004, total consumer spending in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 0.94 trillion, with the figures being 0.55 trillion for China and 0.35 trillion for India.

A key implication is the Internet s potential to play a significant role in the emergence of China s consumer society a critical structural imperative for a long unbalanced Chinese economy. With connectivity comes a national awareness of spending habits, tastes, and brands essential characteristics of any consumer culture.

In short, the downturn in house prices will not be limited to the US. And, on both sides of the Atlantic, that decline is likely to undermine consumer spending.

In short, the downturn in house prices will not be limited to the US. And, on both sides of the Atlantic, that decline is likely to undermine consumer spending.

Despite their declining incomes, households raised their spending in early 2012 at a rapid pace by cutting their saving rate to just 3.7 . Without further declines in the saving rate from this very low level, consumer spending will not continue to grow as robustly.

A higher level of consumer spending would raise the average Chinese family s standard of living, a primary component of what China s leaders now call the Chinese Dream. Faster growth in consumer spending would also reverse the recent slowdown in GDP growth, providing the extra demand needed to create employment for the millions of Chinese who are leaving agriculture and the millions more who are graduating from the country s universities.

In the United States, the American consumer (who still accounts for 71 of US GDP) remains in the wrenching throes of a Japanese like balance sheet recession. In the 15 quarters since the beginning of 2008, real consumer spending has increased at an anemic 0.4 average annual rate.

Being a retailer, it is a play on the belief that this middle class that's growing will continue to grow, that the boom and the confidence in consumer spending will continue.

Meanwhile, private spending grew 3.9 year on year in 2013, the strongest rate in a decade, and the outlook for 2014 is promising. Improving household balance sheets imply stronger consumer sentiment.

Many countries have relied for growth on US consumer spending and investments in outsourcing to supply those consumers. If America s bubble economy is now tapped out, global growth will slow sharply.

From the first quarter of 2008 through the second quarter of 2009, real consumer spending plunged at a 1.8 average annual rate. In the past, when discretionary spending on items such as motor vehicles, furniture, appliances, and travel was deferred, a surge of pent up demand quickly followed.

However, barring any major economic bumps, the changes will have a positive impact, as capital allocation becomes more efficient. Increased emphasis on household lending should also create a better balance in the economy between capital spending and consumer spending than was possible during the expansion of 2002 2004.

But the macroeconomic weakness in the US now goes beyond the decreased supply of credit. Falling house prices reduce household wealth and therefore consumer spending. Falling employment lowers wage and salary incomes.

Within the first quarter, the monthly increase in real consumer spending accelerated from just 0.1 in January to 0.4 in February and 0.7 in March. That was faster than the 0.3 monthly growth in real personal disposable income during this period, highlighting the importance of wealth as a driver of spending.

It's a process of the production and reproduction of novelty, continually chasing expanding consumer markets, consumer goods, new consumer goods.

The third point is more diagnostic The shockingly anemic pattern of post crisis US consumer demand has resulted from a deep Japan like balance sheet recession. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the 12 year pre crisis US consumer spending binge was built on a precarious foundation of asset and credit bubbles.

Consumption, which accounts for about 70 of total spending, is constrained by high unemployment, weak wage gains, and a steep decline in home values and consumer wealth. The uptick in consumption in the last months of 2011 was financed by a decline in the household saving rate and a large increase in consumer credit.

Higher consumer spending and increased residential investment boosted demand for labor, resulting in a rise in payroll employment of 288,000 in April, up from a monthly average of less than 200,000 earlier in the year. If that continues, it will lead to a faster rate of increase in household incomes and spending.

The 40 decline in the US stock market and the dramatic fall in house prices have reduced American households wealth by more than 10 trillion, which is likely to reduce annual consumer spending by more than 400 billion. And the collapse of housing starts has lowered construction spending by another 200 billion.

the second method would be by way of promoting mobile payment services to overseas merchants through Chinese tourists overseas spending behavior, thereby changing overseas local entities recognition and acceptance of China s mobile payments.

Consumer groups

Consumer fraud

(b) Consumer.

(b) Consumer.

Looking ahead, strong headwinds imply that it will be difficult to achieve better economic performance in the rest of the year. Higher energy prices are reducing real household spending on non energy goods and services weakness in Europe and Asia will hurt America s exports state and local governments are cutting their spending and concerns about higher taxes in 2013 will dampen both business investment and big ticket consumer spending.

Chinese officials hope that higher household incomes will boost consumer spending, as the tightening labor market causes wages to rise and as urbanization shifts workers from low productivity farm work to higher wage employment in the cities.

This deceleration was inevitable as China advanced from extreme poverty and technological backwardness to become a middle income economy powered by external trade and consumer spending. It was also desirable, because rapid growth was hitting environmental limits.

A spike in long term rates would lower the price of JGBs, destroying household wealth and, in turn, reducing consumer spending. The higher interest rates would also apply to corporate bonds and bank loans, weakening business investment.

China s Consumer Communism

But it's going to require innovation that's not only going to need to focus on politics, on geopolitics, but it's also going to need to deal with questions of business management, investor behavior, consumer choice and even software design and engineering.

Automatic behavior skilled behavior is subconscious, controlled by the behavioral side.

As that reality sinks in, economic prospects darken. Foreigners will become less enthusiastic about continued lending to the US, weakening the dollar further, forcing up US interest rates, and threatening to undermine America s stock market and consumer spending.

The consumer is empowered.

Five, the consumer society.

The Irrelevant German Consumer