Inclusion criteria included self-reporting of spending >50% of medical practice time in direct patient contact in a primary care setting, >30 years of age, and fluency in the English language.
Consumers, spooked by reports of declining spending, are deciding not to spend.
The most recent government reports of consumer spending and factory orders show that both have been falling.
Depression is also on the rise, not helped by the lack of privacy, with reports of many spending their days huddled under blankets.
That's the palpable backlash against perceived corporate excess, which has been driven by reports of lavish spending by companies that had received federal bailout money.
This week alone, American companies reported as many as 65,000 job cuts, and public anger is rising over reports of profligate spending by banks and investment firms that are receiving help from the $700 billion bailout fund.
Whipped for more than a week by reports of exorbitant spending to redecorate the presidential residence, President Vicente Fox accepted the resignation today of a longtime friend who had been appointed to manage official expenditures.
The OFT launched its investigation in April this year after a spate of reports of children spending three or four-figure sums on virtual items without their parents' knowledge or permission.
On Tuesday, spurred by a scandal in the wealthy Roslyn school district, State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi said his office would conduct in-depth audits of three other Nassau County school districts and one in Suffolk County where reports of improper spending have surfaced.
In particular, two Pruitt-linked political action committees that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from energy companies announced last week that they would shut down amid reports of questionable spending. .
