Topic: Is it just me or people are out of liquidity ( money ) ? (Read 431 times)

All this has a normal and simple explanation, and that is that inflation is wreaking havoc, in the case of particular economies of nations, which were quite stable, let's say the case of Colombia that never reflected high inflation rates, now they currently manage inflation above 8% and this is something alarming, alarming because they increased wages and by raising wages they generated more inflation, so it could be said that for the first quarter of a country that depends almost on its own production is in trouble, people They don't have enough money and the cost of everything increased, this suffocates, but if we see the core of this, it comes from the fact that the USA also has inflation and this inflation is disguised, why? because the US government lives off the debt it maintains with other countries, so due to its hegemony, it is not noticeable, but there will come a time when it will not take it anymore and the economy will have an impressive decline, the war that currently exists can speed up.

In my country the same thing happened, the mall was quiet, automatic sales dropped because of the pandemic that happened for almost 2 years, people only bought basic needs and it was only for daily needs, of course not everyone was affected or ran out of money during the pandemic because many people actually increased their wealth such as the production of foodstuffs, instant noodles and so on.

Where I reside people still patronize the major malls as if every thing is normal. The last time I visited a mall towards the middle of last week. The wall was full and people bought things not just basic stuffs but things that seem a bit extravagant. It depends on your area or when you visited the mall in your location. But I think it's a general problem

It may just be you friend, no matter how harsh economic situations become, know that it is in favour of some people who engineered the situation or have already set themselves at positions of opportunity. In my country, bars and clubs are still filled up on weekends, people are still erecting/buying structures and cars etc which is a clear indication that there is still liquidity to a large extent. You have to decide where you want to belong, with the people who believe that everyone is out of liquidity because of their personal situation, or those who still believe that there is liquidity and are working to get themselves to it, you have to choose, what you believe matters.

I think that fiat money has been losing a lot of value, not only the money of the local economies of some countries that suffer from inflation, if we go to an economy that has stood out for many years, which could be talking about a global hegemony, it is the USD, which cannot hide the high levels that it has for now, this in some way affects all countries, eventually we have the case of a country where its economy had remained stable, let's say the case of Colombia, until recently they are reporting levels of inflation higher than 5%, and this is alarming, for February 2022 I think they have a value above 8%, previously the government in the face of these events raised the salary and instead of improving it made everything much more expensive, that is something normal, now everyone complains about the high cost of living, if this happens in countries of this style, what is left for others where many times they do not report and try to make up their net worth of liabilities?

It's not that you don't have money, you can have the same money, the only thing is that money can no longer buy the same things that were bought 3 or 4 years ago.

Yes, basic stuff is all most people can afford these days. Each new week you go to the supermarket the price of food increases considerably. The official inflation doesn't correspond to the real inflation on practice, that is much higher and aggressive.

When purchasing power decreases we have a dangerous phenomenon, as people become unhappy and consequently more prone to wars and conflicts in general.

Poverty and misery are essential ingredients in the war recipe.

This question is purely subjective on the fact that it depends on one's country.

Personally here in my country, money is very liquid. Businesses are thriving and prices (inflation) is growing from time-to-time. Gasoline prices are all spiked up and prices of general goods have been steadily increasing in the past few months. Though this may be the case, the government has implemented various financial projects to at least address this issue.

OP, if you are living in a country where there are financial challenges due to various concerns/reasons, then I would understand your scenario as majority of the funds are being allotted somewhere else.

One of the things i'm concerned about is peoples buying things they don't really need, they say this world is unfair but in fact they are the ones who are not able to manage their money and their desires.  the difficulties of money that occur are not due to external faults, they are more internal faults, self-awareness is a good thing to manage finances during a pandemic.

It's just you. There will always be people with money, there will always be periods of time of boom and bust. Covid caused a lot of problems for the whole world in the last two years and strong shocks to the system will naturally cause people to be more conservative in your spending - if you think the future will be tough then you will be careful with your money. After a couple years of hell for most countries, people are out and spending again from what I see, there are some who lost their jobs in the crisis who may be without the financial reserves but others were working all the way through it and want to start using those accrued savings now.

The pandemic has made the rich richer, after all if we see the growth of Amazon and other similar businesses we can see that it grew a lot during the pandemic and the same is true for many other businesses.

However like always it is the average person the one that needs to pay the consequences, inflation is high all over the world and it is affecting food prices everywhere, this means that now a greater portion of our income has to be dedicated to our basic needs, this could create a downward spiral of the economy as now people will reduce the money they spend in other things, which could force some governments to print more money, creating a vicious circle in the process.

Yes, each country is different but some countries are rich and some countries are poor but the income and expenditures will also depend on the people. Some people earns less while some earns big but some poor people can spend more compare to richer people. This why they are still poor.

This wrong in others perspective but they cant do anything because those people themselves do not want to embrace a change. It is not their fault if their economy is in difficult situation but it can be the fault of their government. If their government is good, this wont end up this way where they need to control their selves to spend for the things that they always wanted.

Tell me - what, it was different before? For example, I have a completely confident opinion that all these processes are repeated in waves, the only difference is the height and length of these waves. And there are explanations for this too - there are events that have a different level of influence on the economy, the population of entire regions, etc. Therefore, I can say for sure - it will soon get better, and then it will be bad again ... And this will be repeated constantly. That's the way the world works...

what country do you live in, each country has different income/expenditures?  in my country, people's purchasing power is still high, even though it's still a pandemic.  if your economy is really difficult during this pandemic then you have to save money and buy only what you need.

Many people now realized to invest there money and probably that why op is asking of no liquidity. So investment is usually now parked in crypto asset. In the past I believe there is high liquidity in the countries of the world but now they look to invest in bitcoin and I believe that the safe place to invest is bitcoin because you always retain the unit of coins you have no matter the rate of dropping or bear, it will still rise.

Quite the opposite from what I'm seeing?

Most people currently, at least the ones who have any sort of professional, corporate job have a ton of cash to play with.

This is why the stock market are so inflated right now. People simply don't know what is a good place to park their funds with good returns - and they are chasing after risky assets as a result.

That's true.

I've seen people who have been wealthy have added more assets during the pandemic and they're even buying more properties and brand new cars.

No question to their success and it's really the thing in the world that the rich who are established are being more established and wealthier.

Governments printed a lot of money during the pandemic in order to try to avoid an even stronger economic recession, but now we are feeling the effects of those measures, inflation is very high all over the world and this affects especially the middle class and those that are poor.

This is because inflation is affecting some of the most basic necessities, like food and transportation, and there is only so much you can do to reduce your expenses when it is something so critical, so this is increasing the pressure on those two groups, and if they spend less and have less to spend this affects the economy in general, creating a downward spiral from which it is difficult to escape.

That has been the norm, the rich are always buying new things and making lots of money. It’s just like when it comes to investment, you can’t compare someone who is rich with someone who is poor, that’s why you would see some people saying sometimes that the rich are the ones who mostly benefits from this bitcoin investment, and of course that is true: they are the ones who have enough to invest in the market and since they have enough money to invest, they would always be making lots of profit than those who don’t have as much to invest, because in the market how much you invest is what determines how much you get.

Uuhm, it’s quite normal I think. There are times that things would be like that, you’d  go and you wouldn’t see much people buying in the market, like it wouldn’t be all that too much of population. And I don’t know how serious the COVID-19 was in your country, is it possible that such thing might have made a lot of people to avoid going to places that are likely to be crowded?

I wouldn’t say it’s because people don’t have money, it’s not all about money, because in my location you’d  hear people complain that things are now costly, but you would go to the market and still see so many people there.

I don't see any drastic change, people are doing what they are doing but the real thing is rich get richer and poor got poorer, people are making investments on real estate, gold, buying cars I mean expensive cars, etc probably the number of people doing this was low.

The current economic status of a particular country cannot be use to judge on the world economy system, some countries are to be blamed, what strategic and appropriate plan does the leaders have for the citizens, how effective were they able to manage the embedded resources, how is corruption and theft been handled by the government. The fact remains that individuals or government will bear the consequence for their negligence toward national building. And as regards your country economy system, don't rely on it and start working on alternative to survival even in harsh economic situations as you will be responsible for your failure in live and not your country, you're not progressing in life doesn't mean other aren't too.

People lacked liquidity for decades now, if you haven't realized it then you haven't realized it. Cash is not the only form of liquidity, the cash balance in your bank account is still considered liquidity as well. Most people in the world can't make savings each month, either they end up with a good amount of money by doing something risky and get it right, or they just earn salary and barely can survive and can't save some aside each month.

So, people have been in trouble for a long time, if you average the number of people who make more than 10k+ dollars a year, that is close to zero, I am serious, the number of people who make over 10k and under 10k per year is insane when compared.

This used to be the case when remote jobs where hidden from the masses but after the outbreak of the pandemic many switched to working online either in the cloud or somehow over the internet of connected network and I will say malls are still crowded and it's mostly this remote workers who flood there because their salary still fits into the inflation

It's right. This pandemic makes people wiser in managing their money because they must keep alive and survive until the pandemic is over. Perhaps, they are not run out of money if they work and get paid from their office before. Those who do not have a monthly fixed income suffer and need to do many things to make money. But no matter what our conditions are, we need to keep trying to make money.

Each country differs in economic situation. I think your country isn't in good shape this time because, in our country, even small businesses are now existing and people could also sustain not just their necessities but also their wants. I guess one factor that affects your country's economy is the pandemic situation that we have right now.

I think, it's because of the economic situation. Many people lost their job because of pandemic and if they gain from other extra income they should keep it and just buy the primary needs especially now that goods in the market keep on increasing the price. Because of difficulties, people now become wiser/smarter and spend only on important things.

I notice the same thing in my country but I think it's mainly in our lower-income area. Prices have been climbing so people don't have as much disposable income as before. Add to that the effect of the pandemic with companies cutting hours (even days) and people got even less to spend.

Try to talk to real people next, you would think otherwise. Also, people didn't lack liquidity, there's just more people that prefer digital payment rather than straight up cold hard cash so there's the illusion that makes you think that people are out of liquid money. They're not out of it, it's just digitized and electronic and it's a disaster for a country if that were to ever happen.

Again another topic on "people out of money". The large movements in the markets are clearly marking a stop (maybe even a end) to decades of cheap a free money for all. This clearly means that anything priced in fiat will fall as there is simply less fiat. Not as much "people" being out of money, but rather a whole system that is actually pulling back from an stimulus overdose.

I think it depends on which country you currently belong. Do you live in well-developed, developing, or third world country? Because right now, businesses here in our country seems to bounce back already and the operations are slowly becoming closely similar to that rate prior the pandemic. But disregarding the economic status, one major factor that plays a role in this would be the social status of a person residing in that specific country. Since not everyone is well-off and privileged, some people can only buy what they need or what their money can buy to sustain their necessities in that moment.

If a person is living paycheck to paycheck and is struggling to even put food on their table, they would probably just pick and buy those things that they just need. They won't bother to spend a dime to luxurious things to only suffer and struggle more later on. But to those privileged ones, they could still manage to buy both the things they need and want because they have a spare. It would just up to them if they would indulge in buying unnecessary stuff with their money. Some still do that, while some opt not to and just prioritize their list of goals. So, perspective and goals are also one of those factors that dictate them to either go for it or hold back.

This is something that everyone has been waiting for for sure because from an economic point of view at the time of the initial pandemic it looked bad and many lost their jobs too,
little by little the condition is starting to recover and with the return to normal our malls and markets also continue to comply with the health protocols implemented by the government

It has left us a negative impact and the majority of us have been affected badly by the pandemic. Through our jobs, businesses and other activities that used to be helping us in our day to day living have been stopped for a while.

But right now, it seems that the economies for most countries have started to recover for a while now. And when economies are recovering, this means that money is flowing again and everyone is starting to get their pockets filled again with their labor and businesses.

my country has started to rise from adversity due to the pandemic, many jobs have re-emerged. The economy and people's purchasing power have started to improve, even malls and markets look crowded

the good thing that happened in 2022 is that in my country news about covid is no longer of interest and there are few news sites that report it and that makes people believe this pandemic is over

Nope, money is flowing just fine at least here.
Restaurants have people in them.
Stores are filled with shoppers.
Airports have people in them.
As stated above, online retailers are having great sales too.
Since I-Bonds are now @ ~ 7% we are actually seeing people save / invest some money too.
Housing market is still hot.
And so on.

-Dave

I don't know what is going on Romania. But if I talk about middle-income countries like Vietnam, India, I've visited there....

They are suffering from a very serious problem due to the pandemic situation. A large part of people have lost their jobs. The price of the commodity is so high that all but a few rich people are able to afford them end the rest are struggling to make ends meet. No one has money. Another problem is that producers are failing to get the right price for their products because the brokerage class is taking advantage of their ignorance.

The job has become a golden deer. Even after getting adequate education, the youth are not getting jobs. The frustration of unemployment surrounds them.

Rich people are getting richer day by day and poor marginalized people are getting poorer day by day.

The same thing in my country, there is a great economic recession, high prices and poor financial liquidity for most people, because of the epidemic, many economic problems have appeared in many countries that have led to high prices, poor liquidity and faltering of the business sector. Governments have failed to find good solutions to this crisis and a mistake The economic policies of most countries lead to more economic stagnation and deterioration. I don't know how long this bad situation can continue, but it is really annoying.

I guess the pandemic affected everyone all over the world, except for those people who are really rich. Most of us are struggling, so people will choose not to spend on things that are not necessary as we don't know how far this struggle of ours will last.

Agree on this, I was forced to use debit cards and credit to transact online for buying all my necessities. Physical right now in my country is still not fully open because of many restriction imposed by the government. People here like me just buy goods on online merchant website since most them are selling all the goods from food, clothes, gadgets and anything that we used in our daily lives so even if malls are now open, People still choose to shop online due to a threat of Covid-19 and also for convenience for not going outside and risk health of the family.

It is not that people are out of cash, but simply that people are paying with debt now. They opt to use Credit cards or Debit cards and most of them stopped using Cash. The whole Covid epidemic has changed people's perspective on handling something that was touched by many people before them, so cash is one of them. (Even the cards are being tapped now for small amounts.... to prevent physical contact with surfaces that were used by other people)

I also think a lot of people has lost their jobs as a result of all these lockdowns for Covid, so there are a lot less consumers spending money now. 

The economic activities in a country don’t just drop like that, and there must have been something that have triggered it to happen. Maybe there is something that the OP is not aware of or maybe he just didn’t mention it’ cause he thought that wouldn’t be the reason.

It’s quite possible that the economy can drop and the country’s currency can lose value due to inflation. But, that doesn’t mean that if you go to the marketplace that there wouldn’t be much people, and the product that people are buying would drop in quantity. There will still be people in the market, and there would be as much activities as it used to be. Unless it is a country that is all of a sudden filled with poverty.

Most of the people with below average income are hit by the inflation,so they are trying to cut their spending.
That doesn't necessarily mean that they are "out of liquidity".
Many middle class people in my country were hoarding goods,because of the expectations of higher inflation.
The poor people with lower income cannot afford the luxury of buying more goods and hoarding them,that's why they buy less goods and focus on the most basic stuff.
Having a stagnant economy with bad expectations about the future can force many people to increase their savings,in order to keep more money "for a rainy day".
Perhaps this is what you mean,by saying that the people are out of liquidity.

Are you really sure about what you are saying? This is not the issue in my country, the only time that things seemed like that and you would go to the mall and wouldn’t really see any much people was during the pandemic and lockdown around 2020. In those times you would go to the mall or anywhere in the market and you wouldn’t see much people around, and also people were complaining about lack of money and food. But now there has been a change, and there is no lockdown anymore, so if you go to the mall or anywhere at all, even the cinemas, you will see a lot of people.

So, I don’t really get why it’s like that in your country, when there is no lock down or anything at all. Unless there’s a situation going on?

For what I can tell where I live there was a small decrease in the economic activity but nothing too serious, after all we need to remember that a lot of people were not prepared for the pandemic and they needed to change their priorities when it comes to money, and in many cases money is still tight even at the moment.

Still I think that things have improved since the worst of the pandemic seems to have passed already, however different regions will be affected differently depending on how  much the businesses on the area were affected and if people lost their jobs or not, so maybe what you are seeing is not really a reflection of what is happening in your country and it is happening only at the region where you live.

Depends on country, their situation, job status, and economic budget of the nation.

Usually liquidity is product of all the above things. If the nation is running properly, peeps have jobs and businesses are flourish then economic flow is alway healthy. This means everyone keeps getting money and they keep it spending. The circle goes on. Savings are created, assets are made and interests are flown here and there. Everything makes it greener and the liquidity stays proper.

If in your country things are not ok, then its not peeps, its the poor management that might be affecting it. Could be seeding of inflation. Idk, you have spared too tiny info to understand the exact situation there.

Ukraine, Kiev. Purchasing ACTIVITY, after 2021 fell. Purchasing power also fell, but it cannot be said that globally. First of all, service companies and businesses have suffered due to lockdowns and restrictions. This is tourism, entertainment, etc. But they did not create a significant part of the market in the labor market or income generation. The situation is similar in other cities and regions.

I believe that we are talking about basically the same thing if that is the case. Because of covid people lost their jobs and the ones that didn't lose their value versus inflation so it ended up being making majority of the world poorer. That is why I believe that we should not really be shocked that people are out of money these days.

Obviously not everyone, like if you got a mall and there are a thousand people in it then most people will think that everyone is ok and that place will look crowded but nations are populated in tens of millions which means that you can't make a calculation based on just a thousand people. Hence, why I believe that we should not really make calculations based on that and try to guess how the economy looks in the general way.

I was right ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc1yikYbc_0

On a personal level, nothing has changed much. Prices are increasing but I can still manage to support my needs and even some wants. For now, I am not in any way tightening my belt. But, in general, a lot of people are actually having a very hard time due to the economic impact of the pandemic. A lot of people are losing jobs, losing other sources of income, losing businesses, and so on.

These times are particularly harder not only because jobs are scarce but also because prices of goods and services are increasing no end while movements are greatly limited.

Why would people buy food online ? isn't food more expensive if you include delivery cost ?

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/delivery-app-prices-higher-fees-2021-pandemic

Avg Joe will never buy food online ... he buys the ingredients and cooks home , if he buys online must be a special occasion ...

That is very right. With the pandemic, a lot of people are shopping online whether food or basic necessities.
The e-commerce industry definitely gained so much during this period because it is like our new normal.
As most people prefer to stay at home these days, you won't really find many people just roaming around for nothing like before.
Also, as much as possible, people are learning their lessons this pandemic. Many are spending their money only to necessary supplies.

Yeah, I was certainly surprised to see that.  I wasn't sure which way bitcoin was going to move, but the fact that it was upwards a few thousand dollars means there's likely still a lot of money to burn on risky investments--which means there's still a lot of money floating around out there.

I'd also say that the fact that OP doesn't see a lot of people at malls and shopping centers near where he lives may be deceptive.  People could be buying a lot of stuff online, and obviously that wouldn't be observed by anyone other than the people who bought said stuff.  I'm also really not sure what "liquidity drying up" means in the context of the general economy.  That phrase has meaning in trading markets, of course, but the general public not having enough cash available to them should never be a problem--especially since most transactions are done with smartphones or debit/credit cards. 

You aren't reading the replies above you.

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Anyway, for OP, people are just spending wise since inflation is almost everywhere and I think it happens to every country. Plus the pandemic is one of the reasons too that's why people have to spent less on luxurious stuff and since you said that there's a limit to every product they buy then, I think your government already knew that there might be people who wants to hoard buying the basic stuff that already happened last year ever since the COVID-19 started.

You didn't say where do you live because I think there is a different situation in each country but if you want to speak generally I can see during the recent years due to the economic crisis all over the world many people lost their jobs and many businesses were closed also the financial markets were surfing some emotional reactions buy newcomer traders and we saw many sharp price movements also this could make some people rich but in the other hand there are more people suffering economic problems.

everyone must have felt liquidity to the point of ZERO but all returned to each other how is our effort not to always be financially empty, as long as COVID hits my country the same as you the economy is running slowly because there are barriers that don't go away, but for the sake of smoothness live, all efforts continue to be made to stay alive and have money

Well that is the problem ...if high inflation why people are not spending or taking money out of banks ...

In a healthy economy we should see money invested in private constructions ( commercial ,residential,industrial space etc ) , land,new start ups etc etc .... now here ads all over : for rent / for sale , i know a small company that repaired watches etc  that survived the 90's / 00's  now they put ad for sale on their commercial space.... so somebody is lying about economy ...

On the news i read all day : economy booming / new jobs created and so on ...but when you see it for yourself with your own eyes it's different


People are walking in New York one if the most populated places on Earth and it feels like empty ,if you look at their shops in video zero customers ...how they are surviving i don't understand ( paying salaries / rent / utilities etc )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKCmZdC6Giw

I think in most region inflation is on the high level. Most countries right now are facing tough economic challenge  which is affecting  many businesses,  some companies  find it difficult to meet up the payment of salaries of workers. Like in my country the government is owing total debt of 91000.00 USD million,  the price of everything is high, business is dull because people are managing the money they have.

Yes and it's because of the economy of the country, right now things are hard (as we say in my country). Even those that do have the money and displays it at every opportunity they see has reduced drastically. Things are getting very costly so people have resulted to just securing their basic needs before any secondary wants. One of the ways you can identify there's money flowing in my country is the way election campaign are been carried out.

The last was the worst if you're judging from how other campaigns has been lively in the past. The country is in debt and the government of the day have no clue on how to revive the country's economy yet they won't set down for people with the right education and exposure to take over.

Job scarcity is increasing daily and every year new set of graduates without any specific skills but just want they were taught is been flooded into the system. Best you save what you have because if you spend all there isn't an assurance of you retaining your job or even getting paid.

Not really in my country. Here inflation in constantly rising and people are going crazy with their spending. It seems a bit like people are afraid to miss out a way to save their money. In my city there are so many new constructions sites. In every street you can see a shop being renovated, a new house being build or just some outdoor works. The construction companies are being booked out for the whole year already and give only indicative prices for next year now, with prices to go up 35% more this year. It's crazy, higher inflation leads to higher demand, which keeps rising the prices even higher. I wish liquidity would try out a bit to keep prices in check.

Yes, it is only you or only on your country because on our country there are still people that shops on mall or on any establishments that I see but of course the number is low compared to numbers that I saw on the past but this is because of the covid pandemic where people are restricted to go out if they do not have a vaccination card.

People are now on a budget because they also lost their jobs, that is also because of the covid, that is why they are now budgeting and only buys basic items that are important. Let us hope that all of this are only temporary and we can soon go back on our previous lives where we can be more happier because we have jobs and we can roam outside freely.

People seem to be getting squeezed by everything and it ripples throughout the economy. Fuel prices go up, which results in products and services going on (people need fuel for transport), while also causing the consumer to have less money to spend. So stuff in shops is going up in price and people cut back even further on luxuries. Lots of countries are struggling with an energy crisis, so heating their home or using air conditioning gets a lot more expensive. It seems like Covid caused all sorts of supply chain disruption with lockdowns on and off for two years, hopefully we're over the worst of it now so things can start balancing out. There are lots of other contributory factors but many people are definitely struggling when their salaries are not moving up to match.

Well, people in your area are just being wise. If there's no need to buy for some things that they want, they won't buy it. They'll just buy the necessities and needs.
There's no sense of going outside to the malls if they don't have any important matter to do and to buy. This pandemic has taught me to be wiser and just buy more food than those things and stuff that I really like to have.

Inflation is on the rise, money printing goes brrrrr as usual, sooner or later the salaries will have to rise to keep up.
Indeed, now some people may have less money to invest. Some others may be even struggling to buy the basics.
This is more visible in the poorer countries, obviously. Also in the countries with better long term thinking the problem is not so big.

I want to tell that even in Romania the problems may get way bigger (much higher prices and still the old incomes) in the near future. You said that in other countries there may be delay.. we are far from the "top of the wave" yet. And luckily the winter was not too harsh.

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Interestingly all the selling businesses get richer, most rich people got richer, only the poorer one feel this. But this is how inflation works. This gap between the rise of prices and rise of wages is where people are stolen from. And yes, those who have put away fiat "for hard times" see its value dimming.

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After the Russian mess clears out (but it may take years) and the gas pipes either start getting filled, either US and Arabia fill the gap, the price rise will stop. In some cases it may be even reverted to lower/more bearable prices. But again, it may take years.

If in your country face Omicron attack, then people should still limit their time in a public area and better stay at home because the spreads are still dangerous. But if your country does not face Omicron, the people activity slowly becomes normal and they can go out to public area but still use social distancing. I do not know if people are out of their money because that depends on managing our money. But in a developing country, yes, they are out of money plus they are weak from the Covid-19 attack.

Nope, not really? There have been complaints about the gradual price increase of some products here and there, but not to the point that people will not buy them. It's like complaining for 5 seconds before accepting that things would still happen nonetheless, so they just go with it. I haven't even experienced a point where groceries and the like limited the amount that they'd sell, at least in the past year (start of Covid it happened afaik). Might just be limited in your place?

It depends on your country actually as other contributors have said and not only that, it may also depend on you. Maybe you have not observed very well and you are thinking that is the situation or it may be you have run out of liquidity and thinking others have too. But maybe it is just what you noticed at a particular moment that you observed and thinking that is what is happening. If it is just for few hours or some days may not mean your country has gone bankrupt. Or is there war in your country ?

Given that things are very difficult and standard of living is falling in our eyes in almost all countries but I'm yet to see what will cause buying and selling to stop if not war.

It is a subjective feeling that does not serve to draw any conclusions statistically. I for one have not noticed much. Yes, people are complaining about price increases, but not to the point of running out of liquidity.

Although the OP could be smelling the beginning of what is coming: when rate hikes are announced, and even some banks have already raised them, like the BoE, and stock markets go down, the rest of the economy suffers: banks start to lend less, and people start to have less liquidity, as their assets are worth less and banks also lend less to them.

Not to the point of being out of liquidity but we may be at the beginning of a downward trend.

The likes of Amazon, Apple, and Sea Limited(Shopee, Lazada competitor; pretty much Asia's eBay+Amazon) had record breaking revenues in their 2021 Q4 reports. I'm pretty sure certain select cities/countries are definitely having their challenges, but I don't think it's the case when talking global-wise.

if you have money invest it in productive assets ... land,miniral mines,aquaculture equipment,farm animals,websites,apps,cryptos,education,tools etc .... things that you understand and like

On basic products like vegetable oil / flour / sugar etc they set a limit that you can buy ( ration ) ...and we are one of Europe's biggest agro exporters,can't understand why people are not spending ... we are not that scared of Russia - Ukraine tensions . we are NATO country ,if Putin invades Romania we are all dead no matter what country you are ,nukes etc ...

  It's very bitter bro, liquidity in everyday life you mean? the supply of cash which may be less and according to every demand/economic activity whether buying and selling anything in my area, makes the money I hold has no value/slightly reduced from the exchange power. Did you just feel when the pandemic came or since when?

 My country is disappearing so quickly. But in the form of investment it may look profitable. Do you like investing or do you prefer to use money/assets for shopping?

You're in a country near where the tension of war is, I guess people are warned and perhaps not buying unnecessary things today but the basic needs. Maybe the people are just cautious and save money for now. You are near the pipelines right? Is gas a problem in your country?

The crypto market isn't out of liquidity though, the price went up overnight from $37K to $41K. Volume and the spike are certainly not a confirmation of what you are saying.

Romania is my country ...i suspect delay in yours ,energy prices reduced a lot money in people pockets this year.

What country are you in?

In my area it’s business as usual. Gas stations are just as busy with record high price of gasoline. Malls and restaurants also busy.

The stock market however? I frequent wallstreetbets and it looks like the last 6 months cleaned out many traders. The activity there is slower than usual. Pointing to retail market getting wiped out with all these bad earnings .

Is it just me or people are out of liquidity ( money ) ?

From what i see : market , malls etc no people,or if they buy something...they buy basic stuff... in my area ...slow biz ...same in your country ?