

Why Do Financial Crises Happen in the Fall? - andrewpbrett
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/why-do-financial-crises-happen-in-the-fall/?src=tptw

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byoung2
It's likely a combination of factors. Here's my theory:

Real estate: people tend to time their home purchases and apartment leases to
the school year. For families, it's hard to relocate in the middle of the
school year, for new college grads, your housing plans were determined by
school year and this habit carries over for several years.

Business: for businesses whose fiscal years follow the calendar year, money
gets tight right around fall because planning and budgeting happens more or
less quarterly. I worked for the Washington Post (Kaplan), and like clockwork
every year for 5 years, there were budget and hiring freezes every Sept 1st.

Commerce: combine real estate and business from above and you will get a
picture of what people have to spend for the most important season in retail -
Christmas.

