Not With a Bang, But With a Wimper

Living in the Southwest there is a time differential from the East Coast. Of course, when you are in Arizona that can make it very confusing. Do we leap forward, fall back or just forget the whole thing?

Thus, I woke to news that had already been viewed, digested and reviewed by the main stream media.

RETAIL SALES SURGE

Finally, the pent up demand that the Keynesians had been shouting about was making its presence felt. As I grabbed my coffee and started to analyze the data, I was certain that electronic sales would be the leader of the pack. After all, with the majority of Americans on the dole and the amount of time people are living in foreclosed homes, without making any payments lengthening, the money available to buy ipads, iphones, iwatches, igames, flat screens and a host of other goodies is building.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was no increase in electronic sales but a large month over month decrease of 1.6%.

So where was the big increase? Of course, automobiles. Apparently the frustration was mounting with the so called pent up demand being a figment of a beaurocrats/TV talking heads imagination. Thus the orders went out produce more cars, expand the dealer inventory and really channel stuff, after all, much like the Chinese GDP, US auto production is counted as US auto consumption.

It is expected of us to believe that the American public does not have enough pent up demand to buy aluminum foil, handiwipes and toilet paper from a Family Dollar resulting in the closing of 370 stores. On the other hand there is enough so called purchasing power to add another car to everyone’s overloaded garage. The combination of automobile giveaways and production vs. consumption accounting was enough to make

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FINANCE JOBS AND ECONOMY

RETAIL SALES SURGE

Was I really surprised?

A small suggestion to the Levine family, of Family Dollar fame, count inventory is being sold and due daily giveaways and maybe you will be able to keep all those people you are going to let go, however, after awhile you will probably need a government bailout. Regardless, you will be able to announce from North Carolina that Family Dollar

RETAIL SALES SURGE

At least enough to get your share price higher and give the mainstream media another fictitious headline.