Johnson Redbook sales show healthy economy as recently as last week.

Vanity | anotherdamnedvanity | Dangus

[dangus]

You'd think this would be a very good sign we're not about to plunge into recession.

Johnson Redbook publishes same-store sales figures each week. Last week (ending March 7), reported sales were up over 6% from last year. That's the highest year-over-year sales gains since the Christmas rush, and stronger than just about any time during the entire Obama presidency. And that's on top of huge gains in housing construction last month.

Now, the Redbook index has its limitations. It's only a survey, so it's bound to have its statistical noise. And it measure same-stores sales which have overestimate sales growth since the start of the retail apocalypse. And last year's sales, the basis of the comparison, were weaker supposedly because of the lingering effects of the government shut-down. And the month-over-month figures are down slightly (0.1 percent).

But what this means is that people have not responded to stock-market-fueled uncertainty by stopping sales.

What ELSE we know of the economic picture is that the price of oil has collapsed... probably enough to knock the consumer price index by more than 1%, greatly boosting purchasing power, and sending real wages soaring.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Peel the onion and you find the sales of hand sanitizer, spray sanitizers, toilet paper, bottled water, rice, pasta, canned tuna, and face masks are all that’s keeping the economy going now.

[gdc61]

HA!