Posted on 01/14/2010 1:23:52 PM PST by tcrlaf
WASHINGTON – Retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, leaving 2009 with the biggest yearly drop on record and highlighting the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades.
In another disappointing economic report, the number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week as jobs remain scarce.
Still, many economists, puzzled by the retail sales decline that follows reports from retailers of brighter holidays, cautioned that the December figures don't necessarily signal a big consumer pullback and could be a blip.
SNIP----
Meanwhile, the number of people continuing to claim benefits dropped sharply to 4.6 million from 4.8 million the previous week. The continuing claims data lags initial claims by a week.
But the so-called continuing claims do not include millions of people who have used up the regular 26 weeks of benefits customarily provided by states, and are receiving extended benefits for up to 73 additional weeks, paid for by the federal government.
More than 5.3 million people were receiving extended benefits in the week ended Dec. 26, the latest data available. That's a drop of about 135,000 from the previous week.
The large number of people claiming extended unemployment insurance indicates that even as layoffs are declining, hiring hasn't picked up. That leaves people out of work for longer and longer periods.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"UNEXPECTEDLY"
Unexpected? To whom? Those in the DC Bubble still smoking the Hopium?
And just who are these idiot "Puzzled Economists" that are "Surprised" by what's going on out here in the economy?
I’m waiting for the Oval Office and the media to announce that they didn’t ‘expect’ the earthquake in Haiti.
Wow, does this mean that the last report was a lie where they said sales were up in December....... They would not lie ...would they?
Pride and self reliance has been drummed out of Americans who attended public school, for at least three decades if not longer.
Somebody got killed, I’m sure.
“The system worked!”
I’m increasingly convinced that we are in an extraordinary situation, in which many of the conventional methods of analysis are flat out wrong. One such “paradox” is that unemployment, rather than being a trailing indicator, is actually a leading indicator.
As long as economists are going by the textbook, they are going to be continually surprised.
“UNEXPECTEDLY” sounds more interesting than..”let me be clear” or “mark my words” from a certain teleprompter-reading illegal alien.
Mickey Miller, and his 10 year old son were the only
people in the truck, and neither of them were hurt!
http://ntm.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/18/this-weeks-holy-crap-video/
Who the hell didn’t know that this December with 10% unemployment would have lower retail sales than last December with 8% unemployment?
Been a lot of “unexpecteds”, “unprecedenteds”, and “unforeseeables” recently...I wonder why?
Need the “Not this sh#% again!” pic...
Additionally, he sees them as a drain on unionized big business with their constant hiring and innovation. In fact, their hiring is a threat to Obama's big idea of big government hiring...he doesn't need or want the competition.
So long Mom and Pop, so long corner store, so long next big idea...and so long individual opportunity!
Paints a sad picture, doesn't it?
Everyday while I’m changing in the Gold’s Gym locker room, the TV is on CNBC’s economic quack session. They’re all bright eyed and blabbing endlessly about how things are improving, the economy is roaring back at 5+% GDP, a certain company unexpectedly showed profits, etc. You’d think we were in the roaring twenties. I’m wondering why the stock market hasn’t reached 14K yet. Then one of the bright ones stated, “Well, small business isn’t picking up, but that’s because they can’t get access to capital as the banks aren’t loaning”. Guess who provides most of the jobs you frigging morons?
Unexpected? To whom?
Yeah, ...Apparently someone was dreaming.
I agree with you. This is uncharted territory for economists. A lot of the rules are still valid, but this context is so screwed up they don’t know how to apply them correctly.
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