Posted on 05/13/2009 8:44:23 AM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
WASHINGTON – Retail sales fell for a second straight month in April, a disappointing performance that raised doubts about whether consumers were regaining their desire to shop. A rebound in consumer demand is a necessary ingredient for ending the recession.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month. Many economists had expected a flat reading, and the April weakness followed a 1.3 percent drop in March that was worse than first estimated.
Retail sales had posted gains in January and February after falling for six straight months, raising hopes that the all-important consumer sector of the economy might be stabilizing. But the setbacks in March and April could darken some forecasts because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Retail sales actually dropped less unexpectedly than they were expected to. Great Leader is here, all is well. That is all.
where are you?
Good! We still had freedom after the Great Depression. I'd rather have another depression than watch Obama pass all the socialist measures he wants to push through. Maybe economic weakness will slow him down.
I think that is a big part of it. I can't prove this scientifically, but my guess is a lot of people that are getting money back, file well before April 15 and quickly get their refund checks. This would account for the small uptick we saw in February and the first week in March.
On the other, most people who owe additional taxes, wait until the last possible second to file. This would certainly put a drag on consumer spending for probably April and perhaps even May. JMHO.
It's why I'm so puzzled by this market rally. If you were a rational investor, what metric do you point to that says the economy has hit bottom AND a rebound is forthcoming?
- Oil hits $60 / barrel
- 500K job loses in April
- Some form of job killing Cap N Trade likely to be enacted
- Expanded health insurance coverage including taxing existing benefits in the works, likely to pass
- Obambi wants to raise taxes by billions on off shore earnings
- The government projects $1.84 trillion in deficit this year
And we wonder why things are not going that great?
Change we can all hope for ...
schu
good list.....might want to add.....Government BORROWING 46cents for EVERY DOLLAR spent...
Seems like the perfect storm - everyone is sort of scared, lost their job or scared about losing their job - so if one does not have cash - don’t buy - plus Obama is on the other side spending like a drunken sailor and promising even more spending - next is tax increases across the board and inflation.
We are so screwed.
Desire? More like "ability" to shop. Sorry, they are still paying off those credit charges from Christmas, plus they've had their credit limit chopped in half, so they have to pay the credit card down more than anticipated.
It won’t slow him down Pelosi just announced socialized medicine bill.
Not here. Everyones still waiting to see their gardens emerge from under all that flood water, and for it to stop snowing.
They are a bunch of lying bastards. They know that there will be no recovery. The purpose of the taxes that will be imposed by obama and the Democrat Party is to prevent a recovery and destroy the free enterprise system.
But that is what the fools voted for.
Maybe the Chinese were behind liquidating huge portions of our debt to them and taking it off-shore last autumn, or maybe they simply suckered Hillary into giving them the option of taking it out of our collective (no sic here) hides in real estate if we turned out later not to be good for the debt. (Yeah, right!) Gee, we haven't heard much about that from the MSM lately, have we?
Perhaps China will step up as do Chicagoans, when they actually expect good ole' payback for their Dhimmocrat-supportive ways. The UAW has surely shown them that Zero is capable of Chicago-style payback when he wants to give it.
HF
The only hope for the United States is to dismantle Obama’s socialism starting January 20, 2013. We rarely move back toward freedom after the socialists have gotten their way, but it’s the only acceptable answer this time. I hope and pray that we will take a big step back from this abyss once real Americans take back our government.
Spending going down, unemployment going up, businesses going out, and the stock market is going up. Go figure. Taxes, government jobs, government spending and government size is going up, way up when nationalized healthcare gets here, and the rest of us are going to shrink to fit. This fascist fiasco sucks big time, and it is just beginning.
Which is amazing considering it's spent over 5 trillion of money it didn't have, and tax revenues are down 40-50%.
That's one screwed up projector.
Mason jars and lids should see an increase in sales too.
Which stock market are you looking at?
Dow is down -147.
The stock market uptick is a faux recovery, a bubble, it is completely artificial with no real staying power or sustainability.
I want to make a bumper sticker that says:
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