Posted on 09/15/2009 6:22:00 AM PDT by tobyhill
U.S. retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 2.7% in August, the biggest increase in more than three years, boosted by government subsidies for cars, higher gas prices, and busy crowds at the malls, the Commerce Department estimated Tuesday.
Sales were stronger than the 2.3% expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch, largely because of widespread sales gains outside the gas stations and the auto lots. See Economic Calendar.
Sales are down 5.3% compared with a year earlier. The figures are adjusted for seasonal differences, but not for price changes. Read the full government report.
The strong August sales will probably boost consumer spending in the third quarter, and help the economy grow for the first time in more than a year, economists say. But some worry that the economy remains too dependent on government largesse, including fiscal stimulus and ultra-loose monetary policy.
Consumer spending is likely to be sluggish going forward, with the unemployment rate heading toward 10% and families still struggling to pay off debts accumulated during the bubble years.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Can anybody believe government numbers anymore? I don’t.
Wait until you see the 4th quarter numbers.
Then again, we may see, cash for refrigerators, cash for used underwear, cash for carpeting, cash for televisions, cash for am radios, et al.
This is just the back to school sales numbers.
I agree, did you notice this is an “estimate?”
coupled with the cash for clunkers. They clustered it just right to get this bounce. It makes it sound like every sector is up. Auto, Malls, Gas, etc. Even with all these boosts, sales still off 5.3 percent from last august. No good way to see this, but they will spin spin spin.
School supplies didn’t account for any of that did it? Nope, just good ole economy ‘turning from the brink’. Yay Obama. /s
What are the numbers excluding auto’s and gas? Cash for Clunkers is a huge portion of this increase and it is now gone...
As expected it is better than expected. We expect it may be worse than expected by Obama who expected 4% growth for the next ten years. I expect that the expected growth will be worse than expected and the deficit worse than Obama expected.
I believe that the numbers are correct, but they don't accurately reflect what's going on....if that makes any sense.
For instance - spending is up for August, but the Gov't also pumped 3 Billion into the car market to juice sales. They won't do this every month, and it's inaccurate to assume that they will.
The piece downplayed the real stat - year-over-year spending is down 5+%, even WITH the gov't pumping up the markets. That's pretty darn significant, and it's not good.
I'm thinking that this is going to be a long winter.
I agree. Here in NC there was a dash to get expensive items before the “emergency, temporary” 1% sales tax increase. When my hub went to get our new phones the store was packed. (our last emergency, temporary sales tax increase of .25% is still in effect).
“Retail sales jump 2.7% in August on widespread gains (Sales down 5.3% compared to a year earlier)”
G*ddamn laughable.
Sales went up 2.7% as they went down 5.3% ........ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeeeeeeez
Duh!
School is back in session; clothes, supplies, that was bound to give a little bump.
This is probably going to be a 1930’s style Christmas for much of America.
But if we have our families, our faith, and our country, we don’t need a lot of extra stuff to have a great holiday.
The best Christmases that I've had, are the ones where my family didn't have much.
Nothing wrong with a good meal and family time.
We've already all decided that this Christmas will be "for the kids". Adults might get a little something to open - I usually try to find Mom and Dad something, erm, "Consumable" that they like....but otherwise, no real gifts exchanged.
We'll eat well, though. I'm already looking forward to that. :-)
On a related note Fannie Mae shares were up 200% in Aug!
(From $0.50 to $1.50)
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