[Stentor]

&/or are there other skewing factors?

I don't have paid access but John Williams of ShadowStats.com is is supposed to have said the "Retail Sales Gain Was Statistically Meaningless and Largely Reflected Inflation."

Jim Sinclair's Mineset

[algernonpj]

I became interested in Williams when I found out his alternate stats more closely reflected reality than the governments. There is a lot of free information available on his site. In short, the CPI has over time morphed from a cost of living index to a cost of declining standard of living index. Since this is used as a deflator of GDP, the GDP has been overstated, as will any other statistic using the CPI as a deflator. If you would like more specifics I will forward.

[sheana]

Yesterday afternoon I took my granddaughter back to school shopping. We were at the Camarillo Premium Outlet Mall. The parking lot and stores were deserted. I even asked a clerk in Saks.....are you guys closing?
I have shopped there for many years and have never seen it even close to what it was yesterday. Was kind of eery