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 ...
There is no market rally. Don't believe everything the media tells you. There was ONE day when it gained a couple hundred points. It's fallen practically every day since. down again -147 so far today. And, the DOW average is down over 3000 points from 9 months ago. Most stock is still mopping the basements of businesses everywhere. Rally? What rally? There SHOULD have been a rally by now, spring time, farming, lawn and garden sales, new cars, real estate etc. But it is NOT happening this year.
I bet retail ammo sales didn’t follow this trend!
Auto sales down 40%, housing starts off 75%, unemployment heading for 12%, business profits down more than 50%.
Businesses are just hunkering down, hoping to last till the end of the year. Hoping that things turn around a bit.
So what is going to cause confidence to rebound and people to buy, companies to hire, businesses to expand? Cap N Trade, free health care, trying Bush for torture?
We are soooo vulnerable right now. One little worldwide bang like a pandemic or the Middle East going crazy or Russian belligerence and we fall off the edge.
And it seems one is due, read the 4th turning, we are due for a catalyst.
schu
Unexpectedly??????
What planet is this idiot news agency from?
Whut happened to all the Obi-bummer ‘08 bumper stickers that use to drive around here in RTP, NC.....I don’t understand....what changed?....who hoped?
Plant rice.
and for it to stop snowing.
A cold-weather variety.
Seriously, I'd get some stuff going in the house under lights in that case. I've got so many trays on my kitchen table I've been eating at the breakfast bar for a couple of months.
I think most market watchers would call the nearly 2,000 point run-up since March 9th, a rally or at least a secondary trend if not a secular trend. I think it's safe to say that it looks like a bear market rally, but it's a rally nonetheless.
Now, what the fundamental reason(s) may be for such a gain is, escapes me.
china was quietly stopped buying our debt and is now buying commodities (with our dollars). add to this the fed printing money 24/7 and record deficit spending and you have only 1 possible outcome: Hyperinflation and complete economic collapse. I don’t think the average american understand economics enough to understand why this is the case, but I do think that they have a instinctual feeling that things aren’t right and we’re headed for rough times. Unfortunately, people don’t know just how rough. If they did, many of our “leaders” would find themselves not only out of office, but also out of breath.
This is certainly a forgotten point in most news coverage, and even in most business news coverage. Most financial historians would say that we have to be into a recover (and perhaps well into a recovery) for inflation to begin to set in. They point to past economic downturns, like the GD when deflation was actually the problem. And in all fairness, so far deflation has been more of a problem with this latest downturn than inflation.
But, to borrow an overused idiom, we are in a new paradigm. Never in the history of the country (perhaps in global economic history) has one country (the US) owed another country (China) so much money. If I didn't have to actually live through it, it would/will be fascinating to see where this takes us.
I've seen that phase quite often now and submit we coin a new acronym: "WASS". I suspect it will be as common as "LOL".
This will be when they start calling for his head. Less than $2 a gallon gas is pacifying many people. When it's back up to four, all bets are off.
It's a large part of what did Bush in.
Maybe gulching is spreading?
See my tagline.
You could be right ... but wait .... don't you like Michelle's arms?
It is not an original thought and some have alluded to it here on this thread, but basically we have set a new level of economic activity here in the US. The idea that this is a traditional recession and just wait until things pickup again is a fairy tale. Obambi thinks we are too rich and powerful, so we are going to change that.
So instead of 16M cars sold each year it will be 10M, instead of 2.5M houses built each year it will be 1M. Instead of unemployment at less than 5%, get used to 5-7M chronically unemployed people above what we have today. Instead of $2.00 gas, $4.50 will be the norm.
Sweden here we come. And it is not even being debated. It will take a revolution to fix it.
schu
Just returned from there actually, on Monday.
It makes sense that they'd want that for us. A very depressing lifestyle to spread their misery to everyone.
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