HOLIDAY SALES TANK …
By FITSNEWS || Black Friday? It was a dud … now the only question is whether we’re dealing with shifting shopping trends (the mainstream media’s excuse) or a fundamental weakness in the American consumer economy.
We hate to say it, but we’re betting on the latter …
Despite optimistic forecasts of a robust holiday shopping season (based in large part on plummeting gas prices), American consumers didn’t open their wallets during the extended Thanksgiving shopping weekend.
According to data from the National Retail Federation (NRF) – which has projected an overall 4.1 percent bump in November/ December holiday shopping this year – sales during the four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend dropped a whopping 11 percent, from $57.4 billion to $50.9 billion.
Traffic was down 5.2 percent – from 141 million to 132 million – while the average shopper spent $380.95, down 6.2 percent from last year’s $407.02.
Shoppers also spent 10.2 percent less online – $159.55 compared to last year’s $177.67. As a result, web shopping remained stuck at 42 percent of the total four-day haul.
According to the website Zero Hedge , these disastrous results confirm “what everyone but the (Federal Reserve) knows by now: the US middle class is being obliterated, and that key driver of 70 percent of US economic growth is in the worst shape it has been since the Lehman collapse, courtesy of six years of Fed’s ruinous central planning.”
“Central planning …” a.k.a. the greatest wealth transfer in human civilization …
Apparently the bipartisan bailout machine in Washington, D.C. – which continues to subsidize corporations deemed “too big to fail” and bureaucracies “too vital to cut” – views the tapped out U.S. taxpayer as “too little to save.” And the taxpayers are responding accordingly, because unlike government – they can’t spend money they don’t have.
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23 comments
House prices are up in DC, San Fran, & a few other spots around the country. Wasn’t all the QE worth it?
Good thing the economy still sucks, because if the velocity of money starts to tick up then price increases from all the inflation is going to start hammering the poor & middle class too.
I’m really glad Krugman convinced Japan to put Abenomics into overdrive. I was starting to feel bad for their all time high misery/suicide rates in the face of 3 plus decades of Japanese QE….it will be there “coup de grace” and we won’t have to listen to Krugman opine that “you didn’t print enough” when things really get miserable. He’ll finally be relegated to obscurity. I hope it doesn’t take another 5 years of sustained misery.
edit: there=their
The Ferguson mall protesters are going to claim all the credit.
Krugman will back them up.
He doesn’t know what the “broken window fallacy” is…or more appropriately doesn’t believe in it. It’s like Santy Claus to him.
“WE WERE LIED TO” … in other FITSsnooze, too.
Krugman is the biggest Gruberizer of all.
I went to Ferguson and got a brand new 60″ Sony for free!
Now if you could only steal electricity and cable you’d be all set.
Gonna put it on eBay and go get another?
The dollar is rising against all major currencies, the Ruble is in free-fall, energy prices way down, interest rates stable and low, stock market at an all time high, no inflation in sight, annual deficit in decline, housing prices stable, commodity prices stable, unemployment falling, labor participation rising; and all you are looking at is how many Christmas presents were sold on Friday?
The middle class is in fact being obliterated, But everything you have proposed will only accelerate that obliteration. The mega-wealthy declared war on the middle class in the 80s, and with the help of the Republican party they have been winning ever since. If we have another round of tax cuts for the rich paid for by benefits cuts for the middle class, that war will be over.
The economy is sound, perhaps as good as it has been since the Clinton years. The problem is that all of the benefits are going to a very small group of people. Taxes on the wealthy are at 50 year lows, the wealth of the richest as a percentage of total wealth is at a century long high. The income of the richest is soaring. Yet all we hear is the economy is failing, so the middle class needs to give up more and more. We need to give more money to the rich so they will save us all.
“no inflation in sight”
lulz
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/08/as-long-as-you-dont-eat-price-inflation.html
Some minor inflation is good for the economy. For the time being overall inflation is not a problem for the economy. But if you believe otherwise, by all means liquidate and buy gold. If you are correct, you will have no worries.
So it went from “no inflation” to minor? Which is it Tom?
You call an almost 20% increase in the price of food “minor”?
I wonder how the middle class and poor people feel about that Tom.
Extrapolating the number to today makes it around 24% since 06′ now…..
“no inflation”….lulz….”good for the economy”
A year old report highlighting what happened between 2006 and 2012 in one segment of the economy is irrelevant to a discussion of the near future. Gas is down 50% since its 2008 high. Between 2005 and 2012 the cost of housing declined. If we just look at energy prices from 2008 to now and housing prices from 2005 to 2012 we would conclude we are suffering from rampant deflation.
When one says there is no inflation, that does not mean in all segments of the economy. There is inflation in some areas, deflation in some areas, and other areas are stagnant. But overall, inflation is not likely to present a problem for the coming year. Food as a percentage of income for the middle class remains at near record historical lows. The middle class has far bigger threats than food inflation right now.
“A year old report highlighting what happened between 2006 and 2012 in one segment of the economy is irrelevant to a discussion of the near future.”-lulz, says you now that you have to back pedal on your comment “no inflation in sight”.
“Food as a percentage of income for the middle class remains at near record historical lows.”
Despite a 24% increase in it the last six years? That’s your argument?
lulz…how much more does it have to climb before you consider it a problem?
I notice that you’ve forgotten about the poor people as well.
lulz…why should anyone take you seriously?
Oh, I know the answer, they shouldn’t.
How have I forgotten about poor people? I am not suggesting we increase the cost of food. If you have a plan for cutting the cost of food for the poor and the middle class I am all for it. What is your proposal?
I really do not know what your point is. You have not suggested anything. You somehow accuse me of being a Republican, i.e. not giving a crap about the poor and the middle class. When I all I am saying is we need to focus on the middle class, and the poor, not the rich.
” If you have a plan for cutting the cost of food for the poor and the middle class I am all for it.”
Great. It’s easy:
The gov’t stops printing money to fund deficits. Then the poor don’t get their already paltry incomes inflated away by spending more on eating, rent, etc.
You have no disagreement with me on printing money. I say we raise taxes to where they were under Clinton, cut subsidies to coal and oil companies, close corporate loopholes and return defense spending to where it was under Clinton plus the rate of inflation. That would put us at an annual surplus. We could start paying down the debt.
“WE WERE LIED TO” … in other FITSsnooze
The middle class is in fact being obliterated, But everything you have proposed will only accelerate that obliteration.
The narrative for limited government that the Republicans and various think tanks are pushing is built in its entirety not to kill government, but to kill off any part of government that doesn’t act in this manner. Destroy the social safety net, hand over Social Security and Medicare to private hands to suck profits from them, huge handouts for their corporate masters, huge handouts for their billionaire donors, adjusting taxes to primarily benefit those corporations and billionaires, etc. Maximize government subservience to the plutocrats, minimize government service/protection of everyone else.
Of course, any negative outcomes of this will be blamed on, you guessed it, government. This encourages more bending of government to their whim in the future.
Credit cards maxed out …. More important to make payments on a new over priced 40 to 50 grand truck/SUV with 40 inch rims.so you look like you have money when at the end of each month you don’t.
I do most shopping online,but many US retailers,who count on international sales,have taken huge losses,because of the insane USPS increases in shipping charges.It used to cost about 5 bucks to mail a CD to the UK,now it’s closer to 15.It’s putting people out of business.
Shopping on line, ship by mail? And which porn site is that?
FITS – Ya’ can’t say anything about Cyber Monday until the fat lady sings … Filing a story about an all day event just before lunch is a bit disingenuous.
When the bell stops ringing regarding Black Friday ahead of White Christmas … then write it up. (BTW: MasterCard says their revenues are up 5+% in total for the weekend over last year and Ford says their car and truck sales are too, and I believe them.)
Disclosure: I bought Amazon (AMZN) last week and bought some more this morning. I also have been buying IWO and IWM, Russell small cap funds.