U.S. retail sales give cautionary sign on consumer demand

[DA60]

'U.S. retail sales declined in September even when factoring out weakness at auto dealers and gasoline stations, providing a surprisingly cautionary sign for the strength of consumer demand.

Total retail sales dropped 0.3 percent during the month, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Drops in receipts at gasoline stations and auto dealers dragged on the reading.

Analysts had expected a fall in retail sales, as auto production has cooled and oil prices have fallen sharply in recent months on signs of slowing global economic growth.

What came as more of a surprise was a drop in so-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and correspond most closely with the consumer

spending component of gross domestic product. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the reading to increase. Instead, it fell 0.2 percent in September.'

U.S. retail sales give cautionary sign on consumer demand | Reuters


Ouch.

I smell a new round of QE on the horizon.

 

[DaveFagan]

'U.S. retail sales declined in September even when factoring out weakness at auto dealers and gasoline stations, providing a surprisingly cautionary sign for the strength of consumer demand.

Total retail sales dropped 0.3 percent during the month, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. Drops in receipts at gasoline stations and auto dealers dragged on the reading.

Analysts had expected a fall in retail sales, as auto production has cooled and oil prices have fallen sharply in recent months on signs of slowing global economic growth.

What came as more of a surprise was a drop in so-called core sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and correspond most closely with the consumer

spending component of gross domestic product. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the reading to increase. Instead, it fell 0.2 percent in September.'

U.S. retail sales give cautionary sign on consumer demand | Reuters


Ouch.

I smell a new round of QE on the horizon.

I've observed the gov't's fudged figures for the last number of years and I think we are in a depression. The monetary system is a function of "confidence" as in a "Confidence game" or a Ponzi scheme and that means you have to pump in "confidence" to maintain faith in the currency, ergo, you manufacture the numbers that generate confidence. QE certainly wouldn't surprise me and it would devalue the dollar and help exports, but it is debt and you have to generate something to infer that in the future you will be able to pay down some debt or maintain the interest payments. Instead of trying to repair our Industrial base the gov't keeps bailing out banks and the Military. The system has been gamed to advantage the large Corporations at the expense of the lowly taxpayers. Foreign intrigue, endless terror war, funny money, and ignore the human problems and it's hard to believe we're the Nation I grew up in. I guess everything cycles through, I hope.

 

[DA60]

I've observed the gov't's fudged figures for the last number of years and I think we are in a depression. The monetary system is a function of "confidence" as in a "Confidence game" or a Ponzi scheme and that means you have to pump in "confidence" to maintain faith in the currency, ergo, you manufacture the numbers that generate confidence. QE certainly wouldn't surprise me and it would devalue the dollar and help exports, but it is debt and you have to generate something to infer that in the future you will be able to pay down some debt or maintain the interest payments. Instead of trying to repair our Industrial base the gov't keeps bailing out banks and the Military. The system has been gamed to advantage the large Corporations at the expense of the lowly taxpayers. Foreign intrigue, endless terror war, funny money, and ignore the human problems and it's hard to believe we're the Nation I grew up in. I guess everything cycles through, I hope.

I don't think we are in a depression (yet anyway), maybe a recession if the government was dead straight on unemployment, CPI and GDP numbers.

But I more or less agree with everything else you typed.