• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

U.S. Retail Sales Fall for Second Straight Month

mbig

mbig

onomatopoeic
DP Veteran
Joined
May 14, 2009
Messages
10,350
Reaction score
4,989
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Other
Despite soaring consumer confidence, things are pretty mediocre/weak.
Jobs last month only grew 98,000 - less than half of 'good'.

U.S. Retail Sales Fall for Second Straight Month
Decreased spending at auto dealerships and gas stations were the primary drivers of the decline
By Eric Morath - Updated April 14, 2017 - 11:04 a.m. ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-retail-sales-fall-for-second-straight-month-1492173415?tesla=y
WASHINGTON—U.S. retail sales fell for the second straight month in March, ​a sign economic growth eased to start the year despite strong consumer optimism and steady hiring.

Sales at U.S. stores, restaurants and online retailers decreased in March 0.2% from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Friday. February sales were revised down to a 0.3% decrease from an initial estimate of a 0.1% gain.​ Those were the weakest consecutive declines for retail spending since the first two months of 2015.
[.....]
Uneven retail spending stands in contrast to soaring measures of consumer confidence, steady hiring early this year, and improvements in the stock market—though ​financial-market ​gains have plateaued since early March. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment measure, released Thursday, is near the highest level in more than a decade, and the index’s measure of current conditions in early April touched the highest mark since 2000.

Soaring Sentiment
[.....]
Click to expand...
Other links:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/04/14/retail-sales-fall-second-straight-month/100438054/

Retail sales fall in March, second straight monthly drop - LA Times
 
Last edited:
Restaurant struggles continued in March as sales and traffic again declined year-over-year. Same-store sales were down 1.1 percent while traffic dropped 3.4 percent. March results were disappointing for an industry desperately trying to reverse performance trends; sales have been negative in 11 out of the last 12 months
Click to expand...
Q1 restaurant sales performance disappoints despite March improvements

Keep in mind too that Christmas was pretty near a disaster for retail.

Something is up.
 
mbig said:
Despite soaring consumer confidence, things are pretty mediocre/weak.
Jobs last month only grew 98,000 - less than half of 'good'.

U.S. Retail Sales Fall for Second Straight Month
Decreased spending at auto dealerships and gas stations were the primary drivers of the decline
By Eric Morath - Updated April 14, 2017 - 11:04 a.m. ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-retail-sales-fall-for-second-straight-month-1492173415?tesla=y

Other links:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/04/14/retail-sales-fall-second-straight-month/100438054/

Retail sales fall in March, second straight monthly drop - LA Times
Click to expand...

Sometimes it pays to read past the headline

Excluding volatile categories -- autos,gasoline, food services and building materials -- sales jumped 0.5%. Economists expected a 0.3% rise.
Click to expand...
 
Crovax said:
Sometimes it pays to read past the headline

"Excluding volatile categories -- autos,gasoline, food services and building materials"​
Click to expand...
Those are pretty big "Exclusions!"
And ones that should be showing Gains due TO their 'volatility,' because of soaring consumer confidence.
You buy cars/go to restaurants when you're confident/optimistic. Yet...
 
mbig said:
Despite soaring consumer confidence, things are pretty mediocre/weak.
Jobs last month only grew 98,000 - less than half of 'good'.

U.S. Retail Sales Fall for Second Straight Month
Decreased spending at auto dealerships and gas stations were the primary drivers of the decline
By Eric Morath - Updated April 14, 2017 - 11:04 a.m. ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-retail-sales-fall-for-second-straight-month-1492173415?tesla=y

Other links:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/04/14/retail-sales-fall-second-straight-month/100438054/

Retail sales fall in March, second straight monthly drop - LA Times
Click to expand...

It's gettin ready to crash again.
 
market crash? no

healthy correction,? you bet

and a world of difference between the two

market has been basically going straight up for a while.....

needs a 10-15% pullback
 
Crovax said:
Sometimes it pays to read past the headline
Click to expand...

Oh come on now.

Autos, gasoline, food services and building materials are a gigantic portion of the economy.

Clearly you just cannot accept that it has been a lousy two months.

Don't bother trying to spin it - it's ridiculously obvious.

You have Trumpbotitis - a blindness for anything bad about Trump. It's similar to Obamabotitis except the former seems to mostly afflict conservatives.


Good day.
 
DA60 said:
Oh come on now.

Autos, gasoline, food services and building materials are a gigantic portion of the economy.

Clearly you just cannot accept that it has been a lousy two months.

Don't bother trying to spin it - it's ridiculously obvious.

You have Trumpbotitis - a blindness for anything bad about Trump. It's similar to Obamabotitis except the former seems to mostly afflict conservatives.


Good day.
Click to expand...

:rofl: seems like you are projecting, find a single post of mine that supports Trump in any way. You are so anti Trump that anyone whose opinion doesn't fall in lockstep with yours must be some sort of Trump fan boy
 
gdgyva said:
market crash? no

healthy correction,? you bet

and a world of difference between the two

market has been basically going straight up for a while.....

needs a 10-15% pullback
Click to expand...

That's exactly what it was doing before it crashed and burned in '07. Prices are at unsustainable levels and the market has been going up on a wink and a promise. As always, a gyroscope will only spin so fast before it breaks.
 
iguanaman said:
Because every single Republican President has had a recession in his 1st term since WWII? It keeps wages down and the 1% always benefit from recessions. Trump's trainwreck has made the entire world nervous and we all will pay the price. Aren't you proud? Tired of "winning" yet?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-21/republican-presidents-and-recessions-a-pattern-trump-would-like-to-break
Click to expand...

Because it has been a long time since we had a recession. We never fully recovered from the last one of course, this was the worst recovery since WW2 , but whatever.
 
iguanaman said:
Because every single Republican President has had a recession in his 1st term since WWII? It keeps wages down and the 1% always benefit from recessions. Trump's trainwreck has made the entire world nervous and we all will pay the price. Aren't you proud? Tired of "winning" yet?
Click to expand...
Hawkeye10 said:
Because it has been a long time since we had a recession. We never fully recovered from the last one of course, this was the worst recovery since WW2 , but whatever.
Click to expand...

LOL, the "worst recovery since WWII" argument, disregarding the fact that it was the largest recession since before WWII and it happened under a Republican president. We had 8 consecutive years of job and economic growth under Obama and it's nothing but complaints and excuses. Undoubtedly if it crashes again under Trump we'll hear how it's not actually that bad, just a "market correction" or somehow Obama's fault. This is how far we've come in the war on facts.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
LOL, the "worst recovery since WWII" argument, disregarding the fact that it was the largest recession since before WWII and it happened under a Republican president. We had 8 consecutive years of job and economic growth under Obama and it's nothing but complaints and excuses. Undoubtedly if it crashes again under Trump we'll hear how it's not actually that bad, just a "market correction" or somehow Obama's fault. This is how far we've come in the war on facts.
Click to expand...

I'm the reasonable rational one in this exchange.
 
iguanaman said:
Because every single Republican President has had a recession in his 1st term since WWII?
Click to expand...

Yes, they have all had to deal with the mess their predecessors left behind.
 
fmw said:
Yes, they have all had to deal with the mess their predecessors left behind.
Click to expand...

So the enormous financial crash in 2007 at the end of Bush's 8 years was really Clinton's fault? This is why politicians are never held accountable. Supporters just blame whoever they want to blame.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
We are certainly due.
Click to expand...

Maybe overdue since the obama-loving fed has been pumping money into the economy to prop it up.

But that creates a bubble and we know what happens to bubbles.
 
mbig said:
Despite soaring consumer confidence, things are pretty mediocre/weak.
Jobs last month only grew 98,000 - less than half of 'good'.

U.S. Retail Sales Fall for Second Straight Month
Decreased spending at auto dealerships and gas stations were the primary drivers of the decline
By Eric Morath - Updated April 14, 2017 - 11:04 a.m. ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-retail-sales-fall-for-second-straight-month-1492173415?tesla=y

Other links:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/04/14/retail-sales-fall-second-straight-month/100438054/

Retail sales fall in March, second straight monthly drop - LA Times
Click to expand...

In my area gas has been jumping up in price these last few weeks. That always makes me nervous. A .20 increase over a 2 week period.
 
iguanaman said:
Because every single Republican President has had a recession in his 1st term since WWII? It keeps wages down and the 1% always benefit from recessions. Trump's trainwreck has made the entire world nervous and we all will pay the price. Aren't you proud? Tired of "winning" yet?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-21/republican-presidents-and-recessions-a-pattern-trump-would-like-to-break
Click to expand...


Why does every thread have to end up being a sarcastic name calling match. Other people would like to have a ****ing civilized conversation. Give it a rest!
 
RabidAlpaca said:
So the enormous financial crash in 2007 at the end of Bush's 8 years was really Clinton's fault? This is why politicians are never held accountable. Supporters just blame whoever they want to blame.
Click to expand...

Why do you bring up the end of an administration when the thread is clearly about the first half of an administration? I don't hold politicians accountable for the economy, by the way. They have little to do with the way the economy goes.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
LOL, the "worst recovery since WWII" argument, disregarding the fact that it was the largest recession since before WWII and it happened under a Republican president. We had 8 consecutive years of job and economic growth under Obama and it's nothing but complaints and excuses. Undoubtedly if it crashes again under Trump we'll hear how it's not actually that bad, just a "market correction" or somehow Obama's fault. This is how far we've come in the war on facts.
Click to expand...
fmw said:
Why do you bring up the end of an administration when the thread is clearly about the first half of an administration? I don't hold politicians accountable for the economy, by the way. They have little to do with the way the economy goes.
Click to expand...
Because Trump has already taken credit for every single good stat that's come out. He's a 'ratings' guy.

And I might add about the Obama 'slowest' (but Longest) recovery...
If you subtract the first 6 months of 2009, during which the economy was still suffering/in free fall from the Bush Mitigated-1929-Crash, the recovery was better than simple stats would indicate.

It was also slow because the unprecedented Baby Boom/10,000 a day leaving the workforce onslaught started under his admin, and will continue in this admin++. It makes growth stats ("3-4%") more difficult without ridiculous machinations such as a large Income tax cut.
This demographic problem is even worse in the rest of the developed world - Japan and Europe - slowing growth for all of us.
 
Last edited:
mbig said:
Because Trump has already taken credit for Every single good stat that's come out.

And I might add about the Obama 'slowest' (but Longest) recovery...
If you subtract the first 6 months of 2009, during which the economy was still suffering/in free fall from the Bush Mitigated-1929-Crash, the recovery was better thanh stats would indicate.

It was also slow because the unprecedented Baby Boom/10,000 a day leaving the workforce onslaught started under his admin, and will continue in this admin. It makes growth stats ("3-4%") more difficult without ridiculous machinations such as a large Income tax cut.
This problem is even worse in the rest of the developed world: Japan and Europe, slowing growth for all of us.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information but you didn't answer my question. Trump taking credit for things is not a relative answer.
 
fmw said:
Yes, they have all had to deal with the mess their predecessors left behind.
Click to expand...

I knew Reagan was horrible, leaving a mess for Bush I
 
holbritter said:
Why does every thread have to end up being a sarcastic name calling match. Other people would like to have a ****ing civilized conversation. Give it a rest!
Click to expand...

Glad to see that you would never personally attack anyone
holbritter said:
Maybe to make sure all you haters don't miss it.
Click to expand...

holbritter said:
Call me crazy, but if he did donate with humility, you still wouldn't respect it.
Click to expand...

holbritter said:
Why do you even bother with those two?
Click to expand...

holbritter said:
Seriously dude, you should seek some help. You display major anger issues.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom