WASHINGTON – A big drop in May retail sales has raised new concerns about the durability of the economic recovery.
Retail sales plunged 1.2 percent last month, the Commerce Department said Friday. It was the largest decline in eight months.
Americans slashed spending on everything from cars to clothing to building materials. Auto sales fell 1.7 percent. Excluding autos, sales fell 1.1 percent.
Economists are worried that households will start trimming outlays as they continue to be battered by high unemployment and uncertainty in the stock market. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.
There's also concern that spending will freeze up as Americans see their wealth shrink. Investors have sold off stocks for more than a month because of concerns that Europe's sovereign debt crisis will slow a worldwide economic rebound. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.9 percent last month, the worst May for the blue chip index since 1940.
Social Security Payouts Are Already Crippling The Government This Year
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Sales go down then sales tax collections go down for cities and states.
ReplyDeleteOf course less sales will lead to more layoffs and those people needing unemployment benefits which the states already cannot pay. And then those people go on food stamps.
Maybe Obama will nationalize the the States that are bankrupt and need the US Government to print money for them.
Tax revenues
ReplyDeleteGreat indicator of conditions
Harder to fake
Than U3
GDP
CPI
AAA
AA
Fuckin'A
You either got money coming in
Or you don't
Consider that Earth, vatos
Unless you can eat your beloved GOLD
You might consider this alternative
Canned peas
Dried pintos
00 Buck
7.62x39
#1 PET bottles for SODIS
Fluid for your old Zippo
HTH
The fake recovery may be coming to an end, as many have predicted would occur in the 2nd half of 2010. We may be on our way to TSHF scenario, i.e. dollar devaluation, economy collapsing and of course, WW3.
ReplyDeleteAnd the sheeple slaves have no clue.
It's not too late to prepare yourself and/or your family. Buy hard silver/gold, storable food. weapons with lots of ammo (& learn how to use them properly), water filter and survival supplies.
This was a buy signal for the spot gold price. I think we will likely see more individuals putting their cash into the hard currency of gold because of these continued fears.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry,
ReplyDeleteObama ben lying said on June 4th:
"This is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day,"
No, it's the "lying" that is getting stronger by the day.
ReplyDeleteMy shopping list is long - gas grills, outdoor lights, table saw and grinder, and I have the money to buy it, but the problem is, the retailers only offer "Made In China" garbage that breaks or wears out or would poison my kids and even my dogs.
ReplyDeleteSo TO HELL WITH THE RETAILERS!! Let them all burn in bankruptcy. Maybe then we will get back the mom and pop stores that sell quality stuff which you only have to purchase once or twice in a lifetime, instead of every other year or after three uses.
I look for quality second hand, good old American stuff, and purchase locally made clothing and special order Red Wing American made work boots. It can be done, and if enough people do the same, we can start to rebuild this country again. That's all I got to say about that.
2:05 and others
ReplyDeleteLast week I was at Home Depot and I saw a 3 pack of "Cresent" wrenches for about 18 bucks. The package said lifetime warrenty, followed by "Made in China". Next I looked at a 2 pack of real Cresent Wrenches, priced about the same. The Cresent wrenches were "Made in USA".
Naturally I bought the real, USA made, lifetime warrenty, Cresent wrenches.
I look at lables very closely these days. I can buy "Members Mark" (made all over the globe, except the USA) denim jeans from Sam's Club for about 20 bucks, or I can buy "Blue Diamond Gusset" jeans, Made in a small town in TN for about 45 bucks.
I'm a 99'er now and I have little left, but I will pay extra for the Blue Diamonds and sleep well knowing I am doing my part to keep an American employed.
We can reverse this trend. We all need to buy clothing some time or another. Socks are made with an automatic knitting machine. Once it's set up, unless something goes wrong, socks drop out of the center of the machine all day long. The human labor is needed for inspecting the packing the socks. Hains was USA made, one upon a time. Then they moved to Honduras, last I heard, they were pulling out of Honduras, looking for even cheaper labor! The average textile worker in Honduras, works 10-12 hours a day, six days a week and earns less than $100.00 a month.
Here in California, we have a law that produce must have the country of origen posted. This makes it easy for me to only buy USA grown produce. I WILL not buy any Mexican produce, knowing full well their farming standards makes the USDA cringe with fright.
We can fix this. We have to shut down the Federal Government one useless department at a time and we must buy American whenever possible.
The Venezuela Foreign Ministry reportedly called Clinton's remarks "foolish and inopportune."
ReplyDeleteAnd worst to come...
In his Wednesday night speech, the AP reports, Chavez said, "Look, Mrs. Clinton, We're really sorry here about what is happening to the people of the United States...They're the ones who are suffering with some of the measures that Obama is taking. WOW..
Anon 2:37 said there are jeans made by a company in TN? I'll check it out. Sad, Levi's no longer made in USA. Amongst other things. Can still get Lodge cast iron cookware made in TN.... better quality than the stuff made in China. Goes without saying.
ReplyDelete