Retail Sales: Dancing and Frothing

by

What has been keeping prices of general goods from going up has been the rampant deflation in the goods sector, and the highlights here would be old-style high-def TVs and such going down in price. I recently saw a 60” non-name brand on sale at Wally-World for $399. Almost bought it, too. I mean, a deal’s a deal, right?

Well, not presactly. But there is enough leak-through of value that retail sales have picked up:

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $453.4 billion, an increase of 1.3 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month, and 3.0 percent (±0.7%) above April 2015. Total sales for the February 2016 through April 2016 period were up 2.8 percent (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago. The February 2016 to March 2016 percent change was revised from down 0.4 percent (±0.5%)* to down 0.3 percent (±0.2%). Retail trade sales were up 1.4 percent (±0.5%) from March 2016, and up 2.7 percent (±0.5%) from last year. Nonstore retailers were up 10.2 percent (±1.2%) from April 2015, while gasoline stations were down 9.4 percent (±1.6%) from last year. The advance estimates are based on a subsample of the Census Bureau’s full retail and food services sample. A stratified random sampling method is used to select approximately 4,700 retail and food services firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of over three million retail and food services firms. For an explanation of the measures of sampling variability included in this report, please see the Reliability of Estimates section on the last page of this publication.

I assume you know the difference between a fairytale and a government economic report?

The fairytale begins “Once upon a time…” The government economic report begins: “In new figures released by the Department of….”

There’s this matter of consumer super-saturation we’ve talked about before. But for now, that’s just a theory. What matters hugely is that people are still buying more crap. I would be popping the champagne this morning if I owned and leased out storage units.

Let’s Go Judge Shopping!

You did see where the Obamanation’s cutting checks to the healthcare insurance scamdustry was ruled illegal by a federal judge – again?

No worries: Obama’s posse will just keep judge-shopping the case until they get it on the Supreme Obama Court where it will be blessed as legal.

Oh, if you’re offended at the label scamdustry applied to the insurance mafia, here’s the deal: I hold that if government mandates you spend your money, then no one should get any vig on the deal. No problem with healthcare, but healthcare to pay for some fat-cat sonovabitche’s yacht in the Bahamas?

No thank you.

Auto and healthcare become public utilities when government becomes the strong-arm “enforcers” and as such, it’s both a tax and it should be provided on a zero-mark-up basis to We the Peeps. If not (write this down so you won’t forget it) It’s a scamdustry and a screw-job. Which is why the aforementioned industry has a legion of lobbyists and why people in Washington go around in circles with the “must protect jobs” bullshit. It’s human slavery with dollar-signs attached, but let’s move on because we ain’t gonna change it because the fix is in and Hillary is simply going to buy whatever so deal with it. It’s not the American way, but like JFK’s Camelot, “America” never has been much more than a crass marketing campsign to turn your pockets inside-out, anyway. Deal.

(I could make a fortune if I could take police and fire departments private and mark them up, come to think of it…)

Little Lost Ryan

Republicans don’t know where, or what, their party stands for. This is why the idiotic comments of Paul the trade and healthcare sell-out Ryan, can’t endorse Trump: Because he (Ryanski of the Obama wing of the GOP Bolsheviks etc) doesn’t know what a republican is any more than Karl Marx does.

If he ever knew, he forgot and went and broke the faith with the voters.

We now return you to the normally scheduled, not nearly as depressing column we had planned for this fine Friday the 13th.

Triskadecamarkets

The futures point to a lower opening for the Dow – at least when we looked earlier. No telling what retail Kool-Aid will bring.

Two That Do, Two That Don’t

We constantly preach the gospel of rational thinking. As part of this, we constantly remind you there is “news that matters” and what is pawned off and news but doesn’t matter to anyone but a PR firm which is billing someone.

Our F-13 quiz is which is which in the following list?

White House To Give Schools Guidance On Transgender Access To Bathrooms

Trump: Amazon has “a huge antitrust problem”

The PEOPLE Review: George Clooney Rings Up a Great Performance in Money Monster

Ryan Gosling Shares Playground Tips with Daughter Esmeralda, Teases First Photo of Newborn Amada

These should not be too difficult…but we shall see.

Jenner and the Revolving Door

I don’t suppose you caught this one?

Author Claims Bruce Jenner Wants To ‘Transition’ Back To Being A Dude.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but if his hardware/software (ahem) was left in place, one could wonder what the “transition” was all about in the first place.

We also sense a field day ahead for lawyers.

Here’s why: If a public figure holds out they they have “transitioned” and some poor schmuck becomes a schmuckette and actually changes hardware based on representations of the famous person, isn’t there some kind of implied liability if it later turns out the public figure’s “deal” wasn’t sincere (was the hardware changed?) as held out to be?

Damn interesting legal question…and one that is all going to be part and parcel of the build-out of the LBGTQ (etc) industry here in Gomorrah.

Maybe it’s a blessing to have serious eye problems presently. Makes it easier for me to turn a blind eye to the rampant idiocy devolving around us.

29 thoughts on “Retail Sales: Dancing and Frothing”

  1. Hehehe…George, your post reminds me of a couple of jokes:

    What’s the difference between a northern fairy tale and a southern fairy tale?
    A northern fairy tale begins with ‘Once upon a time…”
    A southern fairy tale begins with ‘Y’all ain’t gonna believe this sh*t…’

    What’s the difference between a northern zoo and a southern zoo?
    A northern zoo has an animal in a cage, set in it’s natural habitat, with a little placard describing the animal.
    A southern zoo has an animal in a cage, set in it’s natural habitat, with a little placard describing the animal and a recipe.

    • god I love that song.. just wait till the new spending bill that passed so quickly goes into effect.. LOL LOL LOL it never ceases to amaze me this crap they pass without even turning a page.. the good thing is they can get it digitally so that paper isn’t used keeping the price toilet paper down and free of price increases..

  3. Virtually every retailer missed and guided down with the exception of Amazon who has never reported earnings from the pure online retail operation (they make it up with volume) but profits were generated by Firestick and the Government in home listening device Alexa -which now makes it a toy maker destined to be another apple failure and yet retail sales are up – pure fantasy.AND by the way the largest outflow from Global stocks since the USA credit downgrade.

  4. No cream in George’s coffee this morning.
    The insurance ‘scamdustry’ really goes well beyond the health segment. Their lobbying efforts have created a mandatory market in everything from motorcycles to mortgages and they all pretend to compete against each other.

    • I’ve been blessedly exempt from the obamascare fiasco due to medicare, but I feel for the rest of the population. And no, I’ve never used medicare for anything and haven’t bothered with doctors, etc., at all.

      Regarding driving liability insurance, I’m scammed by having to pay by the vehicle, not by the driver. I’ll never be driving more than one car at a time, but I have three and a motorcycle, each with different mission profiles. I should only have to insure me, and so should every other driver.

    • Oh don’t get me started with the insurance scamdustry.. god.. and they bought the rights to make up obamacare.. eventually the only ones left will be the ones the penned the bill.. grrr..

  5. Consumer spending does vary and if it is mildly positive, we now have guys on CNBC announcing 2200 S&P. If that is tied with Mr. Ure’s “still a peak coming” we may have the blow-off top later in the year.

    I do remember, George, you did speak of similar blow-off tops on appearances on C2C back in 2011, 2012 and tying the 1929 to the charts back then. I wanted to find out if today’s charts are an extension of those from 2011 or are new alignments with 1929-1933 using the recent couple of years.

    I’m “on assignment” this week in Mobile, AL. Not a bad place – seems like a lot of hustle and bustle around town, traffic everywhere but also “creeping squalor” in their neck of the woods. Some amazing homes on Government Blvd that are mansions in disrepair. Homes of 3000+ sq ft sized for $1M plus if situated up in D.C. and way more if placed in San Fran. But probably in the $150K range in Mobile. The creeping decay has to be replaced with new “growth” in order to keep the economy alive.

  6. hi George you’re going to have to quit writing this stuff you’re getting my attention hahaha next you’ll be telling me there’s three kinds of worms those in DC and those in your backyard and those other ones we haven’t discovered yet lots of laughs

    • My reply which was in a long lengthy reply is not coming up so something’s wrong with your site there George

      • I tried it 3x and none of the long replies came up only this short reply and the other short reply in which I was talking about websites that have been deleted even on the non-existent website that I used to have that I copied to my computer so something’s going on as it is has to do with time travel they don’t want the future or the past that we have discovered known in the future because in the future they declare they don’t know a thing about it about our past

      • Maybe there’s a maximum amount of bites that a comment can hold before it’s released and dumped

      • Here is a thought for you George here is a thought for your George who is George Orwell nobody really knows especially if the grid goes down or if they race line of that stuff that’s cold did its but I have a lot of books here and you do too you got a library your place though so the things that you can really read you know you can grab it and say here child or grandchild or anyone and say hey read this but when things get bad or things are cut off which are happening on the internet and has happened especially another country where your restricted then you know the true worth of a book yes you can sell a book for ten times the amount or you can put any figure on that did you want is worth more than the digital because it’s a bag you its physical digital can be erased its nothing permanent at least not in this room that way no saw any books anything that you want to write and put out do it in a book for him you will be ass ass ass but you won’t be on digital because digital is here and gown tomorrow so it’s just like people who buy gold to buy stock and go to you don’t have it it’s only on paper but if you own it you have the book you know right there same thing with knowledge if you have it and you put it in a cave for the next thousand years it’s there when someone finds it but digital can be erased and let you know how to use crystals so they can’t be erased so the knowledge is always there and protected which is a completely different subject

  7. Hi George, your outrage is fantastic today!!

    Another scamdustry designed to empty our pockets is TECH. I’m sick of the way what I buy & upkeep is upgraded before I even get to figure out it’s entire functionality, & then absolutely obsolete by minute 6. Not to mention it takes our jobs in the process as you always say – & if the virtual reality predictions from your column the other day come true, it will also take the last vestiges of civilized human relationships & formation of families the rest of the way over the cliff.

    Also it’s not great that we’re having Fri 13th in Mercury retrograde in a crazy world. OMG.

    • >absolutely obsolete by minute 6.

      In the case of Andriod-based phones *IF* one has a phone that can unlocked then you can get updates via things like Cyanogenmod for security updates your vendor won’t make. The “law” allows vendors to claim you can’t do such via the DCMA and yet the the ‘law makers’ claim “cybersecurity” is ‘important’.

      • I am on about year 3 of my $199 Motorola Moto-X phone. Hope to keep it another 3 years. Turns out you can even replace the battery (sorry Apple fans) and extend it another few years.

        Tech has always been a forced 3-year upgrade cycle. It is why companies keep spending $100s of millions on IT budgets year over year and why healthcare companies are primarily in the business of upkeep of their IT systems and not your healthcare.

    • LOL LOL LOL.. Just wait till the new spending bill goes into full effect.. the way I read it.. we will all be as happy….

  8. How many “heads must roll” to make this the society we all want to live in? All else is BS!!! (Relax, it’s just entertainment.)

  10. Well,since you brought up ‘Transgender bathrooms’ that is not adding up. Where is the government push for Transgender mosques? The government is pushing Muslims in the country, but Muslims would be more outrage than any other group. As Radar from Mash said, “Wait for it.” They other shoe will drop.

  12. Okay, Guess I’ll be the one to go there.

    First – Two That Do, Two That Don’t
    Are there really two stories there that matter ?

    Next – I have a rhetorical question about the phrase “LBGTQ”. Now, I understand the desire of people who embrace these lifestyles wanting to be inclusive, but isn’t the Q a bit moot, if I may ?

    When I recollect the definition of the word queer, it generally means something that is not the same as the majority of what surrounds it. As I look at that phrase, each letter represents something that is not normal, when viewed against the whole, so wouldn’t they all be included within the Q ? It would be so much easier to remember, and repeat, especially for those of us who suffer from dyslexia.

    And Last – my last comment on this topic, ever; Since the non-Q population is actually in a very super-majority to those admitted Q, why are we seeming to tolerate these offensive dictates to our societal norms ? I’m not judging those who feel that way about themselves, but I am judging the mandate that I have to consider their selfish desires before I consider my own. They want me to tolerate my disagreement with their opinion without the same tolerance towards me. Respect should be an equal exchange.

    So again, as with the polar reversal of race relations (yes, everyone discriminates, it’s called making a decision) we are now experiencing the same thing with sexual preferences.

    In a perfect world they would both be addressed by a caring population . . .

    • Letters are added to a “social acronym” to make it seem more important, because as the acronym grows, the ability of a reader to ignore it, lessens.

    • @NatureBoy: the Q isn’t for “Queer” it’s for “Questioning” as in one who is questioning one’s gender. You see, if they get included with the club, too, they can help promote the same cause, and help that 4% of the population make even more noise about the ‘rights’ they deserve.

  13. Before I can make a cogent decision regarding the subjects of the F-13 Quiz, I need to know whether Ryan has explained to Esmeralda the vagaries of the Emperor’s edict regarding those with whom she may be required to share a restroom, and why (in some places) “Chester” can now take her to the potty, but Daddy [legally] can’t…

    Seriously, between “politics” and “stupid,” I have becked clear away from the daily news cycle. I’ll read the digest once every week or two. I have a life, and need, for the time being, to keep it that way. IMO the Administration is testing the waters, to see how far away from sanity and civility they can push the American people, before there’s noticeable resistance. I don’t question “why” but merely acknowledge that the push exists. When the resistance comes, I also shan’t question its direction, force, or form, but merely note its existence and force…

    Along with Sun Tzu, folks should maybe read Goebbels and Alinsky… Just sayin’.

    • Ray, Certainly agree with your “testing” opinion. However your comment: “When the resistance comes, I also shan’t question its direction, force, or form, but merely note its existence and force…” I fail to comprehend unless it alludes to the lack of peoples ability to do anything about it.
      Would certainly appreciate your thought. Mike

      {mm}

Comments are closed.