Commentary
This one you simply will not believe. The major business press this morning absolutely cheered to the heavens about the surprise explosion in retail spending in January. As I will show, it’s all a big fakeroo.
“The consumer roared back in January,” wrote the Wall Street Journal, “with broadly higher retail spending on vehicles, furniture, clothing and dining out, adding to evidence U.S. economic growth picked up at the start of the year. U.S. retail sales jumped a seasonally adjusted 3 percent in January from December, the largest monthly increase in nearly two years after declines in the final two months of last year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.”…