More Great Economic News

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Retail sales jumped again last month. So much for consumers afraid to spend. :rolleyes: They're not worrying about the "weak" economy. They stormed into the shopping malls, pushing up retail sales by the largest amount in 6 (!!!) months. :eek:

Retail sales surged by 1.2 percent, double the gain that economists had expected. There were widespread gains from department stores to appliance and furniture stores.

The big gain in retail sales was the largest increase since a 1.6 percent jump in May. Economists had expected a much weaker 0.6 percent rise, believing that housing and credit problems would dampen spending. Ha! :D
 
sandy said:
Retail sales jumped again last month. So much for consumers afraid to spend. They're not worrying about the "weak" economy. They stormed into the shopping malls, pushing up retail sales by the largest amount in 6 (!!!) months.
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It's called "credit card debt". :rolleyes:

Retail sales surged by 1.2 percent, double the gain that economists had expected. There were widespread gains from department stores to appliance and furniture stores.
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And widespread losses from consumers... :rolleyes:

The big gain in retail sales was the largest increase since a 1.6 percent jump in May. Economists had expected a much weaker 0.6 percent rise, believing that housing and credit problems would dampen spending. Ha!
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YES! Let's celebrate more people getting into more debt!!!! $10 trillion in debt is not enough!!!!!
 
Billy T said:
He certain does not have it. (He is already in debt up to his ears and now needing to pay even more taxes to compensated for the retiring "baby boomers" who WERE the biggest tax payers in their peak earning years before stopping to work and starting to collect their Social Security.)
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Don't worry. Soon social security will fall apart and all those old retired folks will have to go back to work and paying taxes...... :shrug:
 
TruthSeeker said:
Don't worry. Soon social security will fall apart and all those old retired folks will have to go back to work and paying taxes...... :shrug:
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No, no one will hire the old folks...it is worse than hiring minorities. Even the government will not hire old people even though "age discrimination" is against the law.
It's called "credit card debt".
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As long as spending adds to the 13 Trillion GDP, no body cares!
 
People could be paying with $100 bills and the liberals would still be whining. Nothing is ever enough. :rolleyes:
 
Billy T said:
Who is going to loan that to Joe American? He certain does not have it. (He is already in debt up to his ears and now needing to pay even more taxes to compensated for the retiring "baby boomers" who WERE the biggest tax payers in their peak earning years before stopping to work and starting to collect their Social Security.)
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They're going to have to cut benefits and raise the age for eligibility, probably means test social security as well.
Thus buying on a "lay-a-way" plan or selling slowly is not a realistic option either as it will not cover the interest on the debt, which would thus still be getting larger.

SUMMARY - A nice idea, until you look closely at it. There is only the "printing press" money option now.
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It's too bad Ross Perot turned out to be a nut job. We could really use someone like him to champion the cause of balancing the budget and paying off the debt.

I still think selling off federal lands would certainly help. Perhaps we could pass a law that millionaire congressmen/senators get zero pay and zero benefits. Keep the pay and benefits the same for any non-millionaires that happen to get elected, but why the fuck do we need to pay a bunch of millionaires? We should stop giving out foreign aide, except in emergencies.

We should shut down military bases in countries like Germany, South Korea, Japan, etc. Let those countries defend themselves. We should outlaw all earmarks. The bill for FY 2008 has over $900 million in earmarks. That's not chump change!

I think there's still plenty that could be done. BUT, the most likely course is to just keep doing what we're doing untll the whole thing collapses because no politician has the balls to do what needs to be done.

If you're right, and we go into hyperinflation, what then? The Weimar Republic underwent such a crisis with no military, went fascist, and damned near took over the world, killing millions in the process.

What happens when the country that already has the strongest military in the world goes into a crisis like that? Do we become real imperialists and use our military might to seize the assets we can no longer afford? Civil war? Genocide? Nuclear war?

Nothing good, that's for sure. I do think awareness is growing. We may yet pull out of this trance we're in.
 
To madanthonywayne, ref post 366:

When you are right, you are right! Damn if I know what will happen. It ain't gona be pretty as food travels now more than 1000 miles to get to the store on average and there will be a lot of guns in ill feed hands that have not held valuable cash for weeks. I just hope Brazil does not discover oil on land and when the time comes, I can get my grand children out of USA in time.

PS your: "Perhaps we could pass a law that millionaire congressmen/senators get zero pay and zero benefits." is less likely than feeding the masses pork from flying pigs shot out of the air.
 
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Billy T said:
PS your: "Perhaps we could pass a law that millionaire congressmen/senators get zero pay and zero benefits." is less likely than feeding the masses pork from flying pigs shot out of the air.
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LOL. Probably right.

But if we had somebody who could really communicate as President, somebody better than Reagan or Clinton, maybe he could shame those scumbags into it by doing it himself. Maybe he could also then ram thru the reforms we need to avoid the Beyond Thunderdome future you're predicting.

What will probably happen is that things will get worse and worse until some crisis occurs. Then whoever is president at the time will assume near dictatorial powers. If we're lucky, he'll be a good man and set things right. If not, ......we're really screwed.
 
The Labor Department reports that new claims filed for jobless benefits dropped to 333,000 last week, an encouraging sign that the job market is holding together.:D
 
More accurately

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Dec. 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 333,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 340,000. The 4-week moving average was 338,750, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average of 340,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.0 percent for the week ending Dec. 1, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.0 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec. 1 was 2,639,000, an increase of 38,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,601,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,613,250, an increase of 18,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,594,500.
 
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sandy said:
The Labor Department reports that new claims filed for jobless benefits dropped to 333,000 last week, an encouraging sign that the job market is holding together.:D
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no it doesn't because we don't know the numbers for underemployment
 
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For God's sake, install spellcheck. It's painful/frustrating to try to decipher what you're trying to say.
 
sandy said:
For God's sake, install spellcheck. It's painful/frustrating to try to decipher what you're trying to say.
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i missed a few fucking letters so unless you couldn't read to begin with you should have easily figured out what i was saying.
 
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