Confident consumers lift US retail sales in December

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales rose at a solid pace last month, evidence that Americans were willing to spend during the winter holidays after a sluggish November.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales increased 0.3% in December from the previous month. Excluding sales at car dealers and gas stations, sales rose 0.5%, the best in five months.

Low unemployment and widespread hiring are fueling consumer confidence. Shoppers have become the primary driver of the economy’s growth as businesses have reined in their investment in machinery and equipment and exports have slowed.

Still, economists said the positive December figures were partially offset by downward revisions to October and November sales. That suggests consumer spending likely grew more slowly in the final three months of last year than previously expected.



In this Jan. 9, 2020, photo pick-up trucks are lined up for sale on the sales lot at Betley Chevrolet dealership in Derry, N.H. On Thursday, Jan. 16, the Commerce Department releases U.S. retail sales data for December. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)


Read more: https://apnews.com/bfa63d42f33542a68f88e8fb474f79b2

[guillaumeb]

1. This is the US corporate media spin.

But in the real world, where most of us live:

Consumer Debt Grows as U.S. Economy Expands

Americans are taking on ever larger debt loads as they struggle to maintain living standards. They are borrowing more on their credit cards, taking on a soaring levels of student debt and signing more and more personal loans, all making the next recession even riskier for those already struggling to make payments.

https://www.debt.org/2019/08/27/consumer-debt-grows-as-us-economy-expands/

[SergeStorms]

7. Exactly.

Anyone can give you an illusion of prosperity by putting everything on their credit cards. Wait until they find out how difficult it is to file for personal bankruptcy since republicans let the credit card companies re-write the personal bankruptcy laws. The headline should read, "People Stop Giving a Shit About Credit Card Debt." That would capture the real reasons for "confident consumers".

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Trump mega consumer

tax increase(tariff's) caused that total dollar sales number to jump.

Notice zero chatter about the massive inventory carry overs because of price increases.

If those December numbers were so darn great,why are retailers cutting staff like crazy. This time it is even hitting retail Groceries. If your Store is not doing a target number during certain Business hours,people are being sent home.

[stillcool]

3. boy oh boy..I'm getting snowed.

with everything I read. You'd think I bought all those gifts because I was feeling so damn confident.

[Mr.Bill]

4. So people did Christmas shopping.

All hail Trump!

[jayfish]

5. Yeah, WTF?

I was expecting them to compare against 12/18 numbers. Load of BS that is.

[demigoddess]

12. yes, it wasn't confidence shopping, it was Christmas shopping!! No matter how

skint you are you want to buy your kids some Christmas. Shame on trump.

[Newest Reality]

6. What spin!

That's enough to wring out a full load of clothes in no time.

Consumer confidence? That's some newspeak for you. Are we to ignore that some of that reflects people who are effectively deciding if they should go into more debt as if they will be able to pay it off in the future? If that's confidence, it is more like being a gambler and you don't want to give a gambler more money to go to a casino and blow it all.

How many of those "consumers", (gosh I dislike that word as an obvious replacement for citizen/people) know enough about what is going on economically to be a source of useful, general information in the first place? Could you call consumer confidence a collective indicator of whims and ignorance? Or are we talking about how much debt they are willing to rack up on their credit cards or what kind of and how many loans they are willing to be buried under only to crash not long afterwards?

I don't find that to be a source of confidence or an indicator of anything substantial. It's like an addict feeling pretty good after finding out where their next fix can be obtained.

As an aside, this whole idea of consumers as the collective term for us is wearing rather thin, even if it is applicable to economic news. It is that mentality that has helped drive this planet to what is obviously the brink of extinction of most life forms and in a way that is irrevocable. The point is that we are here to consume and that has also encouraged the garbage generating and accepted "throw away" mindset. It is a way of life, (disposable this that and the other thing) that has become deeply entrenched in modern life to the point that we may not even recognize the sum total of impacts on the environment. Is it frayed? Don't sew it, through it away and get a new one. Is your thing broken? It wasn't made to be repaired, toss it and buy another, etc.

We aren't even materialists in this sense. A good materialist would value things that last and take good care of them. A genuine materialist society would be focused on lasting quality and good design, etc. How can you even call a society that builds endlessly growing garbage piles as fast and as much as they produce goods materialistic? The consumer, in that sense is a term that also means a believer in an endless supply of resources and an infinite garbage dump. That's more of disease that requires a cure since it is deadly to an environment and without an environment there will be nobody to practice the great consumption.

[SergeStorms]

8. I like your addict analogy.

What they're going to find out is that their usual 'fix' is now Fentanyl, and they're going to overdose on debt.

[Newest Reality]

9. Thanks!

Yes, that is a good way to frame it.

I have tended to also shift the framing of "greed" to addiction as per the extreme inequality we are now seeing, (which relates). Greed seems to have a strong, moral implication, which is fine, but in these times we are aware of how conditioned response and operant conditioning work. So, that's another group of monkey backs shooting up to the detriment of us all.

Got wealth? Well, have more? Enough is never enough? Well, here you go! The current economic environment is geared to support and enable the addicts to the point of absurdity. They are applauded for it and offered tax breaks, incentives, freebies, you name it. Here, have another syringe on us! Then, we are all expected to be in denial about it and continue to make immense sacrifices, individually and collectively, to assure that the supply of affluence fixes are available when, all the while, we know that enough is never enough and never will be for a wealth addict. Oh, a billion you say? Well, you know, ten is really what I need, etc.

Meanwhile? Well, food insecurity, homelessness, poverty, lack of medical and dental treatment. I equate that result to some degree to our respected and lauded junkies.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

10. I don't buy it.

How did Target do again?

[Warpy]

11. Wait, wait! Their loss was because of the gays!

No, wait. it was all due to Canada and socialized medicine up there!

Consumers know the rich are getting richer all the time, they've just got to be confident! That's it! They're confident and the economy is doing great! Don't look at the line outside the Food Bank, that's a figment of your imagination or the lazy bastards just don't want to put in a day's work!

Happy times are here again! We're in the money! USA USA USA

I've been looking at the stories about Target and those are some of the excuses I've seen.

[Farmer-Rick]

13. You need the confidence of the mark to pull off a con.

[progree]

14. The retail sales are seasonally adjusted. Also, they were 5.8% higher than December 2018.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December 2019, adjusted for seasonal
variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $529.6 billion, an
increase of 0.3 percent (±0.4 percent)* from the previous month, and 5.8 percent (±0.7 percent) above
December 2018.
More: https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf

Like it says, its not adjusted for price changes, so some of the growth is just plain ol' inflation, which was 2.3% December 2019 over December 2018. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

Then there's population change of about 0.6%
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/

The remaining about 2.9% (5.8%-2.3%-0.6%) is per capita inflation-adjusted seasonally adjusted retail sales.