Evidence Mounts That The US Economy Is Entering A New Leg Down

[cieldumort]

After a brief upswing in consumer spending in the first two months of this year, retail sales have resumed their downward trajectory since, even dropping by about a half a percent, month-on-month (SA), during the Easter holiday month of April. (See graph below)

Comments

[nebris]

I think we'll be sliding down the vertical leg of the L for another year or so. How long we'll remain on the horizontal leg is anybody's guess. One thing is for sure; the timing of the latter will depend almost entirely on the nature of the political maneuverings.

~M~

[cieldumort]

That's a pretty bleak outlook.

Obama has made some missteps, but it's not all about him. He might be president, but so much of what has been put in motion was put in motion over the last eight years... and then some.

[volksjager]

Did a frost kill all the "green shoots" ???

[cieldumort]

I'm not at all convinced they were ever really green shoots to begin with, you know?

[volksjager]

I was shocked when Obama said that he usually much smarter about message and timing

[cieldumort]

IMHO, he was between a rock and a hard place on that one.

On the one hand, you don't want to get people's hopes up so much that they are let down and then consumer confidence takes a renewed nose-dive and/while their trust in you as a politician takes a big hit...

but you also have to help nudge consumer confidence for all its worth, when facing down the barrel of an economy still spiraling out of control... aka: a depression.