Oz is about 6-8 months behind America in terms of the crisis and it was only in july that commodities tanked and China started entering a recession in this quarter. No way is OZ escaping the worst of this.

I can’t stand reports that include/exclude various items with the sole purpose of finessing their final results.

Why exclude autos and gas this year, when last year’s numbers included them? Yes, I understand that this year auto sales cratered, and gas prices are lower. But last year, everyone could see that auto sales were unnaturally front-loaded due to all the zero down/zero financing offers around, and gas prices were skyrocketing. But since that helps consumption numbers, they were left in.

Similarly, Bernanke always liked to use “core” inflation excluding food and energy. The ostensible reason is because food / energy prices are volatile. Except that for the last several years, until now, they weren’t the least bit volatile, only going up, up, and up. But nevermind, Bernanke still excluded them. Now that commodity prices are easing, everyone talks about how this is relieving inflationary pressures. Where’s “core” inflation now?

I say, live by the sword, die by the sword. If we’re to have meaningful discussions of statistics, their definitions can’t be changed year-to-year to fit the narrative of the day.

In this case, what reason is there to exclude autos and gas? Auto purchases are a significant portion of our consumption, and have a huge impact on our economy. Why exclude them? Similarly, while spending on gas has declined, the fact that families didn’t take the extra couple hundred dollars from gas savings and spend them elsewhere is an important fact.

At any rate, what this means is that consumption is actually worse off than even these statistics make them seem. But of course, we can’t have accurate numbers out there lest the natives get a real idea of just how bad things are and start those bloody uprisings that they’re wont to do from time to time. Nope, can’t do that.

a. People aren’t buying because they don’t have money or credit (duh)

b. If we’re truly in a deflationary period, people are waiting for prices to drop even further.

States must have money to pay their operating costs. Most of those expenses are paid by workers who send in a part of their wages to the state annually. But there are many low income wage earners that cannot afford state payroll taxes and they are given an exemption.

It is outrageous to have a minimum wage worker being forced to pay a sales tax on soap and toilet paper. Having to go to work smelly and dirty unless that tax is paid sounds like extortion. This law must be abolished at once. The state claims that they cannot provide proper services without taxes on detergents and paper goods. They say that billions of dollars in sales taxes are collected on toilet paper alone. This issue should be taken up by the new administration in Washington. A large part of the trillion dollar stimulus package should be given to the states that lift this filthy sales tax—it smells.

The country’s largest retail trade association asked President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday to add a series of sales tax-exempt shopping days to a coming economic stimulus package in an effort to revive consumer confidence and spur spending.

The National Retail Federation called for three periods of sales tax-free shopping that would last 10 days each in March, July and October 2009. The trade group estimates that it would save consumers about $20 billion, or $175 per family.

Under the industry group’s proposal, which would exclude alcohol and tobacco sales, the federal government would reimburse states for the lost tax revenue. State sales tax rates range from 2.9% to 7.25%, the group said. The five states without a sales tax — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon — would also receive monies.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123007573825931553.html

Bet they get it since the whole scam now by the FED ant the treasury is going to be based on dollar devaluation.

Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them.”

The U.S. is heading into a Depression … these holiday sales figures are but the precursor to more bad news ahead.

An economy that is 70% consumption and 30% production cannot survive … An aggregate debt of 50 trillion hangs over our economy … a debt that has now become unpayable. Huge write-offs are what is on the menu and with fractional reserve banking run by Zombie Banks and a corrupted Federal Reserve the future is dark indeed …