Robert Brusca
Robert Brusca
again black concern friday great holiday miserable sales shopping ticked week
To me, the concern right now is that holiday shopping has been spotty . We had a great Black Friday , the week after that was miserable and then sales ticked up again after that,
categories eating economy fact food gap growth impact last month product reduced sales stores time together
The fact that food sales outperformed other product categories last month is part of what's going on with the economy and its impact on consumers, ... Also, there was a time when Wal-Mart was eating everyone's lunch. Other stores have been getting their act together and they've reduced the growth gap between them and Wal-Mart.
appear few home levels near next rates rebound sales seen
Levels of home sales are still solid. And with rates falling, some (continued) rebound may be seen in the next few months. But we appear to be near to a peak.
boost consumers later positive sales shopping survey until year
On the positive side, one survey suggests that more consumers this year are delaying their shopping until later in the season. If that's true, sales will get another boost in December.
consumer garlic sales shoot stopping stores tale zombie
The tale of the zombie consumer continues, ... There is no stopping him or her: Can't shoot 'em, stab 'em, or keep 'em away from the stores with garlic -- especially with post-season sales in progress.
build companies economy giving inflate pumping retailers sales willing
This is an economy that is giving contradictory signals. You don't have companies willing to build inventories, which show that they don't have a lot of confidence. Retailers are pumping sales by discounts, but you can't inflate confidence.
fed limits slower suggest
I think we're going to have a slower recovery, ... There are other things that suggest there are limits to what the Fed can do.
challenge control danger history lessons party
I think that one of the lessons in history is that if any party has too much control, the danger is that they will go overboard. The challenge for this administration is going to be to keep control of things.
aware energy people prices
People are aware of what energy prices are doing to their pocketbooks, and their company,
consumer economy equity everybody happy housing increase negative partly people performance pull quite savings spending supported
While everybody is very happy with the performance of the economy under Greenspan, it's come at quite a price. We have a negative savings rate. The consumer has been out spending his and her income, partly supported by an increase in housing prices, where people had to pull a lot of the equity out of their home. Well they can't do that again.
bit consumer growth highly linking output spending
While consumer spending has sparked up a bit recently, linking it to better output growth is still highly speculative.
concerns continues evidence fears inflation
While concerns about inflation swirl, the evidence continues to give those fears little substance,
against maybe reason suggesting
We have a lot of things suggesting that maybe things have improved, ... I don't see any reason to go against the numbers.
affected economy economy-and-economics gives magnitude
It doesn't tell you anything about the economy at this point. It just gives you some idea of the magnitude of the displacement in the affected area.