They continued a downward trend that began in March to hit their lowest point since the trend began: So, thanks to the biggest September seasonal adjustment in history, things are percolating right along in the economy for the election this year: I imagine they will want to justify that adjustment based on Hurricane Helene hitting Georgia on Sept. 26, keeping actual sales down to where they needed to be adjusted up; but is it really that unusual to have one hurricane in the month of September—the middle of hurricane season—and don’t the days leading up to a hurricane cause a massive surge in retail sales as everyone hoards everything they think they will need, including the purchase of rain coats and other coats?
The mainstream media is crooning over the strong economy as usual, praise they are prone to make now that we re less than a month from the election.
That said, the hot sales were not so hot as to help year-on-year changes in retail sales, though.
As we read the article, we learn that retail sales “strengthened” by more than expected.
In keeping with the analysis I did in recent Deeper Dives about how all the good news in economics these days appears to be adjusted into place, we have another clear example today that I’ll share with all.
The entire positive figure was due to the seasonal adjustments: In fact, without the positive “seasonal adjustments,” sales actually fell month-on-month a whopping 7.5%!
It turns out there were actually ZERO gains in the raw numbers for retail sales.
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