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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sunny Jim who wrote (109122)	2/28/2010 12:06:09 PM
From: mishedlo	8 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Retail sales are not what they seem I have written about this but not enough. The published numbers are based on "same store sales". Think about all the companies that have gone bankrupt. Take Circuit City for an example. Gone. The doors are closed. Some of those shoppers went to Best Buy where same store sales rose. But remember that best buy and many other chains closed weak stores. The result: same store sales went up again. Government methodology for reporting retail sales is based on sampling stores in existence. It automatically cannot sample stores not in existence but recently were. Nor does it handle closed stores even when the chsin is still doing business. Government reporting of retail sales is fatally flawed. To understand what is going on, all one has to look at actual tax data. Heard any rosy numbers from states about sales tax collections? Mish

To: Sunny Jim who wrote (109122)	2/28/2010 3:06:51 PM
From: mishedlo	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Retail Sales Rise: Where? Let's Take a Look; Expect Nothing Less Than Panic globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com In response to For 15 Million Unemployed any Job is a Good Job; Questions for Pollyannas; Wishes Aren't Fishes reader "Sunny Jim" asks ... Mish P.S. Much, much more information in there for you. Good question.