- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
U.S. retail sales dropped by the most in nearly two years in January, likely weighed down by frigid temperatures, wildfires and motor vehicle shortages, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic growth early in the first quarter.
But the larger-than-expected and across the board decline in retail sales reported by the Commerce Department on Friday probably does not reflect a material shift in consumer spending as it also followed four straight months of hefty increases.
A sharp upward revision to December’s sales took some of the sting from the report. Economists also noted that it was difficult to strip out large seasonal swings from the data at the turn of the year, which was also evident in the January consumer inflation report.
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it was the weather, fires, and car shortages. yup. youbetcha. the impending, and now fully-realized and ongoing, doom had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Well yeah those are all parts of the doom.
“Maybe people are getting confused on the tariff story and think they are happening immediately and are therefore not even considering a purchase,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.
Uhm people literally got fucked by some of the tariffs going into effect immediately???
Trump had to pump the brakes on that shit it was breaking down so fast.
How are we so sure it’s not people being reasonable about not knowing what is coming? I expect it to keep tanking because Trump is literally unpredictable. The only thing that’s predictable about him is chaos.
What’s weird about this is that lots of people and especially businesses were rushing to make purchases and stock up or replace old appliances ahead of expected tariffs. So theoretically you would have expected January to see increased sales.
Saving the acorns for the upcoming economic winter
After the election but before the inauguration we bought a replacement refrigerator before we absolutely needed to because the one we were looking at was made in Mexico. It seems kind of conspiratorial to buy it when, at that time, Trump was just muttering about tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Now it looks like good forethought and planning.
Yeah, we’re in Canada. I made a big purchase because I was expecting tariffs to tank the Canadian dollar.
I’m happy to say that neither of those things have happened. Yet.
Get ready for the Canadian dollar to be worth more than the US dollar.
looks over to my jar of loonies and toonies
i might just have a retirement fund after all.
