If you've detected more than a whiff of desperation within the White House in recent days, there's a darn good reason for that:
Retail sales fell much more than expected in December as surging prices took a big bite out of spending, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
The advance monthly sales report to close out the year showed a decline of 1.9%, considerably worse than the Dow Jones estimate for just a 0.1% drop.
That's not good at all, especially for the White House, whose ongoing monetary and stimulus policies could be described charitably as "pro-inflation."
What happened to the $13 trillion we've printed since the start of 2020?? Might we imply that making the money printer go brrr didn't help the economy?
The numbers for specific industries were even more grim:
Excluding autos, sales fell 2.3%, a number that also fell well short of expectations for a 0.3% rise...
Online spending took the biggest hit as a share of overall spending, with nonstore retailers reporting a plunge of 8.7% for the month. Furniture and home furnishing sales declined 5.5% and sporting goods, music and book stores saw a 4.3% drop.
Let's cut to the White House for a live look at the president's response to those brutal trends:
And we're still only just one year in!!
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
