Monday, November 28, 2005

Holiday Retail Sales - who wants you to feel bad, feel good?

Clearly the MSM doesn't want you to feel good about the economy. Many economic indicators show we have a strong economy. Sure, there are always price fluctuations (oil, gas, homes, etc.) but employment, the big economic indicators and the markets are in great shape. The MSM likes to do stories that would make you believe otherwise. You will see stories about the house price bubble, or big companies with multi-thousand person layoffs, and so on. They don't give the perspective of the overall economic picture...they like to focus on just a small dent in an otherwise cherry classic automobile! The post Thanksgiving holiday shopping picture is no exception. Most of the stories below take what are in fact positive results (22% increase for the weekend total retail take according to the National Retail Federation, NRF) and spin it to sound ok or even bad. Amazing because most even quote the NRF figure with words like "dramatic" to describe the increase over last year. So why are the headlines or commentary always framed in a negative way?

Negative Spin

ABC calls it a modest start

CBS quotes economist who says a lot of hype but luke warm

NBC says spending modest, AP says the same thing

Positive Spin

Reuters (go figure) says Robust!

Mixed, admit the postive but temper it!

USA Today, some crazy, some keep it simple

NPR audio clip "so far, no drop in Holiday Shopping

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