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Explain This Trend

Tyler Durden's picture




 

The retail sales control group - the components of retail sales that feed straight into the GDP calculation - rose at a pace of 2.4% in December, the lowest since 2009, and dropped 0.3% sequentially, the biggest drop since December 2011. What this means is that GDP growth - expected to be flourishing until recently and which Joe LaVorgna has at about 4% for 2014 - is about to be monkeyhammered. Why? Snow in the winter, of course.

 

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Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:35 | 4432013 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

You think the IMF could send a little cash our way?

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:38 | 4432019 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

PRINT IT YOURSELFS YOU LAZY BASTARDS!

YOU KNOW WHAT INK GOES THESE DAYS?!

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:36 | 4432017 BandGap
BandGap's picture

Fucking monkeys and their fucking hammers. Nothing pisses a monkey off more than snow, too.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:39 | 4432024 Sudden Debt
Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:44 | 4432038 BandGap
BandGap's picture

Now just picture those three little fuckers with hammers. Mayhem I tell you.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:36 | 4432018 Spastica Rex
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To increase GDP accuracy, we should remove the bottom 80% of the population from the measurements.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:41 | 4432026 LawsofPhysics
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Don't worry, that's exactly what the prison system has been doing.  Soon enough those FEMA camps will start filling up.  If that doesn't work, world war will.

same as it ever was.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:41 | 4432033 Spastica Rex
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I used to think that economic metrics were wildly inaccurate, then I learned that they had nothing to do with me.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:52 | 4432064 spanish inquisition
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Odds are some ZH'rs will be in the same FEMA camps that aren't given an immediate dirt nap. I wonder if they will make us wear gold zero's on our lapel, so we can recognize each other. 

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:58 | 4432076 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

If they let me wear my gold shirt I will be the talk of ALL the FEMA camps! (that's my plan so far anyway)

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 11:05 | 4432112 Remnant_Army
Remnant_Army's picture

Indeed. There will be war. 100%. Time to open eyes to the truth.

 

http://www.thewarningsecondcoming.com/second-seal-world-war-3/

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:42 | 4432036 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

SSHHH.

The planned permanent deletion is coming.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:51 | 4432060 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Heard it from a guy named Rosebud.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 11:27 | 4432209 LMAOLORI
LMAOLORI's picture

 

 

"To increase GDP accuracy, we should remove the bottom 80% of the population from the measurements"

 

                                              There's a name for that USELESS EATERS

 

The global debt reckoning – Total global debt at $230 trillion. Total world debt over 300 percent annual GDP. There is no escape from a reckoning with debt markets.
Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:40 | 4432022 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

That's easy.  So long as the world population continues to grow, the energy and resources avaialble for consumption by that population to maintain the current standard of living will continue to decline.

Hence, will we continue to "beat expectations" all the way down...

hedge accordingly.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:42 | 4432027 Rubbish
Rubbish's picture

Restaurants have slowed considerably since the Holiday Season in So. Cal. Usually a sign of less confidence and discretionary income. 1st Q will not be good imo. Commercial vacancies just aren't leasing unless the facilities are brand new. Brace yourselves, could get worse.

 

Gold Bitchez, Gold

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:39 | 4432028 gatorengineer
gatorengineer's picture

lets see to get true picture factor in food inflation...  fuel inflation....

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:41 | 4432029 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

"Oh Lord won't you buy me; a Mercedes Benz..."

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:49 | 4432049 Whoa Dammit
Whoa Dammit's picture

Why ? Do you want to hit a tree and auto flambe while first dropping the car's engine half a block behind you ?

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:42 | 4432030 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't you have to make stuff to have a gross domestic product? Besides financial weapons of mass destruction and waste products what do we make that calculates out to a 15.68 trillion dollar GDP? 

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:47 | 4432035 LawsofPhysics
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edit:  That should be financial "products" of mass destruction.

 

Control the language and you control the people/debate.

Sort of like the government "shutdown".  Please, there was no shutdown.

Should have been the government two week paid vacation.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:45 | 4432044 starman
starman's picture

Sorry I did not  know going broke can be a trend?

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:52 | 4432050 ebworthen
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Joe LaBologna:  "The reason for wetness is water."

Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable bought out by Comcast creating a yet larger lurching monopolistic monster of disinformation and overpriced propaganda and crap.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:59 | 4432085 Temporalist
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Every time Joe Lavomita's name is mentioned an angel gets choked.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 12:39 | 4432543 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

DirectTV will buy Netflix in 3...2...

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 10:53 | 4432063 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

Well, aren't things like snow blowers and shovels being 'consumed' hand over fist? They'd have to be.

What's NOT being consumed....tank top T-shirts, flip flops, and Bermuda shorts? Wouldn't that be part of their retail sales data model already?

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 11:01 | 4432096 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

pencil whip that puppy

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 11:05 | 4432113 GooseShtepping Moron
GooseShtepping Moron's picture

Not to be a gadfly or anything, but it's not unthinkable that the weather really does have something to do with this. As we all know, the consumer is tapped out. Savings have been drawn down to practically nothing. Labor force participation is at a multi-decadal low. But the cost of the energy required to heat homes, i.e. natural gas and oil, is going up. As Tyler pointed out just the other day, the price of crude oil is hovering around its all-time high for this part of the year. Given these constraints, does it not sound at least plausible that the few remaining people with jobs who are ponying up their last bits of loose change to heat their homes, might not have any money left over for making discretionary purchases of cheap Chinese shit from Wal-Mart or Bezos?

Besides, this is not just "snow in the winter" we're talking about here. We have seen some rather crippling storms come through the South bringing road closures and power outages, and record cold temperatures in the Midwest and interior ranges. This really does put a damper on people's ability to go shopping (even electronic shopping), and it may account for the uptick in "building materials," which is the one significant outlier in an otherwise uniform field of red.

I'm not sure why the Tylers scoff at the idea of weather being a factor. If one of the main thrusts here at Zero Hedge is to show that the world economy is fragile, I would think that this increased vulnerability to natural cycles rather helps their cause than hurts it, for it proves that the design margin of the system has been used up and we are more and more at the mercy of exogenous events. Weather is real. Weather has been causing droughts, floods, famines, and destruction all throughout human history. Weather is a factor(!), and it becomes more and more a determining factor in proportion to the loss of resilience elsewhere.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 13:20 | 4432740 Solarman
Solarman's picture

You sir are absolutely correct.  Plus wait and see the price of veggies and fruits this summer as california bakes in its drought.  Poliiticians and central planners are like the grasshoppers of bibilcal parable fame. Pain must be thrust upon these people, and we all get to enjoy it with them.

 

ZH just is mocking the excuse camp

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 11:23 | 4432193 Yancey Ward
Yancey Ward's picture

It has been a shocking Winter- it started on December 22 and isn't expected to end until the beginning of the fourth week of March.

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 11:50 | 4432311 ncdirtdigger
ncdirtdigger's picture

If only Obomber would sign an executive order raising everyone's credit card limits, all would be good! More grass for the sheep to eat!

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 12:04 | 4432362 RockRiver
RockRiver's picture

It's winter....we tend to stay indoors more......

Thu, 02/13/2014 - 12:14 | 4432394 kenezen
kenezen's picture

Our government will use any excuse to forgive this incredible lack of real recovery. Now they are going to require far more lying by their minions!!  THE SNOW, THE SNOW!

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