Unadjusted January Retail Sales Post Biggest Sequential Plunge In History
The topic of BLS propaganda seasonal adjustments has been discussed extensively here especially in light of January's NFP beat. We'll leave it at that. However, we were rather surprised to note that the Census Bureau may have also ramped up its seasonal adjustment "fudge factoring" because when looking at the January headline retail sales data, which naturally was a smoothly continuous line on a Seasonally Adjusted basis, rising from $399.9 billion in December to $401.4 billion in January, something rather odd happened in the Unadjusted data set: the plunge from $459.8 billion in December to $361.4 billion in January, or -$98.5 billion in one month, was the biggest one month drop in retail sales in history. Now we won't say much on this topic, suffice to say that it would be far more useful if the BLS and Census Bureaus were to open up their models and explain in nuanced detail just what "old normal" adjustments they still incorporate into data sets. Because as many have already noted, seasonal adjustments used for data from 1980 to 2008 when "up" was the only allowed direction for everything, are completely irrelevant and misleading in the New Deleveraging Normal. Which reminds us: Zero Hedge will offer $10,000 to the first BLS employee to share with us the full and complete excel model set, including assumptions, data tables, and comprehensive output parameters that the agency uses to go from input A to output X. We hope that by spending that money we will finally do society a service and open up to everyone just how it is that the BLS adjusts its Non-Farm Payrolls data.
As for Unadjusted retail sales, here they are:
(15 votes)
»
- Login or register to post comments
- 15912 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
Similar Articles You Might Enjoy:
- Deconstructing The "Massive Beat" in Employment Data
- Full Transcript Of The BLS' First Post-NFP Public Q&A
- Explaining Yesterday's Seasonally Adjusted Nonfarm Payroll "Beat"
- Today's Economic Data Docket - Retails Sales, Claims, Inventories, Budget Balance
- Employment Data Saga Continued: Krasting Says Larry Summers Misstates; Stockman Says It Goes Deeper
I'll reserve my judgement until the TV tells me how I feel about this.
I love the smell of fake numbers in the morning!
I told you! Central banks are colluding with primary dealers to tighten credit and put the squeeze on retail stocks! When is the SEC going to put a stop to this manipulative tightening!? Central banks need to loosen monetary policy in line with poor consumer spending figures, and retail banks need to provide easy credit to boost aggregate demand.
you're the best troll ever...
...except all the other ones.
OK -- Here you go:
=[type in number from AgitProp office]No no. Here is the true excel model set:
Sales =[Whatever the squid and banksters say it is]
You say that like "squid and banksters" are (i) different from one another, and (ii) not the "AgitProp office." I beg to differ on both accounts!
I assume Census uses X-12-ARIMA for their seasonal adjustment on this release like they do for their other releases, which basically means they put all the data in a giant sausage maker and some smooth-lined goop is supposed to come out the other side. If you're morbidly curious you can look through the documentation and even download and install Win-X12 and mess with it to see what you can come up with, but it's not a particularly enjoyable experience from what I remember the last time I tried it.
Let's see: An all-season record negative raw number becomes a small positive after "seasonal adjustment". Translation: We lose $100 on every sale, but we make it up on volume.
Well, at least it does shed some light on the adjustments they use to get the implausible unemployment numbers!
Fine Art, Bitchez!
all that matters now is whether the Fed is going to buy the stock market. No clue how much more in profits can be wrung from this...the whole thing goes over the falls when iShit becomes passe
Remember this is the modern GIGO. Garbage in, Gospel Out.
"Zero Hedge will offer $10,000 to the first BLS employee to share with us the full and complete excel model set..."
I expect a return on this modest investment -- I would observe, however, that the source being a government clodpate, would have turned for much less.
Is there a troll of the year award? In the context of a trading site, MDB is simply the best.
I would nominate Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart as a pretty good paper troll. He was expecting phenominal retail sales. Hopium is a wonderful thing.
Joe Wiesenthal is a cancer to the internet. That man should be banned from publishing anything economic related.
hard to beat "robotrader" though...
Naw, you're not a troll if you truly believe what you say.
MDB doesn't really believe the stuff he says... I've seen a few cracks in his facade based on word choice, sentence structure, continuity, etc. Robo on the otherhand is a true whack-job!
And we used to get trolls like Johnny Bravo & Master Bates who would at least stick around and argue their troll droppings.
Most trolls these days are dump and run.
MDB is the best deadpan delivery I've seen with the written word - pure comic genius.
I love you.
MDB, that was funny!
8
Or we could declare financial and moral bankruptcy; start over by working for a living.
In other news:
MDB...I love the smell of your scarcasm in the morning.
Well the radio was really giddy about it. As they were about some new poll that Santorum was ahead. That led the newscast.
Funny though, they made it seem that there were only 3 candidates left on the GOP side.
Must have been an accident.
pods
Huh. I thought they were all just Obama in whiteface.
Are you sure Obama isn't just a more well spoken Dubya in blackface?
sure says "ummmmmm" a lot for being well spoken...
Particularly when the telepromter isn't around to tell him what to say.
Santorum lead the newscast? Ahead of Whitney? Who botched that one? :D
Prolly a Christian station
Same here-over and over on the radio how "retail sales are up",recovery in progress.
The gov has to hope the majority stay dumb enough to buy into it......
'Buying into it' has a sticking point when they cant afford to buy into enough food to have dinner.
The TRUTH no longer matters, just the narrative.
Isn't Obamunism WUNNERFUL?
It's all about the delegates and he-who-shall-not-be-named actually has the most. Popular vote is meaningless.
That's pretty funny though that "Frothy" Rick Santorum who couldn't get re-elected to his Senate seat and got tossed out on his ass by his constituents now thinks he is somehow electable on a national scale.
I could tell it was a commercial for him. Thought it was an ad for GM.
You almost cannot even listen to the headlines anymore.
LOL...thats even if they report this:
Oh yeah, I foresee a real BIG round of hiring this summer.
In a sense, the corporations are in a bind here. They have to hire debtors because the banks that lend THEM money, and the governments that give THEM tax breaks, are pressuring them to reciprocate whatever profts they do earn, back into the communities in the form of jobs nad investment.
The growth we have, isn't healthy growth. It's just more McStuff being shuffled from port to port, store to store. My friend and I on Sunday night, as we walked from a pub in Cambridge, were ASTONISHED to see the sale signs at the shops. "40% off, 50% off, 75% off!" There is always Janurary sales in the retail sector....but NOTHING like this.
The MAIN problem the BLS doesn't foucs on is, these new jobs do not come close to the wages that keep up with the money supply (which will most likely expand again after more Eurozone shenanegians). The lack of benefits leads to lack of security; which in turn, leads to public panic. And when young people are not employed, as we see in Greece, act a fool.
In the end, this all means more money for the banks (as consumers get serious about a)getting more debt to keep their McLife afloat or B) paying down debt=bad for economy) and landlords (as renting goes up for those under 35...again, more money for banks), and less for the retail shops (who will probably end up consolidating, which is NOT good for the free market).
As Stephanie Kelton said on Twitter, "Workers are getting hammered". And she isn't just talking about the dude bros hitting up $1 draft night at the local pub on a Friday night.
Nevermind that all of these "cooked" BLS U3 numbers WILL have a market correction at some point after the election. They always do, no matter what sides wins.
2013 might be the Year of the Great Layoff.
Government data is totally useless at this point.
we'll see how people spend their money when gasoline gets to $4/gal soon...
And so this is what the masses and young fund managers get with their morning coffee and croissants...
"The figures follow a report earlier this month that showed improvement in the labor market may help sustain spending. Employers added 243,000 jobs in January, the most since April, and the unemployment rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.3 percent, according to the Labor Department."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/retail-sales-in-u-s-rose-in-january-as-shoppers-sought-post-holiday-sales.html
Which explains Tyler's offer of $10,000 to lift the BLS veil.
"Zero Hedge will offer $10,000 to the first BLS employee to share with us the full and complete excel model set, including assumptions, data tables, and comprehensive output parameters that the agency uses to go from input A to output X."
US Census data is the best data on the planet. Interestingly...only the Chinese have a history of "counting their people" the way the US has done since its inception. Moreover with the information age the need for really doing this anymore has pretty much been obviated. As data collection services explode throughout the planet "those who put the data to effective use first" win. That would be Time Warner, Bloomberg News, News Corp, Al Jazeera etc. "And there's your vast right wing conspriracy" as they say cuz everyone of these entities is run by "the utmost of so called conservatives." Don't worry tho...they won't be voting for Rick Santorum. (not that they're concerned about a President Santorum of course. They'd love that!) Insofar as labor numbers go--they'll take you bet i imagine...then reclassify the bulk of the American people as farmers! (and if you think that's funny...believe it or not that's EXACTLY how it was done for almost 300 years in the USA. It wasn't until World War II that reliable data for economic statistical purposes was created. Combined with a company called IBM and suddenly--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM&feature=player_detailpage
Business is not booming.
I disagree. A kid in our neighborhood could not find a job, so he started a repo business with his uncle. Damn kid made more last month than I did right out of of school with an engineering degree.
"repo-ing" is going to be big pretty soon. 'course it be the "looting" version, but that's just semantics.
"It's a golden age for the repo men, one that will never end."
On a personal level, that is the key. It is an aspect of the Dao, balance. As the corporations eat everything and exploit everyone, one by one individuals find their niche and succeed.
Did you hear that Whitney Houston died?
Better than expected.
Yes - and let's talk about it because that will make us feel a little better in the face of this devastating loss.
Should give a boost to the music companies with the upcoming tribute albums(can you call them that any longer ?). That's good for retail sales. No?
The fark headline was hilarious, "Whitney beats Bobby Brown to death."
Between that and the "birth control" debate one has decided that Seinfeld reruns really are the only thing worth watching on TV.
sarcasm, in it's finest hour...
Ah, but with Netflix, I can watch reruns of The Rat Patrol whenever I want.
They got "Daktari" on there?
No :( but they do have Flipper.
+1 I fired up rat patrol again just this past week. I had forgotten the squealing tire sounds on the sand, hell, they beat the Dukes of Hazard by a good decade :0
Don't know if you've seen it, but you might enjoy "Play Dirty" with Michael Caine, avail on Netflix instant, too.
Excellent - thanks!
Everyone loves... the king of the sea....
"Voyage to the bottom of the Sea" on HULU. Same place the US dollar is going...
coming from your avatar, that "DAKTARI" reference was hilarious! +1
<bow>
I actually have Rat Patrol on my netflix instant list- reminds me of a simpler time...
haven't gotten lucky lately i see. try "stickin' it in the street"....
Wait, when was Seinfeld ever not the only thing worth watching on TV? Well, I guess you gotta count Ice Road Truckers, too.
Newman!
No I think it was Britney who died in that tragic hotel bathtub accident.
Please verify that it was Britney and not Whitney...Americans await with bated breath which "Celebrity" has died.
britney's tragic accident will be along a few months after she marries her joo manager.
It was already priced in...
Gold sporting a little wood though.
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain; I am the Great and Powerful Oz!
"Zero Hedge will offer $10,000 to the first BLS employee to share with us the full and complete excel model set, including assumptions, data tables, and comprehensive output parameters that the agency uses to go from input A to output X."
Heh!
Which leads me to suspect he'd really pay $25k.
The offer is not subject to seasonal QE adjustments.
So much for government transparency and FOI.
Here is the computational formula...
http://cdn2.holytaco.com/wp-content/uploads/images/2009/12/expand.jpg
I'll take that $10,000 in gold please...
WTF, we now have to coerce government employees to prove that the statistical manupulations of data is just that. There is only one reason to manipulate anything, and that is to bend the truth.
I am so tired of this bullshit it makes me want to scream. The lies and truth bludgeoning are so fucking blatently obvious, yet we tra-la-la through the day watch The View and other such TV blatherings.
How could it be that consumers aren't spending?
They got all those new jobs, which barely let them afford food and shelter. Very odd.
Fimb da Jobs
Are you using these charts to terrorize Merican workers and trusted government servants?
Christmas 2011...
- Everyone go to the store, & buy presents
- Exchange them
- January, take them back and redeem your initial cash...
(oh... & happy Valentine's Day here's your chocolates... please don't eat them, I'm going to need those back)
You may have them back when I've finished them...
"Gee honey why are you so down?" "It's the job, it isn't easy thinking up new lies everyday. When I was younger I could do good ones off the top of my head. Now it gets harder and harder to do original ones."
Well, if this is where we are going to have to get the truth on all these BS numbers I guess it is time for me to make another donation to Zero Hedge.
It is the very least I can do to keep the truth flowing. I bet there are more than one or two at the BLS salivating about now.
Watch out for that first step. It's a doozy.
Ha, check the Drudge headline. $5 gas coming to a station near you real soon. The implosion that is coming will be like nothing the world has ever seen.
Damn straight. I dont really know the exact reason the Ponzi was pumped to such levels, it doesnt really make any sense other than just denial on their part. But soon as gas starts going back up (.30 cents here overnite) its going to be a world of hurt.
It is the slowest motion trainwreck ever.
Remember 08?
Oh everything is fine.....everything is fine..... OH WHAT $4++ GAS. Derail.
AIG needs 40B overnight what? Lehman who? Fannie and Freddie say again?
BOOM!
Get ready that is all.