A Sign that Our Economy is Stronger than Thought

Retail sales in September rose 1.9% and sales are up a large 5.4% versus a year ago. Excluding auto sales, sales still rose 1.5% last month and these sales are up 4% year over year. Second, Retail sales from February to April dropped 21.7%; but sales in September were 4.2% higher than they were in February before sales plummeted.

How are retail sales up when our unemployment rate is around 8% and many people believe it's much higher than this? Extra government intervention is no longer happening to support this strong consumer spending. Thus, maybe the economy is in better shape than we think it is.