15 August 2008

Want the good news or the bad?

Sometimes the bad news is the good news. So it is with the report that retail sales are down by 0.1 percent in July, the sharpest drop in many months.

Why good news? It means that consumers are starting to cut back. They could be going into less debt. They might be saving more. They are being more careful about long-term plans pending short-term trends.

I don't know if people are really learning anything - or if things are just so bad that something has to change....sort of reading the manual after you have spent hours claiming you "know what your doing" reading it once dosen't mean you will pick it up the next time you open the Ikea box.

The article isn't actually annoucing that any big change is happeing, but more challenges the way we somtimes interpret data. It caught my attention because I sort of hope that maybe people will start to change the way they spend money.... well I can hope right?

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