Say Anything Blog

By Noel Sheppard

NewsBusters readers are well aware of our contention that the press have adopted the 1992 strategy of making every economic report look like the world is coming to an end, and we’ll all be in soup lines next year if the Democrat presidential candidate isn’t inaugurated in January.

No finer example is available than Thursday’s Associated Press article concerning February’s very disappointing retail sales report. To be sure, store traffic was much worse than expected last month, and we are not trying to paint a rosy picture.

However, there are two truly disturbing elements in Martin Crutsinger’s piece entitled “Retail Sales Plunge by 0.6 Percent” (h/t NBer Par for the Course):

1. A 0.2 percent rise was depicted as “small,” a 0.4 percent rise was “modest,” but a 0.6 percent decline was a “plunge”
2. In February, January’s rise in retail sales was “surprisingly strong.” Now, that same rise was depicted as “modest.”

First thing’s first (emphasis added):

Consumers, battered by plunging home prices and a credit crunch, stayed away from the malls in February, pushing retail sales down by a larger-than-expected amount. It was another worrisome sign that the country could be falling into a recession.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that retail sales fell by 0.6 percent last month, far worse than the small 0.2 percent increase that analysts had been expecting.

The weakness was widespread with sales of autos, furniture and appliances all down.

It marked the second time in the past three months that retail sales have taken a tumble. Sales had fallen by an even bigger 0.7 percent in December, the largest drop in six months, as the nation’s retailers suffered through a dismal holiday shopping season. Sales posted a modest 0.4 percent gain in January.

Hmmm. So, 0.2 is small, 0.4 is modest, but 0.6 is a plunge? How does one go so quickly to a plunge?

Applying Crutsinger’s logic to a real life example, if a $100 stock goes up 20 cents, that’s a small rise. If it rallies by 40 cents, it’s a modest increase. But, if it sells off by 60 cents, THAT’S a PLUNGE!

I get it, Marty.

[...]

MSM propaganda exposed.  It’s obvious that the lefties want an economic disaster for America, and probably want to use it to sell more govt and less private enterprise.