Press follies:Remember when the major news outlets were excitedly reporting that
holiday sales were up, up, up!As usual, they uncritically reported numbers from trade associations, like the National Federation of Retailers. Turns out the real figures for November are an increase of 0.2% from the previous year, which is terrible. The previous year, remember, was considered not-too-good because bad weather hampered shopping. This year there was no bad weather.
This is a small example of how the press has abandoned their work of being real reporters instead of parroting whatever a trade group or political party spews.
posted by Quiddity at 12/14/2011 01:28:00 PM
I thought it was big business that was unpatriotically hoarding money and refusing to create jobs. Turns out it's the 99% that's doing it. Who would have thunk it.
Yep, kinda hard for people who would rather stay at home living the high life on unemployment to go out shopping and boost the economy.
It's not just the 8-10% of Americans the government counts as "unemployed" that aren't spending money.
Maybe the holiday sales were dismal because people are paying off more of their debts than splurging on holiday shopping.
