Retail Sales, Consumer Confidence | featured news

Bloomberg reports that U.S. consumer confidence is almost back to pre-recession levels. But is that actually good news? Over at the Big Picture, James Bianco says it’s not clear why “consumer confidence” is a useful metric. It’s not correlated with jobs. Or retail sales.

Growth in retail sales stalled in August after a pitched battle over spending in Congress led consumer confidence to crumble, data showed on Wednesday.

Retail sales soared in March, the government said Wednesday, in the latest sign of improving consumer confidence.

A key measure of consumer confidence fell in September, after a gain in the previous month, raising concerns about retail sales in the upcoming holiday season, a research group said Tuesday.