WHY IS THE MSM COVERING UP RECESSIONARY DATA?

The Census Bureau put out their monthly retail sales report this morning. During good times, the MSM would be hailing the tremendous increases as proof the consumer was flush with cash and all was well with the economy. Considering 70% of our GDP is dependent upon consumer spending, you would think this data point would be pretty important in judging how well Americans are really doing.

It’s not perfect, because the issuance of debt to consumers to purchase autos, furniture, appliances and electronics can juice the retail sales numbers and create the false impression of strength. That’s what has been going on with auto sales for the last two years.

The retail sales figures have been propped up by the issuance of subprime auto loans to deadbeats, 7 year 0% interest loans to good credit customers, and an all-time high in leases (aka 3 year rentals). Despite this Fed induced auto loan scheme, retail sales have still been pitiful, as the average American has been left with stagnant wages, 0% interest on their minuscule savings, surging rent and home prices, and drastic increases in their healthcare costs due to Obamacare.

The retail sales for March, reported this morning, were disastrous and further confirmed a myriad of other economic indicators that the country is in recession. GDP for the first quarter will be negative. And this time they can’t blame it on snow in the winter. They have already doubly seasonally adjusted the figures, and they will still be negative. Retail sales in the first quarter were atrocious. It might make a critical thinking person question the establishment storyline of solid job growth being peddled by politicians and their MSM mouthpieces. If people had good paying jobs, they would be spending money.

The Ivy League educated “expert” economists expected March retail sales to increase by 0.1%. They only missed by $6 billion, as retail sales FELL by 0.3%. They have fallen for three straight months. At least gasoline sales were strong, as prices have risen 22% since mid-February. That should do wonders for the finances of American households. If you exclude gasoline sales, retail sales fell by 0.4%. As the chart below reveals, the year over year change in retail sales has been at or near recessionary levels for most of 2015, and into 2016.

Digging into the details reveals some worrying trends for the establishment purveyors of propaganda. It seems every deadbeat in America has been convinced to buy a car on credit. They’ve run out of useful idiots. Auto sales plunged by 2.3%, the fourth decline in a row, and the biggest decline since last February. This ongoing plunge in auto sales is happening in spite of dealers offering tremendous levels of incentives, rebates, extended 0% financing, and low priced leases. The TV commercials from the automakers offering once in a lifetime offers are endless.

The Fed induced auto loan bubble is bursting, as default rates on the billions of subprime slime loans issued in the last few years skyrocket, and the prices of used cars crash as the millions of leases come due. Dealer lots are overflowing with overpriced automobiles with no demand. The implications of this bubble bursting are far reaching. The fallacious demand created by easy money kept the union manufacturing plants humming and allowed Obama to crow about saving the auto industry. As demand collapses, layoffs will surge, and the minimal profits being generated by GM, Ford, and Chrysler will turn to huge losses again.

The two retail areas which had remained strong over the last few years, restaurant sales and internet sales, both went negative in March. Their growth rates have slowed dramatically over the last three months. It might make you wonder whether paying $600 per share for Amazon stock is really a smart investment. With restaurant sales petering out, how many more waiters and waitresses are going to be hired to keep the Obama jobs recovery on track? With year over year retail sales, excluding autos, up by a pitiful 1.3%, and real inflation for real American families of at least 5%, real retail sales are falling. That might explain the plunging retail profits.

The free fall in department store sales continues unabated, with year over year sales down 6.1%. Anyone buying into the JC Penney, Sears, Macy’s, Kohl’s revival storyline is a fool. Wall Street can sell that tripe to their “clients”, but the bricks and mortar department stores are dead retailers walking.

You would think real journalists working for real business websites like Marketwatch (owned by the Wall Street Journal/Rupert Murdoch) would report these disconcertingly bad economic numbers in great detail. But shockingly, when I clicked onto the Marketwatch website to find their brilliant detailed analysis of the horrific retail sales report, I found absolutely nothing. It was as if this report never existed. I checked back all day long, and nada. It’s almost as if they wanted to bury the story.

Evidently, recessionary levels of retail sales doesn’t fit the agenda of the establishment. They prefer concentrating on the rising stock market, driven by short covering and HFT machines buying from each other. The mainstream media is controlled by six corporations. Their job is not to tell you the truth. Their job is to keep you sedated, distracted, and amused. Any critical thinking individual can discern they are in the midst of a recession, but those in power will never allow the truth to reach the masses. Bad news reflecting reality is unacceptable to an entrenched ruling class who are not quite done pillaging the remaining wealth of the nation.

“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.”Ron Paul

 

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Hollow man
Hollow man
April 13, 2016 9:44 pm

To pump up obama and the commie agenda

Francis Marion
Francis Marion
April 13, 2016 10:15 pm

“It’s almost as if they wanted to bury the story.”

There’s a lot of that going around these days.

bb
bb
April 13, 2016 10:16 pm

Well as hollow man …to pump up Obama and the commie agenda .That’s about all I can say.I had to go to emergency room yesterday. Somehow or someway I have gotten some kind of upper respiratory infection. I wouldn’t wish this shit on a worse enemy if I had one……Stucky , it would be nice if you prayed for me.

Stucky
Stucky
April 13, 2016 10:27 pm

I don’t really pray, bb. However, I wish you well, and a speedy recovery.

VegasBob
VegasBob
April 13, 2016 10:30 pm

The MSM is in the tank for the lying termagant Hitlery Clinton.

They are not going to report any bad news, such as a recession, that might get in the way of that fucking bitch’s coronation.

Stucky
Stucky
April 13, 2016 10:36 pm

Several here have already stated the reason. To insure a Democrat wins the election.

Imagine if people knew the REAL truth, and not governmental horseshit …. NO democrat would even have a remote chance of being the next POTUS.

Rob in Nova Scotia
Rob in Nova Scotia
April 13, 2016 10:38 pm

It is amazing they have been able to kick the can this far. Once next Prez is installed wheels are going to fall off. At least that is what I think. This cant continue indefinitely. But I have been surprised before.

Stucky
Stucky
April 13, 2016 10:43 pm

Rob, that can-kicking may not make it to election day,

“Just about every major banker and finance minister IN THE WORLD is meeting in Washington, DC, this week, following two rushed, secretive meetings of the Federal Reserve and another instantaneous and rare meeting between the Fed Chair and the president of the United States. These and other emergency bank meetings around the world cause one to wonder what is going down. Let’s start with a bullet list of the week’s big-bank events:”

rest here —> http://www.activistpost.com/2016/04/banks-this-week-emergency-meetings-summits-crashes-and-terrible-bank-reports.html

Many important somebodies are quite afraid of ………. something.

kokoda
kokoda
April 13, 2016 10:50 pm

There are some in the financial world that use Retail Sales as a leading indicator for the stock market.

Add the info TBP supplied on Friday that the Fed was having an emergency meeting on Monday with a later afternoon meeting of Yellen and O’Liar.

Coincidence?

Rob in Nova Scotia
Rob in Nova Scotia
April 13, 2016 11:01 pm

Stucky

I’d say you are right and reading that I smell rotten fish. It is going to be a hot summer and I really think we are several months into downturn already. Where I work the only projects getting underway is government porkulous. All the work I did in Alberta has dried up. Shoe is going to drop. Sooner or later. Sounds sooner. The Bakken has to be close to a reckoning. All those bad loans could be the spark that causes the forest fire.

kokoda
kokoda
April 13, 2016 11:08 pm

Well, the problem stems right here at all you negative bitches at TBP. You should be out there spending, spending, spending. But no, all you do is sit with your electronic device and wait for the next post on TBP, anticipating your next comment will win the Pulitzer Prize.

You are the problem for our collapsing economy…..bitches.

rhs jr
rhs jr
April 14, 2016 12:48 am

The Elite bought all the MSM and Politicians; control all Official Economic, Educational, and Scientific Data. They lowered interest rates to zero or less, printed and distributed trillions to the Elite and called it a recovery, manipulate the DOW up and the Precious Metals prices down; and easiest of all,control the Useful Idiots thinking. They lie about GMOs, Global Warming, UFOs, assassinations, False Flags, wars, the Budget, vaccinations, voting fraud, Yellowstone, The Constitution, and God. Oh what a tangled web they wove. If they told the Truth now, the public would first panic, then run the banks and then kill TPTB SOBs (gonna happen soon anyway because the phony fiat economy and their lies are about to bust open like a dirt dam during a thousand year flood).

card802
card802
April 14, 2016 6:40 am

After all the fed has done with QE and whatnot, after all the debt both parties have agreed to, how can any critical thinking person believe America has recovered?

Heff
Heff
April 14, 2016 7:06 am

I hate to say this, but I actually believe it would be better for our country in the long run if that treacherous psychopath Hillary Clinton was elected president. That way when our economy does take a huge shit (and it will), that liberal-progressive poster child will be sitting at the helm and have to answer for the economic implosion. Most peoples’ memories are short. They will associate our economic downfall with whatever president/political party is in charge at the time. Who’s she going to blame? The previous president, Obama? All the better then.

Rob in Nova Scotia
Rob in Nova Scotia
April 14, 2016 7:28 am

Kokoda

I agree with you. Pulitzer prizes for everyone and

[imgcomment image[/img]

You are right we do think of ourselves as smarter potatoes around here. But what’s a fella to do!

Rebar detailer is way less exciting than being an STM on TBP

[imgcomment image[/img]

the tumbleweed
the tumbleweed
April 14, 2016 8:01 am

I saw snippets of that television equivalent of a ghost town CNBC yesterday. They were plastering some positive, no doubt out of context quote at the bottom of every screen. It was something like “Consumer Remains Strong.” All they do is find some two bit hack, call him an “expert” then cherry pick a two or three words, and repeat ad naseum. Remember “green shoots” from a few years back? That’s all it takes to placate the masses because they will never delve into the text of the report.

Olga
Olga
April 14, 2016 8:38 am

Their job is to keep you sedated, distracted, and amused.

~~~~

And I am surrounded by sedated, distracted and amused individuals who pity me for my concerns and my lack of confidence in the system.

Had some clueless siblings visiting from SE Michigan a few weekends ago and they inform me that although the “new normal” is not what we grew up with the factories are humming along nicely.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer
April 14, 2016 8:46 am

If you can’t trust them to use simple math in order to deliver an accurate result based on reality, why would you trust them to run a space program?

You see where I’m going with that?

Dutchman
Dutchman
April 14, 2016 8:47 am

Well they lie about everything. What else is new?

DurangoDan
DurangoDan
April 14, 2016 10:04 am

“Considering 70% of our GDP is dependent upon consumer spending…” I’ve often wondered about this figure that has been repeated so many times. On a global scale doesn’t consumption have to equal production. So if US GDP for 2015 really was $16.46 Trillion ( http://www.multpl.com/us-gdp-inflation-adjusted/table ), 70% of this is $11.52 Trillion, which leaves just 30% as US Production which equals $4.94 Trillion. This implies a US production deficit of $6.58 Trillion. In other words, the US consumes $2.33 worth of stuff for each dollar worth of stuff that is produced in the US. I must be misunderstanding something. Can someone sort this out for me?

Bam_Man
Bam_Man
April 14, 2016 10:06 am

Clearly, the MSM is in the process of self-destructing. And this is a good thing.
Their credibility, even with the dumbed-down masses, is rapidly approaching zero.
How do you sell “air time” to advertisers when your messages are all seen as nothing but lies and fraud?

susanna
susanna
April 14, 2016 10:31 am

@bb,

what kind of URI sends a person to the ER?

(off topic, request a mulligan)

Do you have asthma? Sorry that happened to you,
and hope you get better quick.

I have been collecting anecdotal evidence about the
rise and prevalence in URIs that get severe and last.
People are complaining about this far and wide.
As if we didn’t have enough with “coincidences”
and unexplained events and experiences, however,
others looking into this epidemic are starting to talk about
a “chem trail flu.” Just saying.

susanna
susanna
April 14, 2016 10:37 am

on topic…
MSM reads from a script…however outrageous, they stick to it.

Looks like a big something is going to explode. Unfort. it may
include Venezuela-like outcomes. Maybe we should hope for a softer
landing? Whatever bravado people express, we won’t like to see
our fellow man starving.

DurangoDan
DurangoDan
April 14, 2016 10:45 am

Thanks Admin. Got it. For 2015 GDP was $18 Trillion of which 68.5% was personal consumption, 17.6% was government consumption and investment (?), 16.7% was private investment and -2.9% was the trade deficit. Totals 100%. What a worthless indictor of economic condition!

platoplubius
platoplubius
April 14, 2016 11:13 am

Of course the title of this thread “why is the MSM covering up recessionary data?” is a rhetorical question coming from Jim Quinn. Most frequenters to this site already know the answer to that question. Edward Bernays emphasized “timing” as a key element of propaganda. I provided a quote that has been quoted many times before on this site but is worth repeating.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
― Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda

DurangoDan
DurangoDan
April 14, 2016 12:17 pm

Even the term “consumer credit as % of DPI (Disposable Personal Income) seems to conflate debt with income. Debt = Negative Future Income = Slavery. Nonetheless, it’s clear that even fake income can’t keep this Ponzi going. It’s taken about $10 Trillion of new global debt every year since 2008 to give the illusion of recovery. It’s over! About Time.

DRUD
DRUD
April 14, 2016 1:31 pm

For years, following this site and other on a daily basis, I have read hundreds of articles showing in great detail a massive system of fraud, corruption, unfathomable debt, waste, cultural decay, propaganda that would make Goebbels cream his short, intrusions of privacy that Orwell could never have dreamed, and a childish, well-entertained apathy far beyond the darkest of Huxley’s imaginings.

In short, not only has ‘Murika gone down EVERY single short-sighted, foolish, selfish and self-destructive, but we have done it bigger and badder than any other empire in history.

Now, I fully understand the analogies of boiling frogs (normalcy bias), they magic eye-dropper in Yankee Stadium (the rapid endgame of exponential curves), as well as the concepts of black swans and prediction fatigue, but when does this shit blow up?

Everything I know about history, economics and sociology tells me that we are at the very cusp of the greatest collapse of empire in history, yet EVERYTHING in my day-to-day life remains wholly unchanged. I can still enter a few numbers into my computer and have virtually anything I can imagine delivered to my door. I still travel a mile a minute everywhere I go, dragging 2000 lbs of steel with me. I still have every imaginable convenience at my fingertips without leaving my comfortable home. Gasoline, propane, natural gas, wood, alcohol, oil–every energy source people have ever used is not only plentiful, but (in a historical context) ridiculously cheap. Everywhere I look around my town (Denver) I see signs of new construction and growth. And I still have yet to see so much as a single empty shelf at the myriad stores within a five minute drive from my house.

This is cognitive dissonance that cannot be fought, because both things are true. Historically speaking, things have never been better and things have never been more doomed.

Bob
Bob
April 14, 2016 2:06 pm

Eyes on the S&P — will it make a new high? With the market recovering recently from 1810 back up to 2087, and the all-time high at 2134, this is high drama, folks. A new high would confirm a new up wave has begun — forget any significant corrections below 1800 for a while.

Either the economy reaches escape velocity from the singularity of deflationary depression and keeps on going from there (status quo stagflation), or corrects and THEN goes up, or plunges down into a black hole of only-God-knows-what (remember the 1500 mark is the early-warning indicator for that)…

To summarize:

S&P > 2134 = same old shit, but more of it
S&P > 1500 < 2134 = some more sticky shit to deal with before we move on
S&P < 1500 = OH SHIT!

It's an inflection point, with possible implications for the next decade.

platoplubius
platoplubius
April 14, 2016 2:11 pm

DRUD

Excellent compilation of thoughts! Many echo in my own mind too! Eyes on Venezuela to see what will happen here….the decoupling of the economy from reality there because of declining oil revenues along with the FED’s manipulation of rates has created beginning stages of hyperinflation….
I believe in Murika we are already seeing the decoupling of the government subsidized economy and real economy (aka black market)…where CASH is KING.
On the street already, Snap card money is being traded at 2:1…$2 on a snap card for $1 in cash….this trend will increase and justify the “authorities” to implement new measures to prevent such acts from transpiring like linking biometric i.d. with SNAP benefits and with purchases at POS machines at grocery markets! All part of the plan…let the problem get real bad and have a bunch of useful idiots clamor for change and then offer the solution which will only benefit the few at the expense of the many!

Greg Burton (@WG_Burton)
Greg Burton (@WG_Burton)
April 14, 2016 2:59 pm

“WHY IS THE MSM COVERING UP RECESSIONARY DATA?” Why, indeed.

What did Henry Kissinger state?

“Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence.

“It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government.” — Henry Kissinger, May 21, 1992 Bilderburg

It would not do the Satanic oligarchy well, if they telegraphed their intentions to implode the world economy as part of the means of terrifying the world into acceptance of their global governance plan, replete with the global totalitarian grid c/o the 9/11 inside job attacks, and their “global warming” swindle enabling them to dictate the lives of every human being, top-to-bottom, on the planet in the name of saving the environment; and it’s predictable method: global genocide.

No, to tell the people the truth would enable them to figure out the oligarchy’s privately held banking scheme, and consider other alternatives, like public banking per the US Constitution; as they are now waking and realizing that the “war on terror” is a fraud, based on an obvious fraud (controlled demolition, al Qaeda (ISIS) alliance before, during, and after 9/11).

No, to maximize the shock value, the group mind programming value, stealth is necessary.

platoplubius
platoplubius
April 14, 2016 3:12 pm

Jim Q. -“Anyone buying into the JC Penney, Sears, Macy’s, Kohl’s revival storyline is a fool.”

Funny thing, just got an ad in my e mail for JC Penney’s PENNY Saturday sale….

[imgcomment image[/img]

platoplubius
platoplubius
April 14, 2016 3:14 pm

I suppose these desperation business tactics are to boost same store sales through gimmick and peek a boo accounting tricks to feign health and psychologically perpetuate the normalcy bias afflicting the average American!

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
April 14, 2016 4:26 pm

That’s not all the MSM is covering up (This linked piece isn’t what you think it’s about..Bea pls take special note):

Press TV: 15 Saudi ‘hijackers’ were CIA agents working for US

DRUD
DRUD
April 14, 2016 5:10 pm

I couldn’t agree more that a major crisis is at our doorstep. Knowing that certainly doesn’t take the anxiety away or make it any easier to fake my way through each day’s work. Of course, we are on the cusp of great changes, and it is likely that I will sing a different tune when we are “right of boom,” but living in our bullshit (but comfortable) system waiting for doom is getting very fucking old.

Unbound
Unbound
April 14, 2016 5:18 pm

Me too, DRUD. This “waiting to die” is killing me…

KaD
KaD
April 14, 2016 7:47 pm

Why is the Federal Reserve having four emergency closed meetings in two weeks? Minute 3:

Jim
Jim
April 14, 2016 9:39 pm

Why is the mainstream media covering up recessionary data? Because they can. Out.

Suzanna
Suzanna
April 14, 2016 11:08 pm

@West
FWIW…I am super proud of you. VT may have hyperbole bias,
but some of that material is very true. And you pointed it out.

@KaD
great link!

@Drud
I love your comments. All the smarties are warning us. Few are
as calm and concerted as Mike Maloney. See KaD’s link. Everybody
is sick of all the doom predictions. And thinking people are scared.
Yet, as the time narrows for us, the opportunities are still there to
use our resources to prepare. We want to hope it all holds together
long enough for us to do so.

overthecliff
overthecliff
April 15, 2016 10:02 am

Maybe the empire will collapse in a gigantic eruption of the debt bomb. Maybe the empire will go down slowly from congestive heart failure. It took the Romans about 200 years to complete the cycle. We have had 100 years of slow strangulation of our culture. Collapse slowly at first then suddenly. When I don’t know.

As to the question in the title. Why does MSM cover it up? , Because they are corrupt bought and paid for whores. They are vile second only to the education establishment.

Dutchman
Dutchman
April 15, 2016 11:08 am

The insanity – my daughter is an executive chef of a local high end restaurant chain.

Also, she has also liked fashion. Several years ago she took a one month course on makeup – air brushing, etc.

Believe it or not – there are many weekends where she will get about $750 – a day (like 4 -6 hours) and do the women’s wedding party make up. No1099’s.

I can’t believe it – that people will pay money for it.

Rise Up
Rise Up
April 15, 2016 11:32 am

DRUD says: ” Historically speaking, things have never been better and things have never been more doomed.”
———————————–
Ask a person who has just been laid off and has no savings. I’m not saying to pity them because they have poorly planned for the event, but their life has just changed in an instant. Others on the cusp, with some savings but not enough to go more than a few months if they have a sizeable mortgage, will quickly descend into financial hell.

The duality of your statement is spot-on.

The “emergency” Fed meetings with the black man in the white house may be a sign…or not.

The PTB mask themselves well.

Be prepared as best you can (cash on hand, water/food stores, weapons if you are so inclined).

Today’s good times (for the lucky ones) could end quicker than you can imagine.

Rise Up
Rise Up
April 15, 2016 11:36 am

Admin, sending my $100 donation today as promised a few weeks ago.

Hope@ZeroKelvin
Hope@ZeroKelvin
April 15, 2016 11:47 am

Can’t make the SCAMF “historic” POTUS look bad, It is just that simple.

Donation coming your way, Admin.

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
April 15, 2016 1:50 pm

@Suzanna: Thanks for your support! I need all I can get ’round here. Tough crowd 🙂

Stucky
Stucky
April 15, 2016 3:36 pm

** ADMIN *** ADMIN **** ADMIN

This will be by last post for a few days at least. Won’t be able to post Sunday stuff. Sorry. Emergency situation at my parents house. Dad ….

KaD
KaD
April 15, 2016 8:20 pm

In a new video, Mike Maloney warns of dangerously high P/E ratios and predicts a massive rollover of the stock market in the near future. Get out now!

Westcoaster
Westcoaster
April 15, 2016 10:16 pm

@Stucky: Sorry to hear. I hope your Dad is okay.