Economy paints dire picture. Retail sales will fall in February

I once described retail analyst Howard Davidowitz as „the perfect andidote” for „all those policymakers, ‚economists,’ and TV pundits whose thinking has been clouded by the ‚green shoots’ they’ve been smoking.”

Well, here we are nine months later, and it looks like the permabulls are in need of yet another dose of Davidowitz-style reality (courtesy of Bloomberg Television) to shake them out of their stupor:

When I look at the numbers for the „big guys” — I’m not talking about some dinky little apparel chain doing $2 billion, which is idiotic — when you look at the real numbers, we’re going nowhere. And the consumer, who has lost a trillion dollars in credit availability, who has massive job losses…consumer bankruptcies are at a record level, savings is way up because they’re petrified of everything Obama’s doing (and so am I). So when you’re looking at what’s going on around here, how can it be good?

…

What doesn’t make sense to me is an improvement in the American consumer. I don’t see it.