Up Down Sideways what?

Government economic statistics are always fun because you can make the numbers say whatever you want.. or in this case nothing at all Today's report from the commerce department receives this headline from Reuter's: Core Retail Sales, Jobless Claims Up Three paragraphs in, we learn what they mean when they say retail sales are up.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales -- a major component of U.S. consumer spending -- fell 0.3 percent to $322.87 billion in January from December levels. It was the first decline since September.

However, excluding autos, a frequently volatile number, retail sales rose a bigger-than-expected 0.9 percent from the previous month.

Of course the big number is the 363,000 initial jobless claims (itself a gross understatement of the actual jobless) which is enormous. Christ if the Bush economic team continues to implement its stated policy, it could hit 400,000 by July.
Also, the Reuters management may give us a bump in that direction as well.