Retail SalesTotal retail sales rose for the seventh straight month, increasing 0.3% in January following a 0.5% increase in December. Consumer spending has picked up, although January’s growth was a bit slower than anticipated as a result of the winter weather. The largest declines came from building materials (-2.9%), sporting goods & hobbies (-1.3%), and food service places (-0.7%). Sales are 7.8% above their year-ago level. Retail sales should continue to expand over the year as consumers’ confidence slowly rebounds.
Politics can make for strange bedfellows. Case in point: Last week I joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to testify on infrastructure investment before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. Rich and I don’t agree on much, but we believe that modernizing infrastructure will create jobs and economic growth.
President Obama made the short trek across Lafayette Park from the White House last week to address the U.S. Chamber. Referring to what’s often described in the press as a contentious relationship between the administration and the Chamber, the president quipped, “… maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start.”
International Trade Balance
1. Would you support a tax increase, if combined with spending cuts, to reduce the budget deficit and national debt?Yes 38.7%No 61.3%2. Would you support an increase in the federal gas and diesel tax if the proceeds were dedicated to investment in roads, highways, and public transportation? Yes 40.3%No 59.7%
Buoyed by two major court decisions ruling part or all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional, Senate Republicans last week took an unsuccessful run at repealing the new health care law. Although the House passed repeal legislation on January 19, it was always considered unlikely that the Senate would successfully follow suit. Even if it had, President Obama surely would have vetoed the bill. But none of this changes the fact that the law is impractical, unworkable, and a major step backward.
The U.S. Chamber on January 31 committed an additional $1 million to K-12, college, and post-graduate entrepreneurship education in 2011. The Chamber’s work in entrepreneurship education will bolster the private sector component of the White House’s new “Startup America” initiative, a national campaign to promote entrepreneurship.
Photo: David Bohrer/©U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
