Retail Sales Data: "Snowdown," Not Slowdown

Retail Sales Data: “Snowdown,” Not Slowdown by Brad McMillan

The question about the economy lately has been whether or not we’re looking at a sustained slowdown.

A decline in expected corporate earnings has often heralded recessions, and with disappointing retail sales and employment numbers, many believe that the U.S. is looking at a significant slowdown at best, another recession at worst.

The counterargument, to which I subscribe, is that this is another example of a snowdown, not a slowdown, and that bad weather and some other onetime factors have combined to temporarily slow down the economy.

The great thing about economics is that...