The retail holiday shopping season seemingly got off to a good start after Thanksgiving as evidenced by the following statistics released by the National Retail Federation in November 28, 2010 article entitled, “Black Friday Weekend Sees Bigger Crowds, $45 Billion in Spending”Read more
We, at Hennion & Walsh, believe the U.S. economy will continue to struggle to build any type of sustainable recovery in the face of historically high levels of unemployment, continued fears over excess leverage and lack of any meaningful gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Our primary concern centers on job growth. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current U-3 unemployment rate stands at 9.6%. However, when one considers the wider encompassing U-6 unemployment rate, which counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (i.e. the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons, of 17.1%, it begins to become very difficult to imagine a scenario where consumers will start to spend at the levels needed to build a sustainable economic recovery.Read more