• Consumer confidence improved from near historical lows to just above that.

• Despite government gimmicks / temptations, auto buying plans dropped to an eight-month low.

• Home buying plans slipped to a new 27-year low.

• Plans to buy major appliances stayed at a 14-year low.

• US realtors showing only 7 months supply of homes, but add 3.5M unoccupied homes from census data and you at back up to a 14 months’ supply

• 1 in 8 Americans is using food stamps. Some areas of the country see 25% of the population on food stamps.

• The Christmas retail season kicked off. Preliminary data show more shoppers but they’re spending fewer dollars. So the overall spend is slightly lower than last year’s season (which showed an historical contraction). Will that be one lump of coal, or two?