re: #156 Eclectic Cyborg

US retail sales dropped last month, the Commerce Department said Friday, marking the third straight month without any growth.

Retail sales fell 0.7% in December from the month prior. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected sales to be flat. The Commerce Department also revised November’s retail sales lower from a 1.1% decline to a 1.4% drop.

America’s economic recovery took a hit in the final months of 2020, and the retail sector hasn’t been spared. Rising Covid-19 infections and renewed lockdown measures, as well as job losses, have weighed on consumer spending and were a drag on retail sales. The economy shed 140,000 jobs in December, the first decline since April.

“The further slump in retail sales in December confirms that the continued surge in coronavirus infections is now weighing heavily on the economy,” Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients Friday.

Yet more negative impacts of the GOP dragging their heels for MONTHS on any kind meaningful relief (which if we’re being honest, STILL hasn’t come).

All the GOP footdragging on relief has consequences. CARES Act funding ran dry, and the consequences was losing jobs (and nearly all those who did lose jobs were women). This was avoidable had the GOP allowed action on relief sooner. They obstructed and blocked relief for months, knowing what would happen.

Trump wrecked the economy, but GOP cares only if the stock markets went up. That’s their only consideration. The stock market has completely divorced itself from Main Street and reality for that matter. The economy is hollowed out in so many ways - precisely because the pandemic has wrecked things and the GOP has refused to take even basic public health measures to try and get things reopened safely. They don’t care that 400,000+ are dead from their malfeasance. They don’t care if 400,000+ more die.

They don’t care. They never did. They’re too busy watching wealth redistribution to millionaires like Trump and the burdens fall to everyone else.