From Bloomberg:
Sales at U.S. retailers fell more than twice as much as forecast in December as job losses and the choking-off of credit led Americans to cut back on everything from eating out to car purchases.
The 2.7 percent decrease, the sixth consecutive drop, extended the longest string of declines in records going back to 1992, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Purchases excluding automobiles slumped 3.1 percent.
Today’s figures indicate that the hit to spending in the recession is even deeper than estimated, and spurred a slide in stock-index futures…
I’m not sure there’s a tax cut big enough to stave this one off. Maybe a six-month moratorium on all government regulation is the way forward here.