Retail Sales Nose-Dive

What’s hot in today’s news that affects you and your money

• Retail Sales Plummet – Retail sales, excluding automobiles, dropped 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas.  Looks like the price slashing that retailers undertook during this holiday season did not have the effect intended as consumer spending has crawled to a halt.

• Chrysler Restructuring - In an attempt to show the federal government it is serious about becoming viable again, Chrysler is aggressively restructuring in order to cut costs.  Maybe this should have been the plan from the beginning.

• Madoff’s family tied in with his scandal? – The SEC is widening its investigation into Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion fraud to his family.  His two sons claim to have known nothing about his scheme until earlier this month when Madoff confessed to them but it is hard to believe that they did not know.  Their father stole $50 billion!

• The Dow industrials finally end up – In some good news, the Dow industrials finally ended its losing streak.  The Dow finished up 48.99 points on Wednesday heading into Christmas.

• Natural Gas Woes – No sector is immune to what is happening in this economy.  Natural-gas is in a slumpa and will remain there until this economy turns for the better.  with lower production from manufaturers demand has for natural-gas has been cut significantly.

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1. Pickens plan to reduce dependency on foreign oil

Tagged as: bernard madoff, chrysler restructuring, federal government, natural gas