There may well be an affordability crisis and consumers have no faith in America or President Trump. But sometimes facts speak louder than political conjecture or biased polls.
Black Friday spending reached new highs this year, fueled by record online spending that reached $11.8 billion on Black Friday alone, according to Market Data. Black Friday online sales accounted for approximately 10% of total sales for the entire month of November. That figure was just over $111 billion, according to a report from Adobe Analytics. Adobe tracks more than $1 trillion in visits to U.S. retail sites. And they predict that the 2025 holiday season will be the biggest online spend in U.S. history.
Of course, much of this is driven by AI (artificial intelligence) which drives traffic to online retail sites. By the way, these referrals increased by 805% compared to last year. So when President Trump says today at the White House Economic Roundtable that he inherited Joe Biden’s problems, but he’s the one to solve them, he has a very strong point.
This is what the president said a few moments ago: “We have inherited a mess.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair highlights the Trump administration’s message on the economy and affordability on ‘Kudlow.’
Here are a few more facts worth considering: People are worried about the job market, but the best high-frequency indicator is probably early unemployment claims, where the latest four-week average has dropped as low as 214,000. In recent weeks, that number has actually declined. Do you know what constitutes a recession? Something like 350K. We are far from that.
A few more facts: Wages are rising faster than prices. Salary income from the latest figures +5.3%. The main deflator of personal consumption is the Fed’s inflation measure, at 2.7%. This means that workers’ take-home pay is now up 2.6%. Ahead of prices by 2.6%. And there will be many more with the tax refunds next year and the nice big bill. And gas prices are less than $3 a gallon nationwide. This permeates every nook and cranny of the economy. And Mr. Trump’s policies of supply-side tax cuts, corporate deregulation, baby drilling and reciprocal free and fair trade are launching a trade boom.
In fact, it is a commercial construction of plants, machinery and equipment. All of this represents an increase of 9.1% compared to last year. In Mr. Trump’s first year in office, wages are already driving up prices. This is how it should be. That’s a big number. Do you know what’s happening? You start a factory and you order new equipment and machines, you need to hire staff. But unemployment is so low that we will have to pay them a very decent salary. And it’s going to make the people, aka consumers, sitting around the kitchen table, very happy.
So I say, affordability crisis? What bullshit.
