Stores Report Holiday Season Of Letdowns - washingtonpost.com

The lack of consumer confidence should come as no surprise to anyone. American debt is at an all time high, as is the debt of our nation. People are losing their homes and having to default on other debt.

Millions of Americans are living below the poverty line and many more millions are only one catastrophe away from it. Million are either uninsured or under-insured when it comes to health care.

Financial insitutions have become legal loan sharks and have been, generally, allowed to run amok under this addministration and the last GOP led Congress. Corporate irresponsibility has been apparent for sometime and the people are becoming damned fed up with greedy CEOs and other corporate officers.

Retailers may be taking just the first hit of a barrage of figurative bombings of an irresponsible corporate landscape.


Stores Report Holiday Season Of Letdowns - washingtonpost.com:

Retailers are like little kids when it comes to the holidays: They always hope it will be perfect, and they are always disappointed.

Though a full picture of the busiest shopping season of the year won't emerge until later this month when the Commerce Department publishes its tally of December sales, results from more than 40 national chains released yesterday offered a window into what it might look like -- and, for the most part, it fell short of what retailers hoped for.