American instability takes another turn

Economy Watch · Feb 19, 2025 · 5m

foreign investors, both friends an foes, are quitting their exposure to the new Russified US.

But first up, the Redbook tracking of American retail sales shows they were up +6.3% last week from the same week a year go. This is a heady gain outside the seasonal shopping windows. Buyers may be trying to insulate themselves ahead of the inflation that will flow from impending tariffs. Last week's gain was twice what it was a year ago, and also higher than the same week two years ago. Some of this defensive "doom spending" is being done with higher credit card debt.

They aren't spending on new…