The USA CAPITALIST

Bond Futures bounced back from Friday's dismal bond auction and rallied off the back of the weakest consumer confidence number since the early 1980's a time when Paul Volker's tight monetary policy was inducing a recession to conquer inflation. The University Of Michigan consumer confidence index came in at 54.9 vs.62 inducing another round of bond purchases. Ironically, Retail sales data came in at a relatively strong .5 reading leaving Bond market paticipants perplexed as less confident shoppers spent more money. John Williams of Shadow Stats pointed out that the .5 rise in retail sales was a statistical abberration as the increase in spending was due to increases in prices.