The Economic Calendar: Another Week of Manufactured Drama?

# The Thanksgiving Economic Feast: More Leftovers Than Fresh Dishes

Alright, let's talk turkey, or rather, the economic giblets Wall Street’s serving up this Thanksgiving week. You’d think with all the pomp and circumstance, the suits in Manhattan would at least try to whip up something fresh. But no, what we’re getting is a reheated plate of yesterday’s worries, dressed up as breaking news. It’s the Thanksgiving Economic Feast, alright, but trust me, there are more leftovers than fresh dishes on this menu.

I mean, seriously, we're staring down a holiday-shortened week, markets closed for the big day, then a half-day Black Friday scramble. And what do we get? A deluge of economic reports, many of them delayed, stale as last week's bread. We're talking September retail sales and Producer Price Index (PPI) reports finally seeing the light of day. September. It's almost December, for crying out loud! Are we supposed to pretend these numbers are some kind of cutting-edge insight into what’s happening right now? Give me a break. It's like trying to navigate a minefield with a map from last year's war. You just can’t do it, can you?

And yet, Wall Street, bless its ever-optimistic, profit-hungry heart, is "keyed into consumer spending and inflation measures." Why? Because "affordability concerns ramp up," they say. No kidding, Sherlock. We didn't need a delayed PPI report to tell us that. We've got Target's Chief Commercial Officer, Richard H. Gomez, admitting "sentiment is at a three-year low amid concerns about jobs, affordability and tariffs." Then there's outgoing Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, dropping the bombshell that "lower-income families have been under additional pressure of late." What a revelation! It’s almost as if real people, not just algorithms, are feeling the squeeze. I’m telling you, this ain't rocket science; it's just basic human experience.

The Stale Menu and the Fed's Waiting Game

So, what are these grand leftovers they’re pushing? We’ve got September’s retail sales, PPI, Core PPI, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index, October’s pending home sales, September’s business inventories, and November’s Consumer Confidence Index. It’s a smorgasbord of data that’s already been chewed over, digested, and probably forgotten by anyone living in the real world. Does anyone honestly believe a September retail sales number is going to tell us how tight people's belts are this week, as they stare down holiday shopping bills? My bet is no. They expect us to pore over these ancient scrolls, and honestly... it just feels like a distraction.

Then there’s Wednesday, trying to sneak in some "fresh" data – weekly jobless claims for the week ending November 21, plus durable goods from September. Jobless claims, now that's something Wall Street actually watches, because the Fed's got its beady little eyes on it. Jim Baird, some chief investment officer guy, claims "A December rate cut was virtually a foregone conclusion a month ago – one that Fed Chair Jerome Powell attempted to tamp down..." See? It's always a dance. They tell us one thing, then try to walk it back, then hint at another. It's like watching a bad magician try to pull a rabbit out of an empty hat, offcourse he's trying to distract you from the fact there's no rabbit.

The narrative is always about stabilization, about buying policymakers "additional time." Additional time for what? To decide if they should finally acknowledge that regular folks are struggling to pay rent and put food on the table? Or to just keep kicking the can down the road, hoping things magically fix themselves while they fiddle with interest rates? I sometimes wonder if they genuinely believe their own press releases, or if it's all just an elaborate, high-stakes charade played out in air-conditioned boardrooms, far from the actual street where people live. I’m not saying they don't care, but sometimes... sometimes I just don't know.

The Reality Check No One's Serving

While the big shots are dissecting stale data, trying to predict the Fed's next nuanced non-move, real people are out there, staring at grocery bills that keep climbing. I bet if you walked onto any trading floor right now, you’d hear the quiet hum of computers, the low murmur of analysts, maybe the occasional clatter of a keyboard – but you wouldn't hear the collective sigh of relief from families who just found out the September PPI was "better than expected." Because that's not how life works. That's not the "fresh dish" anyone asked for.

What we really need are insights into the current struggle, the immediate pressures. Instead, we get these delayed reports, serving as a kind of economic archeology. "Oh, look," they'll say, "back in September, things were like this." Who cares? We're living in November, heading into December, and the only "fresh" feeling most people have is the chill in the air and the dread of holiday spending. Are we really supposed to get excited about jobless claims that declined two weeks ago? It’s a bad idea. No, 'bad' doesn't cover it – it's an insult to anyone trying to make sense of their own finances. This whole system... it’s just designed to keep us guessing, keep us hoping for a fresh plate that never quite arrives.

Just a Pile of Cold Stuff