What Recovery? U.S. Consumers Getting "Dramatically Worse,” Howard Davidowitz Says

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/381625/What-Recovery-U.S.-Consumers-Getting-%22Dramatically-Worse%E2%80%9D-Howard-Davidowitz-Says?tickers=RTH,XLP,XLY,WMT,TGT,HD,%5EDJI

The reality of the situation requires a set of waders to get through to the truth.

According to the National Retail Federation, retail sales over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend were $41.2 billion, up slightly from a year ago, while about 195 million consumers shopped, up from 172 million last year.
Meanwhile, Coremetrics says the average online shopper spent 35% more on Black Friday vs. a year ago, while robust sales were predicted for Cyber Monday.

Against that backdrop, you might expect Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates to backtrack from some of the bearishness he's professed on Tech Ticker (and elsewhere) in the past year. But you'd be wrong.

"The consumer is in worse shape since I was here last" in August, Davidowitz says, citing the following:

Unemployment has exploded: "We've lost a ton of jobs since I was here last