Word: retailers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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COURTENAY SLATER, 45, is chief economist at the Commerce Department and one of the Administration's key economic tea-leaf readers. To determine where the economy is going, she pores over mountains of statistics that Commerce collects on trade, inflation, retail sales and other matters. As a student, Slater wanted to become a physicist, but was told by a professor that "women just did not go into physics." After graduating as a history major from Oberlin College and marrying (her husband is a program analyst for the National Science Foundation), Slater decided to enter a field that would lead...
That speech is remembered well by the kintandeiras, the hard-nosed Angolan businesswomen who have traditionally bought food wholesale and sold retail at the marketplace. In recent weeks they have been on strike, protesting against the low retail prices set by the government. Swordfish, for example, is listed at about 200 a pound at the market, and is unavailable. But a few lucky consumers get swordfish from fishermen friends, who peddle their catch out on the "island," the curving sand peninsula that protects Luanda harbor from the sea. There, a pound of swordfish goes for about 45¢ or 55?...
...Retail sales were up a strong 2% in November on top of October's 1.3% rise, and the consumer is attacking his holiday shopping with gusto. Christmas sales are flat in many Midwest areas, but in Boston, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Beverly Hills, retailers report sales well ahead of last year. Some are even looking forward to double-digit Increases...
Some, like the Consumer Price Index, are limited but fairly consistent and reliable estimates, while others, such as retail sales, inventories and quarterly productivity figures, are little better than ballpark guesses. One of the weakest is the index of leading indicators, which is supposed to foreshadow economic trends. Often the Commerce Department releases preliminary figures that give false signals and then, like Stalin rewriting history, subjects the numbers to revision after revision. Statistics can be made to dance to almost any tune, depending on how they are presented, particularly at year's end. Warns Economist Walter Heller...
...Among those who pick it up: restaurants, retail shops, printers, electricians, florists, carpenters, security people and utility and telephone companies. Also advertising agencies and public relations firms, motor coach services, audiovisual equipment companies, duplicating and distribution services, auto rental and leasing, charter bus services and sightseeing tours, commercial and industrial equipment leasing, costume rentals and sales, court reporters and stenographers, entertainment booking and productions, exhibit design decorators, medical and first aid services, models, hostesses and talent services, photographers and, of course, hookers...