Once again the fine people at the Big Picture (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/) have done a great job searching for the truth in today's retail sales figures. See- "Don’t Believe the Hype, Redux: NRF Bad Data"

According to the Big Picture, the 19% rise in retail sales this weekend were not the actual results, but numbers taken from a survey done by the National Retail Federation.

Here is a quote from the Big Picture;

"No, spending was not up 19%. A survey of shoppers DONE 11/23-11/25 found that people said they expected to spend 19% more. These were not actual spent dollars, but rather, were expctations of spending. There's an enormous difference, especailly when we consider that people tend to be very poor judges of their own behavior."