On Tuesday, President Obama meets with Republican Congressional leaders to begin debating whether the Bush Tax cuts will be extended. If they can't agree during this lame duck session, then your taxes will go up starting January 1st, 2011. Why would they let that happen? The Republicans may want to wait and debate it after their numbers improve in January, a result of the 2010 mid-term elections. However, then they would be seen as hardliners, playing politics with the economy and not really interested in reducing the deficit.

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Black Friday retail sales were up, as more shoppers (202 million) spent more money (average $365.34) that last year. Shoppers are showing a Shift to Thrift, focusing on items of strong value more than just the absolute lowest prices. The percentage of shoppers going to department stores and clothing stores increased, while the percentage going to discount stores declined 7.2% from last year. More than one third did their shopping online - a strong sign for today's Cyber Monday sales. (Source: National Retail Federation)

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The most important leading economic indicator, manufacturers' orders for durable goods, was up 16% in October when compared year-over-year. This is the tenth month in a row that orders for things like computers, autos and machinery were up. This means business confidence continues to drive economic growth.

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The BEA's second estimate of GDP for the third quarter (July - September) was revised up to 2.5% from the advance estimate of a 2% growth rate. Both are better than Q2's 1.7% growth rate, but still not the greater-than 3% rate needed to generate a lot of jobs (see analysis at Calculated Risk).

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