Retail sales rose again in November—the fifth consecutive monthly gain, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. Last month’s 0.8% increase brings seasonally adjusted retail sales to just under the all-time high set back in November 2007, which was the last month before the start of the Great Recession. It’s getting harder to argue that consumer spending is headed for a new normal of self-imposed saving and austerity. It’s too early to dismiss that possibility, but it looks like a lesser risk at the moment.

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►Senate vote sets stage for approval of tax-cut bill
Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery/Washington Post/Dec 14
Republicans and Democrats joined forces in the Senate on Monday to deliver the most significant bipartisan vote since President Obama took office, advancing a plan to extend tax cuts for virtually every American and to boost the economic recovery…The package would add $858 billion to deficits over the next decade, according to congressional estimates. The bulk of the cost – about $545 billion – would come from a two-year extension of income tax reductions enacted in 2001, as well as provisions to adjust the alternative minimum tax for inflation through 2011, sparing more than 20 million mostly middle-income taxpayers from sharply higher tax payments in the spring.
►Summers Warns Against Permanent Tax Cuts
Damian Paletta/Wall Street Journal/Dec 13
Top Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers praised the White House’s tax-cut compromise with Republicans, but issued a defiant warning to Congress to not make some cuts permanent when major elements expire in two years.

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