Retail sales increased at a faster pace in February, advancing 1.1% over January—the most since last September, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Census Bureau reports. The gains were broad based, with most of the subsectors of sales showing positive monthly comparisons. The upbeat news extends to the crucial year-over-year measure as well, with retail sales climbing 4.6% for the 12 months through February, noticeably faster than January’s 4.2% annual pace. The message here is that consumer spending continues to rise at a modest rate, implying that economic momentum generally is still trending positive.

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You have to run faster just to stand still. That’s the message in Bill Bernstein’s recent e-book Skating Where the Puck Was: The Correlation Game in a Flat World. As markets become ever more globalized, and the financial industry persists in securitizing assets that were once obscure, earning a risk premium at a given level while keeping a lid on risk becomes increasingly difficult. That’s old news, of course, but it’s forever topical, as Bernstein reminds.

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