RUSH: Look at this, folks. ‘Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls in November, pushing spending up by the largest amount in three and a half years.’ I thought it was going to be a bad Christmas. I thought it was going to be very, very bad. Consumer spending, despite the home sales slump and the soaring gasoline price, why, consumer spending is up! This would include that massive weekend after Thanksgiving and the following week leading up into the 1st of December. It’s up by the largest amount, three and a half years. You know what I predict to you? I predict that the next series of economic stories will be the Drive-Bys and their economic ‘experts’ yelling at us about not saving enough. It’s just the way they work. This morning on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Erin Burnett and Jim Cramer (‘the out-of-control’ Jim Cramer), were interviewing Craig Hester, the CEO of Hester Capital Management, and he hit it deadeye. This is what he said about the economy.
HESTER: That’s one thing about the economy, Jim. There’s a lot of pessimism, and I think we’re going to, through the media, if we’re going to have a recession, it’s going to be media generated as opposed to the economy.
CRAMER: (maniacal laughter)
BURNETT: Oh!
HESTER: Things look very strong, from what I can tell.
RUSH: There you have it! The media is trying to create a recession. The guy is actually right. That’s Craig Hester, CEO of Hester Capital Management.