To follow up on our previous story of how retail sales might be up when the numbers come out later this month, we ask you to consider that there may be some other strange, perhaps improper, manipulations going on, as pointed out by Karl Denninger in Where’s My Recovery? (Tax Receipts)

From The Wall Street Examiner:

Month to date tax receipts are now in for the entire month of December. They’re down 7.7% from December 2008, which is exactly the same rate of decline as November’s. We know that the TBAC and Treasury officials were not anticipating that in their debt sales forecast for the first quarter. They had assumed that a recovery was taking root and would continue to do so.

But I thought that we were in the midst of a strong economic recovery?  So say all the pundits, all the Tout TV folks, everyone…

So how come I can’t find it in the sales tax receipts of the states, and I also can’t find it in the Federal tax receipts?

Doesn’t recovery mean more spending, some hiring, or at least people getting more hours even if they don’t have new jobs?

If this is all happening, as we’re being told incessantly on ToutTV, shouldn’t tax receipts be going up?

We’ll see what the government and corporate retailers say later this month, but if retail sales happen to show a positive up-turn, then somethin’ ain’t right.