Ben Bernanke, Jobless Claims, Prices, and Retail Sales

Retail Sales, Prices, jobless Claims and the Federal Reserve (or Ben Bernanke) The Census Bureau released their initial estimate of retail sales for August, coming in up 0.9% over the prior month.  Simultaneously, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their inflation figures, coming in up 0.6% for consumers and up 1.7% for producers on a month over month basis.  Yesterday, government bean counters released their initial and revised estimates of initial and continuing unemployment insurance claims for the prior weeks.  This week’s initial unemployment claims figures came in at a seasonally adjusted 382,000, an increase of 15,000 or 4% over…