U.S. retail sales blow expectations in September; but dark clouds gathering

``Economists have attributed the strength in retail sales to fiscal stimulus, especially a weekly subsidy paid to tens of millions of unemployed Americans. September's robust sales reinforced expectations for record consumer spending and economic growth in the third quarter. Growth estimates for the July-September quarter are as high as a 35.2% annualized rate. That would recoup roughly two-thirds of the output lost because of COVID-19. The economy contracted at a 31.4% pace in the second quarter, the deepest decline since the government started keeping records in 1947.''