Surprise, Surprise

Thanks Barack, even your comrades at CNN can't spin this positively.

There were more than 360,000 properties with foreclosure filings -- including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions -- an increase of 7% from June and 32% from July 2008, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed homes. In fact, one in every 355 U.S. homes had at least one filing during July. Retail sales fell in July after two straight months of gains, the government reported Thursday, a drop that surprised economists.

Without car sales from the "Cash for Clunkers," the numbers would have been even worse. Just remember we will sell less cars later because of the Clunker Cash spent now. Then we will get the bill for the clunkers down the road too.

Walmart reported an unexpected decline in its key measure of U.S. sales. Just wait until the back to school retail numbers are all reported. If people aren't shopping at Walmart, they ain't shopping.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment rose to 558,000 last week, surprising economists who were expecting jobless claims to drop to 545,000 claims. Economists being surprised is no surprise at all.

The prediction here is the economists are in for even greater surprises in the months ahead.