I think the economic pouty-faces in the MSM are just guessing. All through this month they’ve been dooming and glooming about this year’s holiday season. The predicted 2.2 percent growth – a sizable chunk of money, mind you – would be ruination to the retail industry, they said. Every time I saw one of the dour folk, they were busy hammering the panic button like they were playing Centipede at an arcade.

Well, the early returns are in from Black Friday and guess who was wrong?

Sales during the day after Thanksgiving rose 3 percent to $10.6 billion, according to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. Last year, shoppers spent about $10.3 billion on the day after Thanksgiving, dubbed Black Friday because it was historically the sales-packed day when retailers would become profitable for the year.

That .3 billion dollars? That’s three hundred million bucks more this year than was spent on Black Friday last year.

Don’t believe the hype, folks. Our economy is far from collapse. The way things are right now, the only ones who can bring it down is us. Keep your chin up, spend a few bucks on yourself or your loved ones, and don’t spend one second listening to the professional doom-sayers or the prancing ninnys in Congress who want you to believe that they are your only salvation. Instead, take a page from this lady’s book.

Patty Saal, 60, of Mogadore, Ohio, began her Black Friday shopping at 5 a.m. when she and her daughters went to a Sam’s Club to purchase iPods.

“We’re doing fine,” she said.

Yes, we are. No matter how bad the MSM talks us down.

(via Gaius)