good news and bad news on the economy

The good news - sales on Black Friday were up 3% from 2007, according to a market research firm.

That's nice. But the bad news - it was based on deep discounting so despite the rise in sales, profits might actually be lower than last year. It took great bargains to get people into the stores, and shopping traffic dropped over the weekend.

This is an economy that needs a boost, bad. It can't happen by cutting interest rates, since they are near zero already. So, spend baby spend. So says Paul Krugman.