Green Shoots Roundup

Need evidence for the economic recovery that your betters keep telling you about but that you don't actually see? Here are some indirect observations made by the Hubble Telescope but still not visible to the naked eye:

The consumer price index increased 0.4 percent in August.

The producer price index for finished goods increased 1.7 percent in August.

Industrial output increased 0.8 percent.

Retail sales have increased 2.7 percent, mostly on the strength of auto sales.

Gold rises, suggesting aggressive inflationary policy is finally succeeding.

Credit card company write-offs rise again, after briefly trending down. Some would say that's bad news, because it's more lost money for Citibank (though as Kramer knew, those big companies write everything off). I consider it good news because it continues the trend of brute-force deleveraging -- which is the only kind of deleveraging we're likely to see.