Defrosting the Economy

With one of the harshest winters on record coming close to an end-we East Coasters can only hope-the economy has felt the sting of the weekly snow and ice storm hits. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal noted that only a handful of businesses benefited from the extreme weather-ski resorts, outerwear companies and auto mechanic businesses to name a few obvious winners from the Polar Vortex of 2014.

The Federal Reserve just released the most recent edition of its Beige Book, a report published eight times a year and filled with anecdotal commentary from each regional Federal Reserve Bank, on how the economy is faring in their neck of the woods. Page after page, more than 119 times the chilly weather was referenced in conjunction to the economy.

In Annalyn Kurtz's CNN Money article, "Recovery on Track, but Still Slow and Steady" she reported, "New York Fed President Bill Dudley said he believes the harsh winter will shave as much as a whole percentage point off the economy's growth rate in the first quarter." If you distill it down to the bare numbers, NBC News reported a whopping $15 billion loss due to the winter.

While the above sounds gloomy, a big defrosting is on tap, and with warmer weather, all of the experts expect a bounce in spending and growth. The impact of that $15 billion loss won't be felt for long. Starting with March, albeit potentially a choppy start, we should all see a steady upward move in spending and sales figures and start making up for any losses felt in January and February.

So, grab your flip-flops (OK, maybe not quite yet) and hit the ground running. 2014 is still your year to break out and break sales records!