The Case for a Blowout Holiday

Holiday sales have been viewed as a disappointment so far, but some optimists think the reality is quite a bit different.

The argument is by now familiar. Growth in online sales and a rise in gift certificate-giving have rendered traditional measures of consumer spending incomplete. Bulls say the government's own retail sales numbers, which try to include online commerce, are showing their best growth rate in more than a decade.

On a year-over-year basis, and excluding volatile auto sales, retail sales grew 8.6% in November, according to the Census Bureau. That represents the strongest year-over-year growth in November by that measure recorded by the government since it started using its current statistical method in 1992. ...