So this holiday season the sales went up just by 6.5% instead of the estimated 7.5% by analysts that do such things. Today America is going to react. Oh My God! The sky is falling. The growth was 6.5% only! We missed by 1%! All those big-screen TVs and useless clothes that we kept buying desperately trying to beat the estimate.

Maybe someone should pause and think that

• the season wasn't "lacklustre" as the WSJ called it today. It was terrible. The sales actually grew.
• The estimate of 7.5% was an estimate.
• It being off by 1% isn't catastrophic in any sense.
• This is NOT going to make Wal-mart or Target bankrupt. It will only give them one more excuse for cutting workers' benefits and wages.
• The 6.5 is just another estimate. Moreover, it is based on an estimate of sales on Visa credit cards. Maybe people did not use Visa the same as last year. Maybe Visa's numbers are wrong. Maybe Visa has messed up its estimates.

Long live Wall Street analysts.