ask for more on retail, i am joined by the chief economist at the credit union national association. welcome back to bottom line and good to see you again. been getting so many mixed messages this year about the state of the u.s. consumer. what did today's retail numbers tell us? >> the good news is that they are twice what expectations were for november. aboutk given what we know consumers, it is a good signal that we will start out not only with a decent holiday season, but strong consumer spending going into 2014. >> a few weeks ago, the credit union national association released their 14th annual holiday spending survey. the forecast is for a in overall holiday spending increased by consumers of 3.5%-four percent over a year ago. have you seen anything since the survey was released that would alter that forecast? >> i have not. this morning's retail numbers suggest that we may be on the high end of that. the survey we did, these are the strongest results we have had since 2000 x. -- 2006. i have not seen anything since then. there has been a change in the mix of spending, a littl

credit unions could be immune to that kind of thing. newbridge was one of many that didn't belongs to the national association.y it's still viable. >> the movement was coming through better than many other institutions with the exception of newbridge they are the only institution that are standing on their own two feet. >> ireland has two retail banks left and 400 credit unions for people to use for savings and loans if the credit union were to fail it sure would be an open door for illegal money lenders. >> prayer services have been held in co scott land to remembr the victims of the helicopter crash. another 12 people are in hospital with serious injuries. emergency services are still working to recover bodies from the scene. >> a park partial bane on pestis expected of killing bee populations has come in enforce eyacross out eu temperaturers wl not longer be able to use the chemical to spla spray corn, con and sun flour with. sun flowers. >> in france thousands of people marched on the streets in paris against a planned tax hike by the government. >> the demonstration was led by the coalition of left wing p