(https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf).

• Define in general the concepts of a "direct signal' and an "indirect signal" as discussed in this course, and provide a simple example for each that is related to your work or managing your personal life.
• Access the report in the hyperlink above and state explicitly four or five direct signals you find from the report. What makes these direct signals rather than indirect signals
• Now look at the top-line sales numbers over time - the past three months and year-over-year for two months. What do these numbers tell us about the movement of sales over these periods? Are these observations about sales "facts" or are they "inferences"?Explain, relating your answer back to the difference between the two types of signals.
• Now I want you to be creative and draw some indirect economic signals you could get from these data. What do they imply about consumers or the economy in general, for example? For retailers and commercial real estate? For government and central bank policy makers?
• Lastly, let's focus on a firm such as McDonald's. Look at the subcategories listed in the report, find the one that might best relate to sales by McDonald's, and let me know what you might be able to infer on behalf of management for the near future from the movement in the numbers in that subcategory.