This Isn’t the Path to Growth and Prosperity
Commentary
Consumer retail spending is currently one of the few measures of economic activity that hasn’t hit the skids. It rose two months ago, and was unchanged last month, but there’s every indication that it’s rising again, as people dig deep to pay much higher bills while trying their best not to dial back their lifestyles.
The latest jobs numbers strongly suggest that full-time workers are taking second and third jobs to make it all possible.
In interpreting such numbers, the ghosts of the Great Depression continue to haunt us. In those days, aggregate demand fell dramatically. Government planners mixed up cause and effect and came to believe that lower consumer and producer spending was somehow causing the depression….